Family Outreach Officer - Clinic Based

You’ll spend 3.5 days each week on-site across Royal London Hospital and St Mary’s in Central London, based in the Paediatric Ophthalmology Department; with the flexibility to work from home for the remainder of the week. The working hours for this role are Monday to Friday, 9:00am–5:00pm.

Central to this role is working closely with Ophthalmologists and clinical staff as part of a team offering high-quality advice and guidance to families during a critical stage of their diagnostic journey, requiring empathy, strong situational awareness, and demonstrable experience.

This role will require you to adhere to values, policies and procedures of both Barts Health NHS Trust and Guide Dogs.

As a Family Outreach Officer at Guide Dogs, you’ll be responsible for providing information, advice and guidance service to parents, carers and families of Children and Young People with a vision impairment and to refer families appropriately, empowering them to access support and services that will assist them to realise their required outcomes. This is done through a combined service offer of virtual and in-person conversations.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality information, advice and guidance to families of children and young people, via phone, digital platforms and in person within the Paediatric Ophthalmology Department.
• Manage a caseload, supporting families at key stages including around initial diagnosis, and signposting to relevant services where appropriate; to include, Health, Education, Welfare and Social Care.
• Deliver person-centred support, gathering information to develop outcome-focused action plans.
• Build and maintain strong knowledge of SEND legislation, processes and available services to effectively support families.
• Work collaboratively with internal teams and external partners to ensure co-ordinated care and support, facilitating smooth communication across services.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date records in line with service standards and reporting requirements.
• Support outreach activity, including attending community or clinical settings and contributing to events or workshops where required.
• Complete necessary paperwork for registration and refer families to relevant Guide Dog Services, as well as statutory and voluntary agencies for further support.
• Assist families with external funding applications.
• Raise awareness of Guide Dogs Services and activities, ensuring families know about the full range of support available.

About you:

You're a compassionate, empathetic and highly motivated professional, with a strong commitment to improving outcomes for children, young people and their families. You are inspired by Guide Dogs’ mission to support people with sight loss to live the life they choose, and passionate about empowering families of children and young people with vision impairment to feel confident, informed and supported throughout their journey.

Skills and Competencies:

• Ability to build professional, person-centred relationships with families across face-to-face, phone and digital channels.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to engage a range of audiences.
• Effective organisational, time management and planning skills, including managing a varied workload.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively, using initiative when required.
• Experience of working empathetically and sensitively with families and young people.
• Competent in using IT systems, including Microsoft Office and databases, with an understanding of data protection (GDPR).

Benefits: 

We wouldn’t be able to change the lives of people with sight loss without our people. That’s why it’s important for us to provide a variety of benefits that reward our colleagues in a way that suits them and recognises the hard work and contribution that they make. 

• 26 days annual leave. After three years of continuous employment, this increases to 28 days plus bank holidays. 

• Real Living Wage Employer 

• Flex pot - equal to a proportion of your annual salary to use on our wide variety of flexible benefits  

• The option to buy and sell annual leave 

• Discounts and cash-back scheme 

• Excellent pension scheme (We will match your pension contributions plus 2% up to a maximum of 9% employer contribution) 

• And lots more! 

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion  

Behind Every Guide Dog Is Someone Like You - We’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that celebrates and values diversity. Bring your whole self to work regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We don’t want you to ‘fit’ our culture, we want you to enrich it.   

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.  Please note - If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK via our digital ID checking supplier.  We cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.  

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, so please be prepared to write your answers to these questions. 

If you choose to use AI tools to assist in completing your application, please use them appropriately.  We value authenticity. If you want to stand out, using a generic AI-generated response isn’t going to separate you from the crowd. This is your time to shine and showcase your unique skills, personality, and thought processes!  You can find our full statement on the use of AI to complete applications on our careers website. 

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]. 

Safer recruitment: 

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. 

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. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.