LOCATION: 858 Finchley Road, NW11 6AB
SALARY: circa £30k pa
HOURS: Full-time
Reports to: Services Manager
Direct Reports: Local Area Leaders and other sessional support workers and volunteers
Flexible working: This role will require out of hours working at evenings and some weekends.
About Resources for Autism (RfA)
Since 1997 when we started as a small playgroup set up by parents dismayed at the lack of provision for their autistic children, (RfA) has grown into a major deliverer of services and support in London and the West Midlands with a turnover of around £2.5m per year. Our mission is to support and enable autistic people to live happy and fulfilling lives. We want to change society’s attitude to autism whilst also providing essential services and enriching opportunities to autistic people. We are a values-driven organisation which employs values-driven people who want to make a difference. Our values are: Inclusion, Creativity, Compassion, Courageousness and Expert. You will play a vital part in ensuring that we can resource and sustain this amazing work.
Our Services
All of our services across children and adults and parent/carers, mirror the wider organisational mission of providing safe, fun and meaningful support that enables personal development. We provide this support by ensuring our staff are skilfully trained, meet the highest safeguarding expectations and are encouraged to develop and upskill throughout their career with RfA.
The Role
Oversee, coordinate and deliver RfA’s localised adult groups and pathways so autistic adults (mainly lower–medium support needs) build independence, social connections, empowerment, and identity. Ensure the right people are in the right groups, and service user journeys remain proactive (mindful of and minimising any stagnation of groups or creating dependencies). Supervise the Area Leader, sessional staff and volunteers to deliver impact.
We are looking for a value led individual who is energetic and self-motivated with a ‘can do’ attitude. The ideal candidate will be a strong team player and an excellent communicator.
Key programmes to deliver/ oversee
· Oversee and lead one online peer support group – an open space for facilitated Q&A and peer support for un/diagnosed adults. Sessions could be themed or open platform. Run in collaboration with the Leader – either joint deliver or alternating.
· Oversee, lead and support Austruck groups for autistic adults with lower–medium needs; split into 18–25 and 25+ age bands; focus on independence, social connections, empowerment, identity - (support one group alongside the Leader, lead a second group with the support of a support worker).
· Inbetweeners groups — lead a group for autistic adults with medium needs; safe space to unmask; programmes should include life/softs kills‑ and be a space for peer support.
· Oversee high needs group for adults.
This service model is pragmatic combined model which requires smart thinking and proactive planning to ensure service users are matched to the right services and supported/ encouraged along a seamless journey whilst with RfA.
Main Responsibilities:
· Operational coordination: Scheduling, venues coordination, attendance tracking, waitlist & triage, risk assessments, and session logistics.
· Right person, right group: Intake calls and short needs assessments; eligibility checks; matching to relevant service i.e. Austruck vs. Inbetweeners; timely re-routing of SU’s as needs change.
· Proactive journeys: Create progression plans with participants (goals, timelines, milestones); prevent stagnation by offering next‑step activities or 'graduation' pathways.
· Create connections to ensure the services are well advertised in the right places, to attract the individuals who would benefit from accessing our support.
· Staff/Volunteer management: manage the Area Leader, support workers and volunteers within this team.
· Measurement & reporting: Collect attendance, demographics, short outcomes and evaluations (confidence, independence skills, social connections), brief case stories; feed into RfA dashboards/funder reports.
· Partnerships: Liaise with local hubs, adult education, employment services, and peer networks to widen opportunities and promote RfA's adult offer as required.
· Continuous improvement: Gather participant feedback; adjust topics, pacing, and accessibility to maximise engagement and progress.
· Work with finance re fees and invoicing for attendance at services/ groups.
Core responsibilities for every role:
· Uphold and adhere to the values of RfA at all time
· Ensure there is always compliance with RfA’s safeguarding policies and procedures
· All staff are expected to promote equality in the workplace and in our services
· Undertake any other duties asked of you that are commensurate with your grade
Person Specification:
Essential Skills
- Significant experience coordinating support services or programmes for autistic adults or other neurodivergent people, including managing multiple groups or caseloads simultaneously.
