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Job Title: Cattery Unit Head (Liverpool) and Vet Nurse

Location: Freshfields Animal Rescue, Liverpool Centre

Hours: 37.5 hrs per week: 26.25hrs as Cattery Head, 11.25hrs as Vet Nurse

Salary: £23,400- £25,155 (dependent on experience, and person specification fit)

Reports to: Operations Manager, Liverpool

Job Purpose: This is an exciting opportunity to work within our Liverpool Cattery team to support and organise the cattery unit staff and resources to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome cats. You will benefit from the use of brand new facilities that will allow for more cats to be rescued and rehomed. We are looking for someone with strong passion for feline rehabilitation. You will also be able to develop, deliver and evaluate to Cattery Action Plan to progress Freshfields strategic Five-Year Plan.

• Lead and manage the work of the Unit staff, overseeing day-to-day operational activities.
• Ensure organisational procedures are followed to a high standard.
• Ensure that the staff understand and work to deliver the ethos, values, and principles of Freshfields Animal Rescue.
• Model positive leadership, compassion, professionalism, and integrity in every aspect of your work.
• With the support of the Operations Manager recruit, induct, train and support skilled cattery staff to ensure the team understands Freshfields requirements, and consistently deliver them to a high standard.
• Facilitate and champion positive and productive two-way communication between senior management, staff, and volunteers.
• To facilitate team spirit and mutual respect within the unit and wider Freshfields team.
• Foster and encourage an aspirational culture, with the confidence to adapt to change continually learn and improve.
• Ensure cattery staff understand and explain their work in wider context; the scale, external causes and the vital need to engage with the public, managers, fundraisers, and communications to create opportunities and find solutions.
• Ensure that cattery staff understand that cattery volunteers are donating their time and it is staffs’ responsibility to ensure they feel proud to have joined Freshfields and they feel they are making a positive difference.
• Coordinate operational activities such as rotas, leave and training to meet daily needs in a way that is fair and sufficient.
• Prioritise and evaluate the work of cattery staff and volunteers, provide professional and personal support and training to each to meet the wider objectives set.

As a vet nurse:

• Maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of the practice
• Work to the Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Nurses.
• Deliver and enable triage and protocol treatments to all animals on site.
• Provide operations support to veterinary surgeons.
• Assist staff with medical record production.
• Maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of the practice

Service Delivery

Ensuring the effective and efficient daily management of the Unit, in accordance with Codes of practice and animal welfare legislation. This involves:

• Understanding the care quality standards of the Welfare Act 2006, and Association for Dogs and Cats Homes, ensure staff understand them and together meet or exceed these care and facility standards.
• Understand and ensure staff understand and deliver your obligations for the Health and Safety of staff, volunteers and visitors to the rescue.
• Ensure efficient and effective use of every resource, to include staff, volunteers, equipment and utilities.
• Ensure staff and volunteers are engaged in the unit Action Plan; monitor and record progress against agreed objectives.
• Provide excellent and effective rescue, rehabilitation, and rehoming services.
• Work effectively and efficiently with all relevant colleagues
• Effectively communicate and work with the named vet and offsite vets.
• Ensuring that treatments and medications are administered, and recorded, in the prescribed quantity at the specified intervals.
• Contribute to the production of Cattery Standard Operating Procedures; implementing processes to fully communicate and facilitate them.
• Ensure that the cattery staff and volunteers have the training and confidence to deliver excellence standard of care to all cats in our care.
• Maintain and regularly inspect all areas and equipment within the facility, with early reporting of any defects or deficiencies found.
• Assisting with stock control of equipment, feeding and cleaning supplies.
• Ensure the facility is tidy, presentable, clean and secure.
• On-going assessment, in conjunction with other staff, of animals within the facility with respect to their health, welfare, general condition and suitability for rehoming. Highlight concerns relating to animals who are considered to require additional support or medical/veterinary attention.
• Ensure that all rescue and veterinary records are maintained in compliance with Government regulations.
• Maintaining a high standard of record-keeping, including admissions/rehoming figures/other statistics as directed
• Ensuring Freshfields Policy and Procedures are understood and adhered to by staff, volunteers, and the public within the facility at all times.
• Authorise expenditure and purchase orders within designated budget limits
• Ensure that comments and complaints are responded to appropriately and in a manner which reflects the principles and ethos of Freshfields Animal Rescue
• Collaborate with colleagues at the Freshfields Wales centre to share best practice and achieve shared goals.

Organisational Responsibilities

You will manage stakeholder relationships and develop and maintain links with appropriate external organisations, maintaining excellent relationships with supporters, donors, the wider public and other agencies. This will involve:

• Creating a work environment which recognises the unique contribution of each Unit for the benefit of all animals at the rescue centre.
• Acting as a positive Ambassador for Freshfields, enhancing the reputation and profile of the charity in everything you do
• Interact positively with the community, media, local interest groups and other stakeholders to promote support for the animals.
• Taking part in Public Relations work as required, including tours of the rescue centre, meetings, events, and training as required.
• Develop the skills and abilities of staff and volunteers to ensure that every donor, prospective adopter and visitor has an exceptionally positive experience at Freshfields Animal Rescue.
• Attend team, manager and communications meetings to provide progress updates, enable broader understanding, mutual support and coordinated actions. Ensure suitable information is then shared with your staff and volunteers.
• Ensure your staff produce visual content to demonstrate the quality, impact and value of your work every week for online and other purposes, as well as producing, monitoring and responding to public comments on your posts.
• Perform other duties consistent with the requirements of the post

This list is not exhaustive of the requirements of the role, and other cattery unit tasks may be expected when necessary.

Person Specification:

• Good working knowledge of IT such as Microsoft Word and Excel (essential)
• Must have hands on experience of working in a veterinary role (essential)
• Must hold a status of current registration with the RCVS (essential)
• Good working knowledge of Animal Shelter Manager database or similar (desirable)
• Demonstrated commitment to providing an excellent service for rescued cats and kittens, with empathy and compassion for all species (essential)
• 3 years’ experience of working with cats (essential)
• Previous leadership experience (essential)
• Ability to work within budget constraints and manage costs (essential)
• Commitment to the principles of Equality, Inclusivity and Diversity in the workplace (essential)
• Confidence to lead and develop a team of staff and volunteers and facilitate positive communication and understanding across all functions of the Rescue.
• Able to promote a positive and resilient approach to problem-solving. (essential)
• Able to facilitate healthy discussion about animal welfare decisions. (essential)
• Strong attention to detail, particularly when administering medications and monitoring multiple patients. (essential)
• Staying calm and composed in stressful situations and work well under pressure when dealing with emergencies.
• Organised and able to create processes and systems to monitor and record priority objectives (essential)
• Able to effectively support, motivate and manage employees and volunteers (essential)
• Ability to work to deadlines, with excellent time management skills (essential)
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (essential)
• Flexible and responsible (essential)
• Self-motivated, with a willingness to work on own initiative and as part of a team (essential)
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities and to manage and prioritise a busy workload (essential)
• You can demonstrate compassion, confidence, professionalism, and integrity in every aspect of your work (essential)

Only completed application forms will be considered for this role. You will need to contact the rescue for an application form.

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: £23,400.00-£25,155.00 per year

Schedule:

• 10 hour shift
• Day shift
• Weekend availability

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Liverpool: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Education:

• Bachelor's (preferred)

Experience:

• Registered Veterinary Nurse: 1 year (required)
• Cattery: 3 years (required)
• Leadership: 1 year (required)

Licence/Certification:

• RCVS number (required)

Work Location: One location

Application deadline: 24/03/2023
Reference ID: CHVN