Family Outreach Officer

Do you have the skills to empower families and help children and young people with sight loss achieve their fullest potential? As a Family Outreach Officer, you'll play a pivotal role in guiding and supporting families navigating the challenges of vision impairment.

Based in the Paediatric Ophthalmology Department at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, you will work closely with Ophthalmologists and clinical staff as a vital part of the team. This role will be supported by an Honorary Contract, requiring you to adhere to the values, policies, and procedures of both Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Guide Dogs. You’ll work 4 days per week in the hospital, supporting the Paediatric Ophthalmology Clinics from 9am to 5pm, with the flexibility to work from home for 1 day per week.

Within this role you will:

·      Provide Support in Eye Clinics: Assist parents of children and young people in an eye clinic setting, offering both emotional support and guidance.

·      Offer Information & Guidance: Deliver expert advice on health, education, welfare, and social care, ensuring families are well-informed and empowered to make decisions.

·      Collaborate with Professionals: Liaise with internal and external professionals to ensure coordinated care and support, facilitating smooth communication across services.

·      Handle Registration & Referrals: Complete necessary paperwork for registration and refer families to relevant Guide Dogs services, as well as statutory and voluntary agencies for further support.

·      Support Funding Applications & Clinical Staff: Assist families with external funding applications and provide support to clinical staff with any related enquiries.

·      Promote Guide Dogs’ Services: Raise awareness of Guide Dogs services and activities, ensuring families know about the full range of support available.

We’re looking for someone with experience in supporting individuals with sight loss and disabilities, who brings an empathetic approach to their work. You should be skilled at identifying needs and signposting to the right services.

The role involves collaborating with health, education, welfare, and social care professionals, so a joined-up approach is essential. Knowledge of eye care health will be key to providing informed support.

We need someone with strong communication and relationship-building skills, able to work independently and as part of a team. Organisational skills and proficiency with IT systems are also essential.

Overview of Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield Children’s is one of three independent, specialist paediatric hospitals in the country, providing dedicated healthcare for children and young people across community, mental health, and acute specialist settings.

We have three overarching aims that set the direction for the Trust in our vision “to create a healthier future for children and young people.” 

• Outstanding patient care
• Brilliant place to work.
• Leader in children’s health

We are committed to supporting colleagues from different heritages and lifestyles while at work. This is supported through the offer we have in place for flexible working and the three equality network groups we have in place.

Trust Values

The Trust is committed to providing great quality patient care and keep children, young people, and families at the heart of what we do by following our CARE values:

 Compassion – leading by kindness and showing empathy, understanding and respect.

 Accountability – striving to do the right thing and owning responsibility.

 Respect – value differences, tackling inequality and fostering a culture of inclusion.

 Excellence – delivering a high-quality standard of care.

About Us

No two people with sight loss are the same, and none of our people are either. So, we are proud to offer a range of person-centred benefits that can support each member of staff in ways that really mean something to them – and show them how much they mean to us. We offer a flexible benefits package, discounts and cashback scheme, a generous holiday allowance and matched contributory pension scheme to care for our people.

How to apply 

Further details on the full role are attached below. When you are ready to apply, submit an online application form via this page. For informal conversations please contact [email protected].

If you require any accessibility support to apply our friendly recruitment team is ready and waiting to help. Call them on 0118 3540345 or drop an email to [email protected].

As part of your application ensure you provide evidence and examples of how your skills & experience meet the criteria as set out in the attached job description and candidate pack. You will also be asked to complete a few job-specific questions as part of this application process, so please be prepared to write your answers to these questions. 

If you want to know more about the teams who work at Guide Dogs, you can find it on our Careers Page

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Guide Dogs welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity to maximise achievements, creativity and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality. 

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are proud, whenever possible, to offer an interview to all candidates that meet our selection criteria, and who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident interview commitment. For more details, visit our careers site.

If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK via our digital ID checking supplier; in addition, we cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Safeguarding

Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk of harm with whom we work. We expect all our employees and volunteers to fully share this commitment.

At Guide Dogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually, taking into account the nature of the offense, its relevance to the role, and the time that has passed since the incident. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.

Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If you are applying for a disclosure role, please note that you will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and sign up to the DBS update service.

For high volumes of applications, we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than advertised.