Job title: Animal Welfare Team Lead

Location: The Hugs Foundation, Bodmin              

Responsible to: Head of Business

Hours: Full time 40 hours per week to include weekends on rota

Salary: £29,000 – £33,000

Accommodation: Accommodation is available as part of the role on a service occupancy basis, subject to the requirements of the position and the terms and conditions of the service occupancy agreement.

Main purpose of job:

Working for a renowned equine charity in the Southwest and a member of the National Equine Welfare Council (NEWC), this role is to lead a team of staff and volunteers in the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of animals entering our Charity; and to provide leadership and accountability for all animal rehabilitation plans, both medical and behavioural.

Key tasks and responsibilities:

• To support the Leadership Team in all aspects of site projects, including creating and monitoring a project budget, staffing and department policies and assisting with planning and department development.
• Provide day-to-day care and rehabilitation for a variety of equines and other animals, including chickens, guinea pigs, goats, pigs, rabbits and cats; ensuring their welfare needs are consistently met to a high standard.
• Exercise and train equines in accordance with individual rehabilitation plans, including the administration of medication and first aid practice as required.
• Develop, implement and adapt training and rehabilitation plans to reflect each equine’s progress and changing needs.
• Monitor and assess equine training and rehabilitation, ensuring best welfare practice, appropriate handling and the highest standards of care are always maintained.
• Stable duties, land management, rolling maintenance plans and upkeep.
• To lead the animal welfare team employees and volunteers, including setting daily/weekly/monthly/annual tasks, leading on modelling high standards, managing rotas, overtime and toil, holiday and sickness leave, training and CPD, appraisals and performance, health and safety and ensuring adherence to charity policies and procedures.
• To support with volunteer onboarding, trial days and feedback on trial periods. To assist in the delivery of training volunteers to the highest standard and to supervise them in this area.
• Develop and maintain good relationships with veterinary surgeons, farriers, chiropractors and dentists in delivering and monitoring treatment and rehabilitation for equines and other animals.
• To oversee all rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming processes, including individual rehabilitation plans, rehoming visits, home checks and welfare visits.
• To ensure all animal welfare activities align with the organisation’s mission, values and policies and procedures.
• To ensure all aspects of administration, including animal paperwork, contracts, equine database management, passports and microchips, yard vehicle maintenance/insurance /MOTs and premises services are regularly maintained.
• To contribute to regular updates for the animal rescue side of the charity on website/social media sites/newsletters and to actively promote rehoming.
• To educate potential new owners, adopters and the public in the care and welfare of their animals.
• To help fundraise for the charity to increase income through on- and offsite activities e.g., activity days, sale of donated goods, hiring of facilities, running of clinics and open days. This could be outside of normal working hours.
• To manage all aspects of site health and safety including policies, risk assessments, EICR, COSHH, biosecurity measures and maintenance requests.
• To support and assist the well-being team by training and preparing horses, ponies, and other animals to participate safely and positively in sessions with our service users and members of the public. Ensuring the appropriate care, welfare and preparation of equines and other animals.
• To support the facilitation of work experience/placements including corporate groups.
• To liaise and work alongside other charities such as RSPCA, World Horse Welfare, Horse Trust, Horse World Trust, The Mare and Foal Sanctuary and the Bodmin Moor Commoners Committee. This may include advising on welfare issues and reporting to DEFRA as necessary.
• Adhering to rules and regulations and maintaining memberships of HETI, HEIR (UK), NEWC and the Southwest Practitioners Network.
• To assist in identifying and compiling the necessary information and data needed to submit funding bids, alongside the Fundraising Manager.
• To collate feedback and support in writing the annual impact report.
• To work within the guidelines of The Hugs Foundation values, using them as a framework to lead and communicate with the rest of the team.
• This description is not exhaustive, and this role may be required to undertake other reasonable tasks as directed by the Charity.

 Personal Qualities & Experience:

The person:

Will have a confident and friendly approach, with the ability to work on their own or as part of a team and be prepared to work in all weathers. They will need to be able to ride or work with young and feral horses and ponies and demonstrate knowledge of current positive reinforcement training methods and equine/animal learning theory practices, with an animal-centred approach. They will demonstrate the flexibility and empathy required when working with animals and a confident, professional, and courteous approach to members of the public and clients. They will show a commitment to the aims of The Hugs Foundation and possess a willingness and ability to learn. They must be able to prioritise tasks and demands, whilst always maintaining a professional, polite, and patient approach towards volunteers, patrons, the general public and service users. The person will be able to manage staff, volunteers and work experience students and ensure a strong sense of team to inspire their staff to maintain high standards of welfare. In the interest of Health & Safety and to perform a physically active job, team members are required to maintain a suitable level of fitness to enable them to perform their job effectively.

 Essential:

• Experience of working in the charity sector.
• Experience of handling and assessing different types of horses and ponies including feral, youngsters, unbroken and those with behaviour issues.
• Experience of training/rehabilitating equines and a variety of current practical training and horsemanship techniques, from a horse-centred approach.
• Good knowledge of learning theory.
• Good knowledge of basic veterinary procedures, common ailments and injuries.
• Experience of transporting horses.
• A working knowledge of animal welfare policies and law.
• Experience of working with other animals both farm and domestic.
• Good knowledge and application of Health and Safety and related policies and procedures.
• Valid manual driving licence, due to rural location and driving the horsebox.
• Able to work flexibly as part of a small team.
• Good team leading and communication skills, literacy, numeracy, IT and administrative skills.
• Good understanding of safeguarding and its importance.
• Excellent record keeping and data management skills.
• Self-motivated, resilient and adaptable.
• Experience training and guiding others.

Desirable:

• Experience working within an animal rehoming organisation
• Equine qualifications would be an advantage.
• Knowledge and understanding of GDPR.
• Experience of charity fundraising and assisting with promotional events.
• Local knowledge of animal welfare in Cornwall and Devon.
• Experience of using land maintenance equipment (i.e., chain harrowing, hedge trimming)
• Experience of using tractors, quad bikes, trailers.
• A degree in animal welfare, behaviour or similar.

Hours of work:

Standard hours are 40 hours per week on a rolling rota, which will include weekend and bank holiday working. However, due to the nature of the work of The Hugs Foundation, and this post in particular, it may be necessary to exceed these hours when the workload demands, for example, welfare emergencies.

📩 Apply now: Email charlotte@hugsfoundation.org.uk for an application pack.

📅 Closing date:22nd November 2026. Please note the role may close earlier if a suitable candidate is found.

“All appointments are subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks, including a satisfactory Enhanced criminal records (with Barred List check if the role will be actively engaged in regulated activity) through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).”