We improve the lives of all those in our community by resolving challenges with a ‘no barriers’ approach to advice, support and insight.

Volunteer With Cadat

Please fill in the form below to apply to become a volunteer. This form will take roughly 10 minutes to complete. 

Not ready yet? Simply click the “talk to us” button or click here, type in your details in the form and someone will get in touch with more information about becoming a Volunteer.

For example, Giving information and advice face to face, phone, email or webchat, fundraising, customer service/reception, admin, IT, research and campaigns, media [Please note that applicants must be 16 or over to provide advice to clients].

When are you usually free to volunteer your time? Please write the times for each day

This may include other volunteering or paid work you have in other organisations such as a local housing association, local authority, government body, criminal or civil court, another organisation that provides advice.
Many volunteers have used the service before but we are unable to offer volunteer roles to clients who are currently receiving advice, to ensure there is no conflict of interest.
If yes to any of the above, our Volunteering Coordinator will be in contact to discuss it with you.

What happens next?

Once we've reviewed your application, we'll be in touch. If shortlisted we will invite you to an informal interview, either online or in-person, to get to know you better. We will ask you about any additional support needs you think we should know about in order to enable you to participate in an interview.

If you're successful at the interview, we will ask if you can provide us with ID (ideally photo ID, but don’t worry if you haven’t got this, we can discuss other options as this isn’t a barrier to volunteering with us).

We will also ask you for the names and contact details of two people, who know you in a work related, academic or professional capacity. This could be an employer, teacher, tutor, a colleague, or former-colleague where you have worked or volunteered before. It could also be someone who knows you well (but not a member of your family).

If you’d like to discuss who can be a referee at an earlier stage please get in touch with Heidi Masterson at V.recruitment@cadat.org.uk

There is no expectation or requirement for you to do so.

If you are under 16, please also ask your parent or legal guardian to sign the permission below.

I understand the volunteer role and possible time commitment and give permission for the volunteer in this application to undertake this role if successful.

Entitlement to Work or Volunteer

If you are not a UK or Irish citizen, it’s important you check you are permitted to volunteer or carry out ‘unpaid work’ in addition to your main reason for entering the country, to avoid jeopardising your visa status. You can find more information on the NCVO website.

Our Policy on Convictions

We only ask about criminal convictions and criminal records after we’ve made a conditional offer of volunteering. This is to help make sure that volunteers are selected based on their skills and potential.

Having a criminal record is not in itself a barrier to volunteering. Please note that it is Citizens Advice policy not to recruit any individual who has an unspent conviction (for all roles) for a sexual offence against a vulnerable adult or child, and our policy not to recruit any individual who has a spent, or unspent, conviction (for roles that require a Standard or Enhanced DBS check) for a sexual offence against a vulnerable adult or child. This is the case regardless of when the offence took place. Citizens Advice public liability insurance excludes this. Where an offer of volunteering is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, we will inform you of this.

If you wish to contact us to discuss your individual circumstances at an earlier stage, please contact v.recruitment@cadat.org.uk. There is no expectation or requirement for you to do so as we will provide you with a Criminal Record self-disclosure form to complete after a conditional offer of a volunteering role has been made. The self-disclosure form you will receive contains information about privacy notice and legal rights over your data in relation to convictions and criminal records data.

Privacy Notice

We’ll use the information you provide in your application form in order for Citizens Advice Diss, Thetford & District to progress your application for becoming a volunteer. This is done under our legitimate interests in potentially onboarding you as a volunteer and to contact you to further progress your application.

Your information will be accessed by colleagues involved in the recruitment process and will be securely stored for up to 6 years.

If you'd like to exercise any of your individual rights under data protection legislation please contact Michelle Marchesi.

Privacy Policy - Citizens Advice

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