Employee Access Assistant/ Driver

We are seeking a reliable individual to provide driving assistance for a visually impaired colleague. Candidates will ideally be based within 10 miles of Winterton (North Lincolnshire). The role involves collecting the colleague from Winterton and spending around five hours per day driving to various locations across Humberside, North Lincolnshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire. In addition to driving duties, you will also provide support with basic administrative tasks.

The normal working pattern will consist of 16 hours worked between Monday and Wednesday, some flexibility may be necessary within this. Applicants must be comfortable around dogs, as the colleague is a potential guide dog owner. A strong sense of responsibility, discretion, and adaptability is essential for success in this role.

An Access Assistant supports a colleague with a visual impairment to live the life they choose by enabling them to carry out their duties and be successful in their role. This role will be supporting a Vision Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS).

VRS’s support adults with visual impairments to live the life they choose.  This may be by acquiring and maintaining skills for independence, for example learning new kitchen or mobility skills. This is quite exciting as no two people or days are the same. 

Key Requirements

Applicants must have access to a suitable vehicle for work purposes. Vehicles must be fit for transporting dogs and comply with legal requirements for safe restraint. Any equipment needed for this will be provided. Our standard is for dogs to travel in the rear of an estate, hatchback, or wheelchair‑accessible vehicle (with the luggage shelf removed) behind a dog guard or in an anchored but unlocked cage. Where this is not possible an approved alternative may be used, including: a car safety harness and seat belt on the back seat.

All mileage incurred during working hours will be reimbursed, with the exception of travel between the applicant’s home and Winterton, which is considered commuting.

Key Responsibilities

Specific requirements and responsibilities will vary and will be individually detailed in the recruitment pack; however, they will include tasks such as the following:

• To drive the person supported in order that they may fulfil the requirements of travel in their role.
• To provide sighted assistance and practical support during rehabilitation sessions, meetings and travel.
•  Assist with journey planning transport arrangements. 
• Support communication, including notetaking, reading documents and managing calendars.
• Retrieve resources and information from internal systems to aid planning and development.
• Handle information in a sensitive manner and maintain confidentiality applying the data protection act where necessary.
• Assist with guide dog care when required.

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.

If you would like to have an informal conversation about the role before applying, or 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. 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.

Every day is different at Guide Dogs. And no person with sight loss is the same. We work side by side, on our sites and in the community, in schools and on our streets, supporting people to live the life they choose. Our staff therefore also work in different ways to support the delivery of our life changing work.

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.