Dame Moira Gibb DBE Chair of Trustees Expand Dame Moira Gibb DBE qualified as a social worker in Edinburgh, before going on to hold roles in Newcastle, Bolton, and Surrey as well as the London boroughs of Ealing, Kensington and Chelsea, and Camden, where she served as the Chief Executive from 2003 to 2012. She was appointed as Chair of Trustees for Hestia in September 2023. In addition to her experience in housing and social care, Dame Moira has also held Non-Executive roles at NHS England, the UK Statistics Authority, Reading University and Skills for Care which she chaired for eight years. She is a member of the Advisory Panel to the NHS and Social Care Data Guardian. She has conducted independent safeguarding reviews for both Southbank International School and the Church of England. She has honorary doctorates from the University of East Anglia and Kingston University.
Where will I be based? Expand Our services work across London boroughs, so this depends on which service you will be joining and which role you are applying for. Take a look at our individual services for more information on where they operate. Our Head Office is located in London Bridge.
How do I apply? Expand Click on your desired role and you will be taken to our recruitment site. Here you can provide your contact details and upload your CV. Our current opportunities list is updated continuously so you can be sure you are viewing all currently available paid and volunteering vacancies. Browse our latest career opportunities.
How soon after the closing date should I hear back? Expand We aim to shortlist and inform candidates within 2 working days of the role closing however at times this can take a bit longer if your details are on a reserve list. We will get back to all applicants.
Can I volunteer at Hestia? Expand Yes, we are proud to have over 300 volunteers across London supporting adults and children in crisis. For more information about volunteering, please visit our volunteer page.
Does Hestia offer work experience? Expand We offer work placements to students currently enrolled on a social work university course. For more information, please contact Donna Kaufman by email: [email protected]
What are the benefits of working at Hestia Expand BHSF will give you access to a range of health, wellbeing and lifestyle tools such as GP helpline Advice, services and products for you or your loved ones’ care needs Telephone helpline providing practical and emotional support Pension scheme Season ticket loan Discounted memberships at over 2500 gyms Holiday trading Toil & flexible working Hundreds of money-saving offers Training & development Online health assessment proving a comprehensive health and wellbeing overview
Brendan Sarsfield Treasurer Expand Brendan was the former Chief Executive of Peabody, a housing association owning and managing 68,000 homes in London and the South East. Brendan has worked in housing all of his professional life and is a campaigner for the needs of ordinary Londoners and the importance of diversity in the city. Brendan is also chair of the Sustainable Housing Standards Board which focusses on the relationship between the sector and the finance sector on ESG issues. Brendan was appointed a Trustee of Hestia in May 2021 and sits on the Finance & Fundraising subcommittee.
Refuge support worker - Barking and Dagenham £20,124 rising to £20,760 per annum after 1 year Applications close 31st May 2018 Expand We are Hestia, a vibrant London based charity. Our Barking and Dagenham domestic abuse service is looking for a Refuge Worker to be part of their friendly team. We have 2 refuges in the borough where we provide temporary emergency accommodation to women and their children (if any) who have experienced or exposed to domestic abuse. We empower and support women in determining their own futures whether their decision to start a new life or return home safely. You will get to work with the local community, adding to the local VAWG strategy, and enjoy local training. We welcome applications from candidates with lived experience. Section 7(2) b & e of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 apply to this position – (Only Female applicants Please) Find out more
Refuge support worker - Wandsworth £20,124 rising to £20,760 per annum after 1 year Applications close 7th May Expand Want to be an advocate for women and children fleeing domestic abuse? Come join our service in Wandsworth. Working within the team of 5 refuge workers you will have the potential to perhaps save and certainly to change lives. Working with women and children at a pivotal moment in their lives the service provides a safe-haven, a place for them to catch their breath and gather their thoughts. You will work alongside the team to help the women recognise the massive step they have already taken and to start planning the next step they need to take on their journey. There’s never a dull moment – this job is not without drama and challenge but these are more than made up for with the rewards. We welcome applications from candidates with lived experience. Find out more
I have some questions. Who can I talk to? Expand Please contact our Human Resources team on [email protected]. You should receive a reply with 48 hours.
I am currently employed, when should I hand in my resignation? Expand If you are currently employer, we recommend you do not resign until we have received your reference and DBS unless instructed otherwise by our HR department.
What is the shortlisting process? Expand Our Managers usually shortlist within 2 working days of the vacancy closing. You will receive an email from our HR department with a conditional offer and the relevant paperwork for you to complete. HR will arrange to meet with you in person to complete our pre-employment checks. Please don’t hand in your notice until HR informs you that everything is in order.
