Parish Support Partner
Key information
Closing date: 12pm, Friday 19 July 2024
£37,000 per annum
Part-time, 28 hours per week
Permanent Contract
Peripatetic, working one day a week at Hendon
Interviews: 25 July 2024
Please see below the job description for this role:
Parish Support Partner Job Description
Would you like use your Project Management skills to help shape the direction of the Parish Support Team function at the Diocese of Westminster?
What you’ll be doing
Our PST department directly impact how we can deliver the mission of the Catholic church in Westminster. That impact is felt throughout London, Hertfordshire and Middlesex through our delivery of services, food banks, shelters, day centres, social enterprise and the many hundreds of programs provided by our parishes and agencies throughout the Diocese of Westminster.
We are recruiting a Parish Support Partner for our PST department who will be supporting our parishes across the diocese.
You will be responsible for providing cross curial support for parishes as necessary and lead on the provision of expert Financial and Administration procedures, policy, audit and compliancy knowledge with the teams across their entire parish portfolio. Furthermore, you will serve as a single point of contact for the parish across the wider Diocese, and will be able to provide a cross curial response to the needs of the parishes within your portfolio
Furthermore, you will have responsibilities surrounding the provision of training and development of your parishes. You will ensure the continuing development of the parish Finance Committee, of the Diocesan in-house accounting system (OPAS), and training relevant to cash control procedures.
This means there’s lots to get involved in – and to be excited about.
What we’re looking for
The successful candidate will play a pivotal role for the Parish Support team, so we are looking for someone who shares our values, demonstrates our behaviours and has the experience and enthusiasm to fill the role. Able to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.
To be successful in this role, you will be driven by your own personal standards of excellence, committed to ownership and accountability and able to manage your own workload effectively. Deadlines will always be met, comfortable with speaking truth to power and contributing at a personal and organisational level.
You will work closely with teams such as Health & Safety, Human Resources, Finance and Property within this role, so an ability to work collaboratively and with a friendly and professional manner is essential. Furthermore, the ability to be a strong team player, as well as work on your own initiative within a highly functioning autonomous team is a required skill.
You’ll be joining a dynamic team as we continue our modernisation and transformation programs. This is a very exciting time for the Diocese of Westminster, and we believe that as a team we can continue to make changes that truly benefit the local communities that we serve.
We welcome applications from those with a Catholic faith, those of other faiths, or none. What we require above all else is that you respect the values we share to help others and support decent and dignified work for all without prejudice.
What we offer you
In return for your hard work and commitment to us, you will receive a competitive reward package which will include, but is not limited to:
- Life Assurance
- Access to Healthcare Cash Plan
- Discounts scheme through Reward Gateway – shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets gift cards and much more
- Season Ticket Loan
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Access to low cost loans with Churches Mutual
- Employee assistance programme– free, independent 24/7 help and advice for work-related issues as well as problems affecting home life
Who are we?
We are the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster, a faith-based charity with offices close to Victoria Train and Underground Station and just a short walk from St James Park and Westminster Underground stations.
We are home to the Archbishop of Westminster (Cardinal Vincent Nichols) & our beautiful Westminster Cathedral. We are one of the leading Catholic dioceses in the country, delivering our charitable mission through our network of 208 schools in which over 90,000 pupils attend daily, 212 parishes and several hundred social justice initiatives. We seek to positively impact the lives of all members of society.
Our core values are Competence, Reliability, Honesty, Perseverance & Love.
Our values are at the centre of everything we do and as such we are looking for a Parish Support Partner who is able to clearly demonstrate and evidence them
Application details
Our people are incredibly important to us, and we value and respect diversity in all its forms (seen and unseen). We particularly welcome applications from those from Black and Asian backgrounds, as well as candidates with disabilities and from the communities in which we work. We would like to increase representation of these groups among our staff as we know greater diversity will lead to an even greater impact for our work.
To be considered for the role, please complete an online application. CVs will NOT be considered, therefore, please do not send them. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. Please note that you will need to be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this position. You must provide proof of Right to Work in the UK. We reserve the right to remove the vacancy before closing date.
Equal Opportunities & Living Wage Statement:
The Diocese of Westminster is an Equal Opportunities and accredited Living Wage employer. To be successful, we aspire to be person centered at all times and place human dignity at our centre. We aim at all times to recruit the person who is best suited to the job, and we welcome applications from all communities and underrepresented groups, regardless of race, sexual orientation, disability, faith, age and gender. We guarantee an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria. We strive to take a holistic approach to the development of our people so that we may better serve and empower the mission of our Church as ministered by the parishes, deaneries, schools and communities that we support. Our ambition is to work together to promote a more inclusive environment, which attracts all candidates and signals our commitment to celebrating and promoting diversity.
We want people from all walks of life to feel valued for their individuality, thrive in our organisation, share a sense of belonging and demonstrate our values. With this in mind, we positively celebrate Diversity & Inclusion at the Diocese of Westminster and place it at the heart of our aim which is to reflect and connect with the diverse communities that we serve.
Actions we take to provide equality of opportunity for all candidates include:
- We anonymise application forms during our shortlisting process to ensure that candidates are assessed without any consideration of their name, gender or background.
- As part of this anonymisation, we don’t take into consideration where candidates studied, or the method of that study e.g. full-time, part-time or distance learning.
- We apply a consistent approach to our question setting across our applications and interviews to ensure that everyone is assessed against the identified values, competencies and job requirements. Our values are important to us and as such we use a scoring framework that marks candidates based on values, behaviours and competencies.
- We provide guidance and brief all our interviewers throughout the selection processes in recruitment best-practice to mitigate against any potential for conscious or unconscious bias or discrimination.
- Whenever possible we will have multiple interviewers when assessing each candidate to ensure marking is accurate and fair.
- We ensure all our assessment venues are accessible. We offer alternative formats of our application forms to encourage applicants with disabilities or who require reasonable adjustments to perform at their best.
- We will work together with candidates with a disability or health condition to implement reasonable adjustments to enable them to feel comfortable and strive during the assessment process.