Animal Care Assistant (Live-in) - Essex

At the National Animal Welfare Trust, we never stop caring for our animals and people. As a rescue and rehoming charity, operating five rehoming centres and five shops across the south of England, we are committed to improving the lives of the UK’s pets, helping around 1,500 animals each year. We need an enthusiastic and self-motivated Live-In Animal Care Assistant to join our friendly team in our Essex Centre and make a difference.

Location: NAWT Essex, The Street, Little Clacton, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, CO16 9LG

Hours: 40 hours per week on a fixed 2-week rota to include working every other weekend

Salary: £11.44 per hour, £23,795.20 per annum

Closing Date: 18^th November 2024

About the role:

You’ll play a vital role at NAWT’s Essex Centre and will be responsible for providing the general care and welfare of our animals during their stay with the Centre. This position includes accommodation on site at a reduced live-in contribution rate.

You will be part of a small friendly team who are all committed to improving the lives of pets in the area. Reporting to the Supervisor, your main responsibilities will involve:

Responsible for the day-to-day care of all animals, including the cleaning and maintenance of their accommodation, feeding, exercising and grooming.
To be responsible for delivering the required training and behaviour modification programmes to all applicable animals.
Maintain accurate paper and electronic records to include admission, rehoming, behaviour and veterinary information.
To ensure that any animal illness, injury or behaviour issues are recorded and reported immediately to the centre management team.
Positively promote all homing services, including home direct and short-term fostering opportunities.
Inform customers of our rehoming procedures, give advice to those wishing to rehome a pet and assist customers with any homing enquiries, providing accurate information to ensure a thorough matching process is adhered to at all times.
Ensure all paper and electronic details are updated in a timely manner and animal information recorded where required.
Welcoming visitors to the Centre, providing that all important first impression to build positive relationships.
Assisting with fundraising and events activities as and when required.
To carry out some evening duties and lock up duties as and when required.

About you:

You will have a flexible approach, being able to work on your own initiative as well as being able to work cooperatively with a range of colleagues. Experience with working with animals or a relevant qualification is preferable, but full training and support will be given.

This is a rewarding position, and the successful candidate will have a positive and proactive approach to work, with the empathy and resilience to deal with sometimes challenging situations, having the animals, our visitors and the charity at the heart of everything you do.

So, if you are the kind of person who enjoys a busy and varied role, working outside in all weathers, with an empathy for the aims of NAWT, and would relish the opportunity to gain lots of experience in different areas of animal welfare – this may be the job for you!

As part of our commitment to making NAWT a great place to work, we offer access to the following employee benefits:

33 days annual leave inclusive of bank holidays (pro-rated for part time employees).
Group Life Assurance
Contributory Pension Scheme
Access to a free 24/7 support service providing support including legal, financial, emotional and medical advice.

Please note that having a manual driver’s license is vital for the role as you would need to drive our animal ambulance, especially for out of hours emergencies being live-in.

The full Job Description can be viewed via the link at the top of this page.

If you feel you have the right skills to be a successful Animal Care Assistant, please email your CV with a covering letter to Lizzie Reffell, Centre Manager: l.reffell@nawt.org.uk

Closing date for applications is 18th November 2024. However, we are accepting applications on a rolling basis and may close the recruitment process for this role prior to the deadline, so early applications are encouraged.