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Auriga is the place where you can bring your purpose to life

Supporting people through life’s challenges

Auriga are passionate about improving the lives of people in vulnerable circumstances. Our people are proud to be part of our diverse, inclusive and healthy workplace.

We understand the importance of a strong work-life balance, offering flexible hybrid and remote working for our team.

Take a look at the opportunities we currently have at Auriga

The Auriga head office is a bright, accessible, lively place to work and enjoy life. We are in Sutton Coldfield a bustling town centre – and on the edge of Sutton Park, a 2,400 acre nature reserve. The central location is great for commuting on foot or bike, and we’re a two-minute walk to car parks, and the bus and railway station.

Our 90+ people are the foundation of our business and ensure that we deliver outstanding, effective and award-winning assistance and advice services for our clients.

Auriga draws upon a diverse range of expertise across the organisation. Our teams of professional advisers, managers, coordinators and administrators – and many more – have a wide range of alternative experience and skills that allows us to offer our truly unique approach to assistance in the UK.

There is always more to be learned in how to support vulnerable households. We help develop the skills in identifying and addressing the needs of people experiencing vulnerabilities. To this end, we support our people with training and development that ensures they are up to date with the most recent innovations and standards.

Meet the team

As a company, our unique culture and approach delivers enduring results

Service Delivery

Auriga First

  • Frontline of the business, taking a call when an individual seeks assistance by phone. We don’t use heavily automated phone systems.
  • First step in Auriga’s advice model, understanding needs and putting the customer at the centre of the service. We never forget that almost all the people who call are in a difficult situation and are reaching out for help.
  • Trained customer service experts. Treating people with respect and putting them at ease swiftly, so we can inform and advise the best course of action. They speak a number of languages to improve accessibility – helping us reach communities who may not ordinarily reach out.

Grant Management

  • Managers of a portfolio of assistance funds, commissioned on behalf of clients. From inception to completion, the team ensure a coordinated, coherent plan for delivery. Services include managing, assessing and administrating applications within the requirements of a service or fund.
  • Experts in achieving the timely completion of a caseload of applicants and assessments, priding themselves on their personable and professional approach. No fund is the same and the team have a great ability to manage diverse budgets, themes, and integrate seamlessly, with money advisors where required.
  • Assessors of every application to a trust fund. Carried out by an experienced assessor, considering the background and personal circumstances of the applicant.

Auriga Assist

  • Key customers advisors, delivering services when and where they’re needed. That means outreach work, working in partnerships, and taking referrals from agencies. Advisors have expertise in the provision of debt advice, welfare benefits and wider money advice for people who find themselves in financial difficulty.
  • Experts in a crisis. And specialists in wide-ranging topics including prevention, wellbeing, energy and water efficiency advice, to address the root causes of debt problems.
  • Practitioners, making in-depth or light-touch interventions, where they feel that there is significant impact to be made.
  • Collaborators, working with other agencies and sharing good practice.

Client Solutions and Marketing

We champion our brilliant services, bringing them to life in dynamic ways for clients. We turn ideas and opportunities into services with impact. In addition to winning new work and maintaining our client base, we also lead all Auriga’s marketing and social media.

Client Solutions build relationships and work collaboratively with colleagues across the organisation to keep and grow Auriga’s client base. There is a clear approach to sharing insights internally and externally on the knowledge within, and across the sectors we work with.

David Woakes
Client Solutions Director

Finance

The finance team has qualified accountants who ensure strong governance processes surround our work. We act as Company Secretary for charitable trusts and ensure that records are robust, transparent and open to external scrutiny. We manage client accounts and ensure that Auriga’s finances are separate from other funds.

Management accounts are produced monthly for all relevant contracts and we prepare all documentation ready for audit. We use Crowe to conduct our audits. Auriga itself is a financially robust company with an excellent credit rating, able to handle major contracts from both public and private sector organisations.

Business Support

Our Business Support team cover the services needed to support the operational aspects of the business. This covers the IT infrastructure, that was thankfully upgraded prior to lockdown enabling all our staff to be able to work from home. Office Management leads on the day-to-day physical operation of the buildings and facilities. Core business processes (QMS) and procedures for Auriga’s planning and service delivery are developed here – including health & safety management. Business Support liaise with other service areas where appropriate to provide information and advice as required.

Leadership - Board of Directors

The Auriga leadership team has a wealth of experience and know-how spanning assistance within many sectors including water, energy and charity.

Read our biographies to discover more about what we do.

  • Jill Wheeler
    Chief Executive Officer
    Jill Wheeler
    Chief Executive Officer

    Jill is a highly experienced and accomplished senior leader with a wealth of knowledge in the ‘not for profit sector’ gained over many years. Jill’s knowledge and experience spans finance, business development, business strategy and governance within the NHS, DWP and Welfare to Work Sectors, alongside the past nine years where she has worked solely in the charitable sector. Most recently, Jill was Managing Director at Family Fund Business Services, trading subsidiary of the Family Fund Trust, where she was instrumental in delivering a 650% increase in surpluses and a fourfold increase in business volumes in just five years, supporting even more families raising disabled children.