How shall I best prepare application? Expand We are looking for candidates with a passion to change lives who identify with our values. Your cover letter is your chance to tell Hestia all about this. Why you wish to work for Hestia Transferable skills Our vision is ‘Empowering people, changing lives’. How will you contribute to this if you are successful? We are looking for candidates who live our values; respectful, genuine, dedicated, collaborative, courageous. How will you ensure to incorporate our values in your everyday work? The experience a person has on their CV would not necessarily be an indication of how a candidate will live our values. Your cover letter is your chance to tell Hestia all about this. If you have any questions during the application process, contact our HR team on [email protected] (strictly no agencies). We aim to reply to any messages within 48 hours.
Is there a pension scheme? Expand Your pension scheme is a special type of savings plan designed to provide you with an income once you retire. As soon as you start with us, you will be automatically enrolled into the pension scheme where Hestia will match your personal contributions up to a maximum of 5% of your salary.
Christina Marriott Trustee Expand Following an early career in advertising, for 13 years Christina led the marketing consultancy she established in her 20s. She was tempted into academia as a research fellow working on health inequalities at the University of Central Lancashire and was seconded to health inspectorates to run a national census of mental health inpatients that investigated ethnicity-based inequalities. She moved into the NHS to spearhead a regional, place-based health equity programme before becoming National Lead for Health Inequalities in the then newly-formed NHS England. Her move into the third sector was via the Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Nacro before taking up the Chief Executive role at Revolving Doors Agency. Christina has served on a significant number of advisory Board including the Ministerial Advisory Board on Female Offenders, the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Ministerial Advisory Group (RR3) and a Civil Justice Council working party. She chaired the Bradley Report Group and the Health Inequalities Reference Group. She was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton and was a finalist in the Third Sector Awards Chief Executive of the Year 2019. Christina joined the board of Trustees at Hestia in December 2018.
Liz Zacharias Trustee Expand Liz is a senior manager and business development professional with many years’ experience in the supported housing and social care sector as a consultant and senior executive. This includes experience of working within a national care and support organisation and as a commissioner of supported housing and independent living services where she developed commissioning strategies for older people, people with mental health and learning disabilities as well as socially excluded groups and rough sleepers. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development. Liz also holds a Diploma in Fundraising from the Institute of Fundraising and previously spent five years as the lead on strategic growth for two housing organisations where she secured significant growth through public sector contracts. Liz Joined Hestia as a Trustee in January 2019.
Lauren Bowes-Byatt Trustee Expand Lauren is the Deputy Director for A Healthy Life Mission at Nesta. She is responsible for working across public, private and non-profit sectors to deliver innovative solutions that tackle obesity and loneliness in the UK. Previously, she worked at the Cabinet Office as Head of Planning and Coordination in the COVID-19 Task Force, where she was responsible for organising key COVID-19 policy moments. During this time, she was also deployed to NHS England's COVID-19 vaccination programme where she helped on delivery of the 'Get Boosted Now' campaign. Prior to that, Lauren held strategy roles within the Home Office and Cabinet Office. At the Cabinet Office, she oversaw the creation and delivery of the Government's Loneliness strategy. Lauren joined the Civil Service as a social researcher at the Ministry of Justice following analytics roles within media, publishing and market research companies. Lauren joined Hestia in March 2020 and is a member of our Digital & IT subcommittee.
Aisling Thompson Trustee Expand Aisling has 30 years of experience in healthcare, working in senior operational roles in large NHS providers. She has also held roles in central government at the Department of Health and Social Care and in consulting. Aisling is currently the Director for the South East London NHS Community Provider Network supporting collaborative working across the four community health providers and six local authorities. Aisling was a Trustee at Hestia from December 2019-December 2021 and has re-joined the board in September 2023.
Rebecca Pritchard Trustee Expand Bex has 30 years’ experience in the social care and homelessness field, and has held senior operational, policy, commissioning and consultancy/ advisory roles in the voluntary sector, local and central government. She started as a volunteer for the Southampton Resettlement Program working alongside people with lived experience in 1989. She has since worked for Shelter, Centrepoint and Crisis amongst others, led the establishment of the Supporting People program in Surrey and supported other Supporting People teams as an interim manager, run drug and alcohol treatment services and was embedded within the Department of Communities and Local Government as a specialist advisor on youth homelessness and rough sleeping. Bex is currently having a pause ahead of taking on new opportunities, with current commitments including being a Trustee of Hestia, and member of the NICE Guideline Development Group on integrated health and social care responses for people who are homeless. Bex joined Hestia in December 2019 and is as a member of our Performance Review Committee.