- Demonstrable experience in group facilitation, including planning, delivering, evaluating, and adapting sessions for diverse access needs.
- Experience conducting structured intake, triage, or needs assessments, ideally with autistic adults, and making informed decisions about suitability and progression.
- Staff and volunteer management experience, including recruitment, induction, training, supervision, and performance oversight.
- Clear experience maintaining safeguarding, risk assessment, and incident reporting standards within community or support environments.
- Proven experience of working with external partners (e.g., community hubs, education, employment services, local VCSE organisations) to widen opportunities for service users.
- Skilled at boundary holding, maintaining psychologically safe spaces, and managing group dynamics.
- Lived experience or professional experience relating to autism.
Desirable Skills
- Relevant or transferrable qualifications/ significant experience in health and social care, youth work, adult services.
- Experience developing personalised progression plans or support pathways, and proactively supporting people to move through a service.
- Experience working within a strengths based, neurodiversity affirming practice model, demonstrating good understanding of sensory needs, masking, burnout, executive functioning, and autistic communication styles.
- Experience collecting and reporting service level data, including attendance, demographics, outcomes, and case stories.
Confidentiality and Safeguarding
You will have access to confidential information concerning families and other service users and will be required to maintain confidentiality at all times.
All staff have the following safeguarding responsibilities:
- Promote and uphold the safety, wellbeing and dignity of children, young people and vulnerable adults whose information is held by the organisation.
- Comply at all times with the organisation’s safeguarding, confidentiality and data protection policies and procedures.
- Maintain appropriate professional boundaries and ensure that all sensitive and confidential information is handled securely and responsibly.
- Identify and respond appropriately to any safeguarding or welfare concerns arising from records or information accessed, reporting concerns promptly in accordance with organisational procedures.
- Contribute to a safeguarding culture in which concerns are appropriately shared, listened to and acted upon.
Staff Benefits
90% of our staff say that Resources for Autism is “a great place to work”.
Not only will the work you do ensure we are making vital differences and inspiring others, but our other benefits also include:
· flexible working patterns with the option to work in a hybrid way (only available for some roles)
· 25 days of leave (pro rata for part time roles) each year plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 Celebration days that could be used between Christmas and new year, but may be used for other religious days or significant days such as your birthday
· access to ongoing training and progress in the areas that interest you
· access to our wellbeing initiatives and an Employee Assistance Programme
· a supportive, warm and fun working environment made up of values driven people who are passionate about changing the world for autistic people
Application process:
In order that we adhere to Safer Recruitment processes, all applicants are required to complete an application form which must include your full employment history with clear details, any gaps in employment need to be outlined and explained. You are also required to provide details of your full education history.
In your personal statement we would like to see how you feel you meet the and the of the role.
If for any reason, such as due to accessibility, you feel completing an application form will present a challenge, you can contact us via the below email and we may explore other options with you.
We particularly welcome applications from global majority candidates, LGBTQIA+ candidates and disabled candidates, because we would like to increase the representation of these groups at Resources for Autism. We want to do this because we know greater diversity will lead to even greater results for our community.
As you would expect, we are a neuro-affirming employer, with a strengths and rights based approach to neurodiversity which affirms neurodivergent identity – we don’t want to “fix” or “cure” autism, and we don’t see it as a “disability” however we do recognise it can be “disabling”. We are working to improve the ways in which we recruit and support neurodiverse employees and those with lived experience of neurodiversity.
RfA is a Disability Confidant employer and candidates who meet the minimum essential criteria, that have a disability will be guaranteed an interview.
Deadline for applications: 13th June
Interviews: TBC
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Pay: £28,000.00-£30,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Additional leave
- Company pension
- Flexitime
- Free parking
- Work from home
Experience:
- Group Leading: 1 year (required)
- Project management: 1 year (required)
- Autism: 2 years (required)
- safeguarding: 1 year (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in London NW11 6AB
