Emergency accommodation liaison worker jobs

In addition to the around 40 young people we see every day out our centre, New Horizon provides the only youth-specific street outreach service to young people facing homelessness in London. We use our extensive housing expertise to place young people who are currently or at risk of rough sleeping into accommodation that is appropriate and safe, whilst encouraging them to access the day centre to benefit from the wide range of services we offer. This role will involve regular street outreach shifts (early mornings and late evenings) across London, aswell as supporting young people at the day centre. The role works as part of our wider Rough Sleeping team, developing a best practice approach to supporting young rough sleepers and those who are hidden homeless.

Key details

• Contract type and hours: full-time 35 hours a week, fixed-term contract for 12 months.

• Starting salary: £32,136.00 (scale £32,136 - £35,778)

• Location: New Horizon Youth Centre, 68 Chalton Street, London, NW1 1JR

• Application deadline:9am, Monday 24 August

• How to apply: complete our application form below, submit your CV and write a 2 page cover letter/supporting statement. Please don't include your name or address in your CV or cover letter.

Key objectives:

• To contribute to the delivery of the NHYC street outreach service, delivering a holistic service to young people who are street homeless, enabling them to move on to independence.

• To build and maintain a network of external partnerships with services supporting those impacted by rough sleeping.

• To enable delivery of a trauma-informed service to young people.

• To support delivery of NHYC’s rough sleeping prevention strategy and best practice youth-specific outreach services.

Reporting to: Head of Services - Rough Sleeping and Services Manager (Outreach)

Main tasks and responsibilities

Young people services

Providing comprehensive support through 1-1 and small group work with young people sleeping rough. This will include:

1. Working within the Rough Sleeping team to ensure young people receive a high-quality service from the point of registration to move-on.

2. Carrying out at least two street-based outreach shifts each week (early morning and late evening required).

3. Carrying out housing assessments with young people and referring them into appropriate accommodation.

4. Managing a transitional case load of young people and helping them move forward and access appropriate services.

5. Working in partnership with the Outreach Team and other external teams, such as commissioned street outreach services, mental health, and substance misuse services.

6. Providing expert coaching and guidance to young people and monitoring and evaluating their progress.

7. Continued use of feedback and showing a commitment to a service that is sensitive and responsive to young people’s needs, including:

   · Completing registrations, outcomes assessments, risk assessments and action plans with young people.

   · Ensuring that all relevant work is recorded on the New Horizon database system and Chain database.

   · Ensuring risk management and assessment procedures are followed.

   Delivering advocacy and referrals to appropriate services, including making internal referrals

8. Contributing to the management and development of the team and day centre, including attending daily handovers, ensuring that Health and Safety issues are addressed at all times, attending Reflective Practice and team meetings.

9. Taking a hands-on approach to working with young people

10. Participating in the training and supervision of new staff, volunteers, students and locum workers and actively promoting a learning and development environment.

Networking and Liasion

To proactively liaise, communicate and negotiate with internal specialists and external agencies. This will include:

1. Seeking out and responding to opportunities with external partners who might offer resources, funding, or individual services relevant to young people’s needs e.g, Local Authorities, Social Services, Community Psychiatric Services, DWP, drugs and alcohol support, and other voluntary agencies.

2. Promoting and representing New Horizon Youth Centre at relevant forums and meetings.

Information management

To produce and maintain accurate and useful information in a range of formats in order to promote effective service delivery and evaluation. This will include:

1. Producing written reports in a variety of formats to meet the requirements of New Horizon, external service providers and funders, e.g., project reviews and assessment reports.

2. Inputting and extracting information from client monitoring systems other accounting and database systems. Utilising other relevant software for the production of correspondence and reports.

3. Being self-servicing in day-to-day administration and following team and NHYC’s administrative procedures.

Reviewing personal and professional development needs

To be proactive in reviewing and evaluating own performance and identifying and acting upon areas for improvement. This will include:

1. Continuously reviewing own working practices in line with feedback and current best practice.

2. Taking a proactive approach to supervision and attending clinical supervision, weekly team meetings as well as line management supervision every 4-6 weeks.

3. Reviewing and evaluating own performance to identify strengths and areas for development.

4. Undertaking development and training opportunities and being responsible for obtaining maximum benefit through review, reflection, and practice.

Other

To contribute positively and constructively to the development of the teams, service and NHYC. This will include:

1. Covering for other members of the team where necessary.

2. Following NHYC’s policies, procedures and performance expectations in all functions of the post.

3. Undertaking as required any other duties compatible with the level and nature of the post and/or reasonably required by the Service Managers, Head of Services or Leadership Team.

Salary: Balham Home- Waking Nights: £30,227 or Days: £29,635 & Ealing Home- Waking Nights: £30,227 or Days: £27,929 

Contract: Full time/ Permanent

Hours:40 hours per week (including weekends, bank holidays and occasional sleep-ins) 

• Day Shifts: work between 8 am and 10:30 pm 

• Waking Night Shifts: work between 10 pm and 8 am 

Additional Benefits: 

• £50 per sleep-in 

• Time-and-a-half pay for overtime (over 40 hours per week) and bank holidays 

• Two weekends off per month

Locations: Ealing (W13) and Balham (SW12) 

Looking for fantastic career progression, excellent training and therapeutic support? Join our committed and professional team and make a difference to young people living in residential care, where no two days are the same! 

