Regional Adviser

The Church of England Pensions Board provides retirement services to those who serve or work for the Church. Both a regulated pension fund and registered charity, more than 44,000 people rely on us for their pensions. A leader in ethical and responsible investment, we carefully steward the £3.4bn of pension savings entrusted to us to not only grow our members’ pensions, but also to drive systemic and lasting change across the industries and sectors in which we invest for a just and sustainable word.  The Board also supports 2,500 retired clergy with housing, including managing a national portfolio of 1,200 rented homes and Community Living options.  
 
Supported by a multi-million pound grant from the wider Church, we are setting up a new function responsible for engaging with clergy at all stages of life and ministry on their current and future plans, offering access to grants to kick-start saving, bespoke advice at key life stages and tailored products that will give our customers more choice about their future.   
 
We are looking for a Regional Adviser to join our new team of Regional Advisers, delivering personalised support to clergy helping them with day-to-day financial wellbeing matters, and retirement planning. Working across Dioceses operating in your region, you will lead local engagement with clergy through structured one-to-one conversations, events and outreach, helping to connect individuals with expert advice, guidance, products and services that support their current and future financial plans. As a key point of contact for individuals and dioceses in your area, you’ll champion the needs and experiences of clergy—feeding insight into service improvements. This is an exciting opportunity to join at the very beginning, shape how we work, and make a real impact. We’re looking to build a dynamic, forward-thinking team that thrives on innovation and collaboration. If you’re passionate about creating something new and delivering excellent support to clergy, this is your chance to help us set the standard.

This is a remote role, based in the South West region with an expectation that you combine virtual delivery with regular local travel and partnership building.  This is a part time position (28 hours).
 

To apply for this role, please follow this link and apply via our partner Prospectus.

• First stage online interviews – Wednesday 26th August
• Second stage face to face interviews – Tuesday 8th September 

• Personalised Support for Clergy  
  ▪    Identify and contact clergy throughout their ministry journey to offer personalised support and guidance.  
  ▪    Hold structured one-to-one conversations online (or in person where particularly appropriate) to explore retirement plans, future housing preferences, household and financial circumstances, and agree clear next steps.  
  ▪    Maintain accurate [online] case records, schedule follow-ups and re-engage individuals at agreed intervals.  
  •    Signposting and Referrals  
  ▪    Provide timely signposting to independent financial advisers, charities, and other external services for housing, money, and welfare needs as appropriate.  
  ▪    Build knowledge about choices and products that clergy might want to explore to help their plans, utilising our one stop shop portal.   
  ▪    Refer clergy to financial health checks and specialist advice where appropriate and track referral outcomes.  
  •    Learning, Events, and Content  
  ▪    Design and facilitate local events, including workshops for training institutions and sessions for early-career clergy.  
  ▪    Produce and share accessible local content such as guides, newsletter items, and case studies to encourage peer learning.  
  •    Relationship Building and Representation  
  ▪    Build and maintain relationships with diocesan recruitment and development teams, senior clergy, diocesan wellbeing staff, local Theological Education Institutions and local charitable partners.  
  ▪    Build and maintain close relationships with colleagues in the Pensions Board Housing and Pensions Admin teams, ensuring complete and accurate handover of customer information at key points in clergy retirement planning as required.  
  ▪    Attend diocesan meetings and conferences, represent the service locally, and support established pre-retirement activity.  
  •    Mapping and Knowledge Management  
  ▪    Map local support routes, housing options, and charitable referral pathways, sharing this knowledge with clergy and others as appropriate.   
  •    Feedback, Insights, and Continuous Improvement  
  ▪    Gather real-time feedback from conversations and events, run brief surveys, and feed insights to the wider team to inform communications, pilots, and product design.  
  ▪    Contribute to continuous professional development through training, peer learning, and sharing best practice across regions.  
  •    Safeguarding and Quality Assurance  
  ▪    Apply safeguarding standards in all contacts (working within the Pensions Board’s safeguarding policy and procedures), escalate concerns promptly, and contribute to consistent regional practice with other Advisers.  

Essential  
Knowledge and experience:  
1.    Proven experience delivering welfare, casework or financial wellbeing support in a client facing role.  
2.    Demonstrable experience of building and maintaining relationships across multiple organisations and working effectively in remote or matrixed environments.  
3.    Experience of planning, delivering and evaluating local events, workshops or learning sessions.  
4.    Training and demonstrable application of safeguarding practice in client work.  
5.    Good working knowledge of good data protection practice.   
6.    This role involves some travel within your designated geographical area to attend meetings, events and in-person engagements. While a lot of delivery can be virtual, applicants should have access to reliable transport and be able to travel when required. A full UK driving licence will be essential.  
 
Skills and abilities:  
7.    Excellent interpersonal skills: empathetic, non-judgemental and able to build trust and influence quickly.  
8.    Able to provide support and deliver services through a variety of communication channels, including face-to-face meetings, telephone, email, video calls, and online platforms.  
9.    Comfortable adapting approach to meet the needs of clients engaging remotely or in person, ensuring a consistent and accessible service regardless of channel.  
10.    Strong written communication and disciplined record keeping with high attention to detail.  
11.    Confident user of customer relationship systems for case notes, scheduling and tracking engagement and willing to use central portal data.  
12.    Practical problem solver who can triage needs, make timely referrals and follow through to resolution.  
13.    Organised self-starter who is comfortable working autonomously, managing a varied workload and prioritising fieldwork alongside virtual delivery.  
14.    Familiarity with current digital engagement tools for customer support and learning delivery.  
15.    Committed to equality, inclusion and the values of the organisation.  
 
Desirable  
16.    Experience of working in or with Church of England structures or comparable faith-sector organisations.  
17.    Practical knowledge of signposting to charities, housing options and welfare support; familiarity with pension matters and regulated financial products is desirable.  
18.    Prior involvement in designing, launching or working within a new service or pilot.  
19.    Formal training or qualifications in welfare benefits, debt advice or money and debt advice practice.  
20.    Knowledge of local housing pathways, social housing allocations and affordable housing products.  
21.    Experience working with independent financial advisers or regulated financial advice processes.