    In her spare time, Jill is a mum to three children, a dog and a cat and enjoys spending time outdoors where she lives in rural North Yorkshire. Jill is a Trustee for Yorkshire Family Mediation Service and also an accomplished bid writer, supporting her local community with funding submissions to improve rural road safety. When time allows, Jill loves to travel and has visited many countries across the world, occasionally using her degree in French and European Studies.

  • Clare Fleming
    People Director
    Clare Fleming
    People Director

    Clare is a FCIPD qualified senior HR professional with 25 years experience gained in small, medium and large organisations in both generalist and specialist HR roles.  Clare has worked in public, private and not for profit sectors and all the companies she has worked for have had a professional services, public service, caring or social value element to them.   Making a positive difference to the ultimate end user of services and recognising that this is achieved through having happy, engaged and skilled people who work for the organisation is Clare’s biggest motivator.  Clare has recently trained as a Coach, is also an NLP practitioner and loves using these skills both in work, providing pro-bono services to others outside of work and finds the skills beneficial in her home life too!

    Clare is a wife, daughter, sister and a mum to two children.  She also has a fox red Labrador whom she loves walking in the countryside of her home county of Staffordshire. In her spare time, Clare loves travelling in the UK and abroad, spending time outdoors with family and friends, keeping fit, reading, singing in a local choir and playing the piano.

  • David Woakes
    Client Solutions Director
    David Woakes
    Client Solutions Director

    David is an experienced senior operations, client solutions and business development director with a successful track record of leading, managing and developing businesses and teams in a variety of sectors. He has over 30 years’ experience in developing business strategy, sustainable growth and high quality service delivery, with specific emphasis on inclusion and diversity and business change and transformation. This has been a variety of businesses from larger corporate organisations through to SME – subject matter experts – as well as small to medium enterprises. Working in professional services and resourcing he has been heavily involved in the employability sector, supporting young people on their career path via voluntary work as an Enterprise Advisor and other charity activities for wider training support including apprenticeship progression.

    Over the past 10 years he has developed from initial voluntary work in the employability sector to now hold a senior role and is fully enthused by being able to support Auriga and our charitable support after an extensive career in recruitment and resourcing. During this period, he also established various programmes for fundraising, ESG, GDPR and safeguarding management and digital transformation implementation including cyber security management.

    A father of grown up children now, all living their own lives, David and his wife have a rescue “Staffie” in Chase who he is often out with on walks. A keen sportsman, David is a cricket lover; he is head of cricket at Aston Manor Cricket Club, an inner-city club based in Birmingham and chair of the cricket section of Warwickshire County Cricket league. He is also a business ambassador of Acorns Children’s Hospice, taking part in their fundraising events including a Fire and Ice walk.

  • Katy Oram
    Head of Corporate Services
    Katy Oram
    Head of Corporate Services

    Katy is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of experience in both audit and industry. Katy has worked in a variety of sectors including art, retail, hospitality, and leisure. Change management and business transformation has played a large part in all her roles, and she has been responsible for numerous successful system implementations. Katy wanted to move into the not-for-profit sector and has joined Auriga with the aim of utilising all her previous experience to bring about positive change and to help as many people as possible.

    Katy lives in Sutton Coldfield with her partner and their 7 year old son. Outside of work Katy enjoys spending time with her family, going to the theatre, reading and brown sign Sundays (where they visit somewhere that has a brown sign, such as a National Trust property) and trying out the cakes there!

  • Tracey Orr
    Non-Executive Chairman
    Tracey Orr
    Non-Executive Chairman

    Prior to joining Auriga in July 2021, Tracey was the Chief Operating Officer at Central England Co-operative following a career of 37 years in the Co-operative movement.

    Professionally qualified in HR and with a background in strategy, operations and retail and recent board and committee roles, Tracey brings a wealth of knowledge to the Board. As a Non Executive Director Tracey has previously chaired the Workforce Committee at Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership and is a member of the Appointments Committee at the Civil Service Sports Council

    Phil Lines
    Non-Executive Chairman
    Phil Lines
    Non-Executive Director

    Phil has been a Non-Executive Director of Auriga since 2004. He is a Chartered Accountant with wide-ranging financial and commercial expertise. He is also the Chief Financial Officer of an educational academy, which is part of the most diverse multi-academy trust in the West Midlands.

    During his time at Auriga, Phil has brought invaluable knowledge and understanding of finance, governance, business strategy and risk management both within the commercial and not-for-profit sectors.

    Alison McKinna
    Non-Executive Chairman
    Alison McKinna
    Non-Executive Director

    Alison joined the Auriga Board as a Non-Executive in July 2021.  Alison has experience in both the public and private sector, and able to operate across multiple industry sectors (utilities, financial services, technology, legal services, healthcare, construction, procurement and charities).  Alison is an accomplished strategic delivery and client focused business leader with a successful track record of accelerated business transformation ensuring financial growth, digital innovation, and improved customer experience. Alison was a finalist for Board Director of the Year in the UK Women in IT Awards 2021, recognising her contribution to technology enabled organisations, and support for diversity and inclusion.

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