Location: Hybrid role involving regular travel to events and approximately 2 office days per month.
Hours: 10 hours per week term time plus 2 weeks flexible working over the summer holidays. This is a flexible role with some evening or occasional holiday working.
Salary: £28,000 PA FTE pro rata
Travel Required: As required – expenses paid
Role Purpose
The Seldom Heard Voices Officer is a key role within Family Voice Surrey. The postholder will lead and coordinate engagement and participation activity with parent carers whose voices may be less frequently represented, ensuring that lived experience meaningfully informs service design, delivery, and decision-making.
Initially, the role will have a particular focus on Emotionally Based School Non- Attendance (EBSNA), working to strengthen the voice of parent carers whose children and young people are affected by school attendance challenges. The postholder will develop accessible opportunities for engagement, build trusted relationships with families, and ensure that feedback and lived experience are effectively represented in discussions with decision-makers.
More broadly, the role will identify and engage with seldom heard parent carer communities, reducing barriers to participation and ensuring that feedback reflects a diverse range of experiences and perspectives. The role also includes supporting Family Voice Surrey’s online and community engagement activities and contributing to the development of events and initiatives that build parent carer confidence, connection, and influence.
Key Responsibilities
Parent Carer Engagement and Listening
- Lead and coordinate engagement and participation activity with parent carers whose voices may be less frequently represented.
- Initially focus on Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA), building relationships with parent carers whose children and young people are aKected by EBSNA.
- Identify and reduce barriers to participation, ensuring engagement opportunities are accessible, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of diverse families.
- Ensure that parent carer lived experience informs consultation, co- production, service development, and decision-making.
Representation and Co-production
- Ensure that feedback shared reflects collective insight, themes, and patterns rather than individual views.
- Communicate key themes, priorities, and emerging trends clearly and accurately.
- Support co-production by bringing lived experience into strategic discussions in a constructive and collaborative manner.
- On occasions you may be required to attend meetings with local authorities, health services, education providers, and voluntary sector organisations to represent parent carer voice at a strategic level.
EBSNA-Focused Engagement
- Develop targeted engagement opportunities for parent carers whose children and young people experience EBSNA.
- Build trusted relationships with families and create safe opportunities for them to share their experiences.
- Gather and synthesise parent carer experiences of EBSNA to identify recurring themes, challenges, and priorities.
- Ensure that EBSNA-related parent carer insight is effectively represented in discussions with decision-makers.
- Contribute to the development of resources, events, and activities that reflect the emotional, educational, and systemic challenges faced by families.
Community Engagement, Events, and Outreach
- Support the management of Family Voice Surrey’s online peer support spaces, including Facebook and WhatsApp groups, ensuring they remain safe, inclusive, and supportive environments.
- Promote respectful dialogue and maintain appropriate boundaries between peer support and organisational activity.
- Strengthen clear routes from online and community engagement into participation and co-production opportunities.
- Plan and deliver focused events, workshops, and outreach activities that build parent carer confidence, knowledge, and participation skills.
- Create accessible opportunities for parent carers, particularly those from under- represented communities, to engage with service leaders, colleagues, and decision-makers.
Person Specification
- Experience of working with parent carers or lived experience as a parent carer of a child or young person with SEND, or a strong understanding of SEND-related issues.
- Ability to build trust and develop positive relationships with a wide range of people.
- Excellent listening and communication skills, with the ability to represent collective views clearly and confidently.
- Commitment to inclusion, equality, and the representation of diverse communities.
- Ability to work independently, manage time effectively, and organise workload efficiently.
- Competent IT skills, including the use of email, online meeting platforms, and social media.
Contact us at [email protected] or visit our website for mover information www.familyvoicesurrey.org
Pay: £14.55 per hour
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Guildford (Surrey)
