Autism At Kingwood

Philippa Stannard

Head Of Fundraising And Communications

Mission

To enable each autistic person we support to develop greater independence, discover their potential and enjoy a better quality of life.

Category

Disability

Additional Information

Dame Stephanie Shirley founded the charity in 1994 to support her autistic son Giles, removing him from a psychiatric hospital and into a regular house, where he was supported by caring staff who, for the first time in his life, enabled him to make his own choices about his life. This core person-centred value holds true today and the charity provides support for over130 individuals across the Thames Valley. Many people supported by Autism at Kingwood have complex needs with an additional learning disability and a mental health issue, and may need 24 hour support in a supported living house. Others need a some ‘outreach’ hours of support each week, to help them live more independently and to provide practical help with shopping, appointments or to access their community, for example. Additionally, Autism at Kingwood employs a Psychology & Practice Team, providing 1:1 support to individuals - typically to those with high functioning autism who may have associated mental health issues. The charity also delivers the Oxfordshire Adult Autism Diagnosis Service on behalf of Oxfordshire Health. We have a good reputation in the autism and charity sector for, as Dame Stephanie says: ‘providing creative solutions for complex situations and importantly, for persevering when other services have failed’. Autism at Kingwood is committed to work with those who may be considered more challenging, more demanding, or have greater communication difficulties: those for whom traditional services don’t work. The majority of our funding comes from statutory sources, which pays for the level of support assessed for the individual. This means that for other functions, the organisation is extremely lean and we have just 15 hours per week of marketing resource.

Follow Autism At Kingwood on social media

Help Wanted Ads

Oct 07, 2020

#BetterPay4Social Care

Description

We are seeking a social media manager and PR leader to help us influence change at government level. We would like the campaign to go live in early October. Autism at Kingwood employs over 250 support workers who, as a consequence of COVID-19, are now recognised as key workers. Their salaries are determined by local authorities, which determine the hourly rate they will pay for the individuals supported by us. The funding by local authorities has been impacted by central government austerity measures. This means that our support workers - and many others in social care - do not receive the Real Living Wage. As a minimum we want to pay our support workers the Real Living Wage - £9.30 per hour (or £10.75 in London). Calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, this hourly rate is based on what people need to live on. The public agree. The Fawcett Society conducted research and found that the vast majority of the public agree that social care workers are undervalued and they support higher pay for care workers. · 72% of the public think care workers are underpaid for the work they do · Three in four people say carers should get the Real Living Wage In July, the Government awarded pay rises, but this did not include non-NHS social care workers. In April, the Scottish Government sealed a deal with local government and adopted the Real Living Wage for all social care workers. We want English Government to follow suit and ensure adequate funding is given to local government for the purposes of enabling all social care workers to receive the Real Living Wage. Ideally, we would like to find someone or people with experience in PR campaigning/lobbying and strategic marketing - or who has ambitions to do so. We hope to find a social media manager who can help us ensure our calls to action are successful.

Skills Required

  • Strategic Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Pr

Posted on Sep 03, 2020

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