Location: Field-based (Islington)
Contract: Permanent, Part-Time (17.5 Hours)
Salary: £12,007.84 pro rata (plus £1500 London Allowance)
Make a difference as a Trainee Advocate
At Rethink Mental Illness, we believe everyone deserves to be heard. As a Trainee Advocate, you’ll play a vital role in empowering people to understand their rights, express their views, and influence decisions that affect their lives.
This is an exciting opportunity to start your career in advocacy. You’ll receive full support to complete the Level 4 Independent Advocacy Practice qualification, gaining the skills, knowledge and confidence to become a qualified Advocate.
About the role
You’ll work directly with people accessing health and social care services—supporting them to have their voice heard and ensuring their rights are upheld.
From day one, you’ll:
- Shadow experienced advocates and build hands-on experience
- Learn how to deliver instructed and non-instructed advocacy
- Support people across a range of settings, including hospitals, care homes, supported living and the community
- Develop your own caseload as your confidence grows
This is a field-based role, so you’ll manage your own diary, travel across Islington, and plan visits effectively.
You’ll gain exposure to different types of advocacy, which may include:
- IMHA (Independent Mental Health Advocacy)
- IMCA (Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy)
- Community and Care Act advocacy
- Children and Young People advocacy
- Paid Relevant Person’s Representative (RPR) work
What you’ll be doing
As a Trainee Advocate, you’ll:
- Empower people to understand their rights and make informed decisions
- Support individuals to express their views and wishes
- Promote independence and self-advocacy
- Ensure people’s voices are heard in care planning and decision-making
- Maintain accurate, high-quality case records and reports
- Identify and respond to safeguarding concerns
- Work within key legislation including the Mental Capacity Act and related frameworks
- Build strong relationships with professionals, carers and services
- Help raise awareness of advocacy through outreach and engagement sessions
What we’re looking for
You don’t need prior advocacy experience—we’re looking for people with the right values, motivation and potential.
We’d love to hear from you if you:
- Are passionate about supporting people to have their voice heard
- Are willing to complete the Level 4 Advocacy qualification
- Have strong communication skills and can adapt your approach to different needs
- Can build positive, professional relationships with a wide range of people
- Are organised and able to manage your own time and workload
- Work in a person-centred, non-judgemental and inclusive way
- Have transferable skills, lived experience or experience in health, social care or related settings
You’ll also need to:
- Be able to travel across Islington and occasionally further afield
- Be comfortable using IT systems to manage casework and records
What you’ll get in return
- Structured training and support to achieve your Level 4 qualification
- Regular supervision, coaching and reflective practice
- The opportunity to progress into a qualified Advocate role
- A flexible, field-based role with autonomy over your schedule
- The chance to be part of a passionate, supportive team
Ready to apply?
If you’re looking for a meaningful career where you can grow, learn and make a real impact, we’d love to hear from you.
Why Work With Rethink Mental Illness?
At Rethink Mental Illness, we believe that when you feel supported, you can make the biggest difference. That’s why we offer a range of benefits to help you thrive:
- Inclusive Culture: Join staff networks that champion diversity and inclusion.
- Wellbeing Support: Access our Wellbeing Hub, Employee Assistance Programme, and the Unmind mental health app.
- Recognition & Rewards: Enjoy discounts, cashback offers, and celebrate achievements through our PULSE platform.
- Flexible Working & Generous Leave: Starting at 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays and your birthday off), with options to buy or sell extra days.
- Learning & Development: Grow your career with structured onboarding and training opportunities.
- Financial & Family Support: Contributory pension scheme, enhanced family leave, and travel benefits like season ticket loans and cycle-to-work schemes.
- Referral Bonus: Earn up to £300 for introducing someone to our team.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Diversity is important to us, and we appreciate difference through difference, inclusiveness and belonging. It gives us a deeper understanding of the world, our society and the diverse communities we’re working with. By including everyone, we are able to draw on the unique experiences and expertise of our people to help shape and enrich our workplace and improve our services. One way we are doing is through our valued staff networks which play a critical and highly valued role in keeping us focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and engaged employer. We recognise and support staff networks and support groups for our ethnically diverse and LGBTQIA+ colleagues. We are also proud to have been awarded Disability Confident Employer status and are a signatory to the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter.
We aim for our workforce to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve; for those who work for us to feel heard, valued and feel they belong; and for our work to help tackle wider mental health inequalities. We therefore actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including applicants with lived experience of mental illness, those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and any other gender identity not expressed here (LGBTQIA+); people who are neurodiverse, have a health condition, or a disability or hidden disability and people from an ethnically diverse background - regardless of your age, religious or spiritual belief, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, political view or socio-economic status.
Becoming a truly anti-racist organisation
We have an ambition of become a truly anti-racist employer, campaigning organisation and service provider - and in our efforts to influence policy and wider societal factors impacting on mental health set out in our anti-racist statement . We have designed a multi-year anti-racist programme of work contained in our Race Equality Action Plan which demonstrates our intention to hold ourselves accountable and be judged on our progress on becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.