Liz Meek Trustee Expand Liz chairs Twining Enterprise, a charity helping people with mental health problems into work. She previously had nearly 40 years’ experience in the civil service and was head of the Government Office for London and then the North West delivering policies and programmes, mainly tackling poverty and disadvantage, for 12 Whitehall departments. Liz led the team of officials which created the Mayor of London. Since leaving the civil service, Liz has been founder chair of the Centre for London - a new think tank, vice chair of Birkbeck college and on a number of boards and commitees, mostly on mental health. She was a member of the London Fairness Commission. She proposed and served on the Schizophrenia Commission. Liz joined Hestia’s board in October 2020 and sits on the Finance & Fundraising subcommittee.
"This is not just work for me, it is my life passion to help people." Expand Vicky's Story I joined Hestia in 2018, as a service manager for the Wandsworth Recovery & Rehabilitation mental health service. By that point, I had worked in the care sector for 20 years, across homelessness, substance misuse and mental health services, crisis house and forensic services. I started off as a resettlement officer and support worker and worked my way up. I have wanted to work in social care setting since I was young. My dad was a teacher in a school for children with learning difficulties back in Africa, so I was a pupil there growing up. I made friends with the other children and from then on, it was my dream to help more vulnerable people in society. I came to the UK, got a degree in health and social care, and haven’t looked back. You feel satisfaction because you can see the results of your work. A while ago I bumped into a man I used to support 20 years ago; I remember helping him to start an IT course at college. He was so keen to do it and I remember telling him to go for it. He is now a computer engineer. I was so proud. Knowing that I’m having a positive impact gives me strength and motivates me to do more. I love my job. Sometimes, the journey to a success story like that is not smooth. Someone can take one step forward and then five steps back – that is the nature of recovery. I have learnt to walk that recovery journey with the person I am supporting. Strive for their goal alongside them and follow their lead – that is the greatest thing you can do for their recovery. They are the experts in their own experience. Recently, I secured a promotion to Area Manager, covering Hestia’s Registered Care Homes. This involves sustaining our services, supporting my colleagues to be the best they can be and checking in with service users. We are all working towards the same goal. I have been able to go to our services during the COVID-19 restrictions, but I can’t wait for things to go back to normal again so I can go more often. I miss it. One-on-one time with the people we support is what brings me joy; I love being a listening ear. This is not just work for me, it is my life passion to help people. In my spare time, I volunteer at my local church, helping refugees and the homeless. Our work can involve helping them to attend GP appointments or cooking for them, all the way to finding them supported accommodation or even helping them to reunite with family members. When you have worked in this field for as long as I have, you must know when to put up boundaries and take time to look after your own health, too. I always make sure to set time aside for my children and my grandchild. I also phone my dad, who still lives in Africa, every morning before I start work. He usually comes to the UK frequently to visit, so not being able to see him during lockdown has been hard. Our daily catch ups over a cup of tea have helped though. I used to have long-term career goals, but I do not now – I feel like I’ve achieved them all. However, I would love to stay with Hestia and continue being there for service users and making a difference. I would also love to become a director in Hestia one day. As a Black woman, I must remember that other people from my background will be looking up to me. I want to show them that you can achieve anything if you are focused and work hard. When the time comes to retire, I want to become a trustee somewhere and continue to grow. It is my proudest achievement that I have been able to take that dream I had as a child and achieve it. To see how my dream has helped others to achieve theirs is all I could ask for.
Sonal Shah Trustee Expand Sonal is a Partner at Greenwood Place, a London based B Corp which provides strategic advice and execution for philanthropists giving in the UK and globally. Prior to Greenwood Place, Sonal was Chief Executive of The London Community Foundation from 2009 to 2016, having joined the organisation in 2005 under its previous incarnation as the South East London Community Foundation. Under her leadership, the Foundation became a leading London grant maker and community philanthropy charity investing around £5 million a year into a vast range of social issues across the capital. In addition to her role at Centre for London, Sonal is an Advisory Board Member of Educate Girls and was previously a trustee of UK Community Foundations. Sonal began her career with the John Lewis Partnership after graduating from Oxford with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Sonal joined Hestia’s board in February 2022 and sits on the Finance & Fundraising subcommittee.
Charity of the year Expand If you are looking for a charity to support for a set period, we welcome opportunities to nominate Hestia and your Charity of the Year. We have many committed companies supporting Hestia, and we work with them in a range of ways; from offering new and exciting fundraising ideas, aligning their work with our causes and volunteering and cause led activities. Whether you have a formal application process or employees nominate a cause for a vote, we would love to hear from you.