Casual Senior Support Worker Jobs in Central London, Greater London

Why Access Social Care Exists 

Everyday millions of older and disabled people are denied the social care they need. Most local authorities can’t meet the growing demand for care, none are confident they can meet their legal duties in the future. This affects all of us, we will all need social care at some point. 

We all have a right to hold public bodies to account. But most of us cannot afford lawyers so rely on legal aid. The 77% drop in community care legal aid cases since 2010 means we have nowhere to turn. Without access to justice, our rights do not exist. The rule of law is broken. 

What we do 

Access Social Care provides free legal advice and information for people with social care needs, helping achieve a better quality of life. We work with communities to increase knowledge of the law and our rights. We highlight the gap left by cuts to Legal Aid and provide advice for those who can’t afford it. 
With a 98% success rate, our network of lawyers and barristers ensure fair access to justice when things go wrong. We collaborate with social services whilst ensuring legal obligations are met. We are working towards a future where social care is adequately funded, and we all get the support we need. 

About the role 

This is an exciting time to join our organisation. We have a new strategy and are growing quickly including across our senior leadership team. We have nearly tripled in size and income since we started operating in April 2020 and we anticipate that this strong growth will continue for the duration of our next strategic period. 

We are looking for someone with excellent people skills to play a key role in developing and piloting an approach to support people to engage with and use our on-line Social Care early legal help tool. Initially, this project will be focused on how to support carers who have multiple barriers to accessing the support they and the person they care for need.

We want to pilot a network of Peer Navigators who will act as an interface between the tool and people who are most underserved by social care and advice services and experience intersectionality of barriers. The role would particularly suit someone who has experience of the social care system as a family carer or disabled person and/or someone who has experienced barriers to accessing services due to other protected characteristics. 

The role is new and will initially focus on working within our place-based Hubs of Croydon and Gloucestershire. The role will require a creative person who can work in partnership with other members of the team, people with lived experience of social care support and social care organisations.  They will need to develop a set of policies and procedures for the delivery of the project and recruit, train and supervise the Peer Navigators.

To be a success in this role, you should be an excellent team worker, communicator, proactive, flexible, excellent people skills, highly organised and able to meet deadlines. You should also have a thorough understanding of co-production.

Responsibilities 

• With Hubs manager, Hub team members and people with lived experience – refine the aims of the project and identify priorities 

• Develop and implement a project plan for delivery of the project 

• Develop a role description for the Peer Navigators 

• Identify and test different options for advertising and recruiting Peer Navigators 

• Train Peer Navigators in the Care Act and use of the chatbot 

• Develop guidance on how people can seek advice about their employment and benefit status in relation to fulfilling the role 

• Develop and run an appropriate supervision process to ensure good quality support is offered 

• Arrange further training as chatbot develops 

• Set up and run Peer Navigator team meetings to ensure they feel supported, and we learn from their experiences 

• Devise a monitoring and evaluation framework and set up proformas for peer navigators to capture outcomes 

For the full job discription, values, key responsilities and personal specification please see attached.

How to apply  

We hope that having read this far; you will want to apply!  

Please ensure that your CV and supporting statement do not include your name – use initials only. This will ensure that we avoid unconscious bias in our shortlisting process. To apply, please provide the following documents:  

• An up-to-date CV  

• A completed diversity monitoring form  -  link found in JD attached.

• A supporting statement of no more than three pages, addressing: 

  • The essential requirements of the person specification 

  • Looking at our workplace values, please share with us what our value ‘inclusive’ means to you and an example of something you have done in your work, volunteering or personal life which show us that you share this value. 

 If you want support applying please contact us.

Timeline for recruitment process  

Closing date: 9am on Monday 22nd April 2024 

Interviews on Monday 29th April 2024 

Please ensure you keep these dates free.  

At Access Social care, we aren’t interested in tokenism. We know that if we are to make the biggest difference for the people that need us the most, we need to get Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and anti-racism right. Part of this is recruiting greater diversity in all our teams.    

With this in mind, we particularly welcome applications from candidates with experience of the communities we serve, including people with direct experience of the social care system, and from marginalised groups, particularly Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, older and disabled people, and trans and non-binary people.  

To note we are only able to accept applicants who have the right to work in the UK.