About Us 

Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future. 

St Christopher's is a leading charity caring for children and young people. We are proud of our history of providing fostering, children's homes and innovative leaving care services across the UK.We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do.We provide positive and life-changing support experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home. Our offering in underpinned by therapeutic expertise and young people in our care also benefit from extensive life-skills and participation opportunities as well and learning support regarding their education. 

We are an equal-opportunity employer keen to develop an inclusive workforce where people feel they belong.We hope to attract applications from under- represented groups, including people from different cultures, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, religions, faith, sex, orientation, childcare responsibilities and gender-diverse identities.

St Christopher’s Academy 

At St Christopher’s, we offer more than a job in social care— we offer a real career pathway. You’ll have the chance to build your skills, grow your knowledge, and make a lasting difference to young people’s lives, as well as your own. 

When you join us, you’ll receive a tailored development plan designed around your goals. Whether you want to move into a different service, progress into a leadership role, or just explore your current role further, we’ll support you every step of the way. If you want to learn more aboutSt Christopher’s Academy, please clickhere 

Our development programme, St Christopher’s Academy, is built to help you reach your full potential — and the results speak for themselves: 
84% of our Team Leaders, Deputies, and Managers are promoted internally. 

About the Role 

As a Support Worker in a Children’s Home, you will provide direct support and care for our young people, who have complex emotional and mental health difficulties (such as trauma and loss) and can struggle to regulate their emotions. Working within a therapeutic framework, you will develop a direct programme of work aimed at developing authentic relationships with our children and young people (aged between12 – 17 years old), you will also have responsibility for making sure our those in our care are safe, providing support, liaison with other external professionals and completion of support documents to record information.

If applying for the Waking Night role, you will have the additional support of an on-call manager should there be any emergencies. Further to this, you will be involved in monthly team meetings and receive monthly one-to-one supervision with your manager. 

Applicants should have 

• Minimum of 1 years’ experience working and supporting Young People in residential, semi-independent, fostering settings or youth work centres, caring for Children and Young People with emotional behavioural difficulties, neurodivergent or SEND, etc. 

• Willingness to achieve the Level 3 Diploma in Residential Childcare within 2 years as per Children’s Homes Regulations 2015 (England) 

• Genuine commitment to working with and supporting children and Young People to achieve their full potential; with the ability to build and promote trusted relationships while maintaining professional boundaries. 

• An understanding of the issues facing children and Young People and a basic understanding of safeguarding Regulations and Procedures. 

• The ability to cope effectively with challenging behaviour. 

• Good communication and team working skills. 

• Flexibility to work shifts, including weekends and bank holidays, and if applicable, sleep-in’s. 

• Commitment to undertake any mandatory training (outside of working hours) and continuous learning to ensure a high level of service. 

• Creativity, enthusiasm and energy to inspire and encourage young people to achieve their goals. 

What you should expect from us 

• Competitive pay. 

• 4 weeks full induction and training program (paid). 

• Fantastic opportunities to develop your career within our range of services, Tailored career development plan through our“St Christopher’s Academy”. 

• Industry leading training programme including access to level 3 qualifications, children’s right and participation, CSE, empowerment, mental health and social pedagogy. 

• 25 days holiday rising to 27 days after 3 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, pro-rata. 

• Contributory pension scheme, enhanced maternity and company sick scheme. 

• UK Life Assurance (Death in service) to the value of 3 times your annual salary. 

• BUPA employee assistance programme, offering counselling, financial advice and legal support. 

• Cycle to work scheme. 

• Bluelight card; discount shopping scheme at hundreds of retailers across the UK both in store and online. 

• Discretionary funded training programs for you to explore and attain new and relevant skills. 

• Employee awards based on performance and length of service. 

Recruitment Process 

At St Christopher’s we are committed to the safeguarding of all children and young people in our care. During the recruitment process you will be expected to complete an online application form to ensure we capture essential information to meet legislation, best practice and vetting requirements.

Your online application must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification. CV’s will not be accepted. 

Application Process 

1. Application:Complete our online form and include a supporting statement addressing the criteria stated in the Person Specification.Please note that applications without supporting statement will not be accepted. 

1. Interview:Shortlisted candidates attend a face-to-face interview at our Putney office. 

1. Second Stage:Successful candidates will visit the home they applied to. 

We advise applying as soon as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. 

Important note: 

• This post has a minimum age restriction of 21 year for roles working directly with children and young people in our residential and supported accommodation Homes in line with the Equality Act ‘occupational requirement’. 

• It is illegal to applyfor any role that involves working with children and young people under the age of 18, if you know you are barred from working with children. 

• All shortlisted candidates invited to interview will be asked to submit aSelf-Declaration and Disclosureform which will need to be returned prior to an interview being booked. 

• It is a requirement that practitioners working in Children Homes are qualified with the Diploma 3 in residential childcare within 2 years of starting in the job role. (Children Home Regulations England 2015). St Christopher’s provide access and funding to undertake this qualification. Applicants who have Citizenship or Visa status restrictions that may preclude them from being able to meet the qualification requirement may be considered for other options such as fixed term contracts. Each applicant’s situation will be assessed as part of the recruitment process.