Creative Support is a national, fast growing not-for-profit organisation providing support to individuals with a wide range of care needs. We are currently looking for Waking Night Support Worker to join our Extra Care team at Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire.

We are looking for warm, flexible and motivated individuals to provide person centred care and support at Redhouse Court, Houghton Regis. This is part of our Bedfordshire Extra Care Service, which enables older people to enjoy an active and independent lifestyle. You will be required to work waking night shifts, which will include weekends and bank holidays and work with the utmost positive regard for the individuals we support.

Support Worker Duties:

• Providing respectful personal care, practical and emotional support,

• Maximising social opportunities and community engagement,

• Maximising outcomes for clients by maintaining their independence and encouraging them to lead an active, fulfilling lifestyle

• Develop and sustain warm and trusting relationships with service users,

• Collaborating with colleagues, families and involved professionals to ensure a coordinated and consistent service.

Experience is not essential for this role; however, you must have a warm, caring and respectful personality to succeed in this role. We welcome applications from experienced practitioners, graduates and individuals looking to pursue a career in social care.

Benefits of working with Creative Support:

• Free 24/7 counselling and employee support programme,

• Support to complete the nationally recognised Care Certificate,

• Competitive pay and a pension with company contribution and 28 days annual leave,

• Company paid enhanced DBS and company provided uniform for Extra Care staff,

• All our staff are supported 24/7 by our out of hour’s teams.

Exempt from Section 7 2(e) of the SDA

Job Description – Youth Support Worker

Preferred Living are looking for support/key workers required for a service provision in Luton, who have the appropriate experience with working with young people aged 16-18.

To list some of the responsibilities which will be required of you, please see below:

• To recognise the potential development opportunities of each young person
• To be able to provide a comprehensive evolution programme for each young person to contribute to society in a positive manner.
• To be able to source and encourage individuals to develop their potential and achieve positive outcomes.
• To be able to promote a safe environment for all of our young people.
• Have the ability to manage difficult situations and challenging behaviours.
• Capable of conducting weekly 1:1 key work sessions with the young person.
• Be creative in the delivery of your support to the young people.
• Understand what constitutes as safeguarding and adhere to safeguarding practices implemented to safeguard young people from harm and abuse.
• Write detailed reports and liaise with professionals involved in the care of young persons.
• Keep accurate records and ensure these are maintained.
• Ideally you will hold a QCF/NVQ level 3 working in health and social care (children and young people), or are willing to work towards this. You will be expected to attend and complete any mandatory and specialist training in line with the organisations policy and procedures.

You MUST:

• Be able to work weekends and at least two night shifts per week. Shifts start at 09:00AM till 5:00PM for days. Nights start at 4:45PM till 09:15AM the following day.
• Be proficient in report writing.
• Ideally hold a clean driving license.
• Be flexible in your working pattern.
• Happy to work to a fixed rota.
• Preferred Living are looking for staff who have the appropriate experience with working with young people, who are compassionate, and have a can do attitude. We are an organisation who values the input of their staff members, and most importantly also shares your passion in developing and watching young people prosper and transition into adulthood.

We will offer the successful candidates:

• The potential of career progression.
• 20 days holiday plus bank holidays.
• Pension contribution.
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme.
• Professional training.
• Flexibility to work extra hours.
• The role is subject to a satisfactory Enhanced DBS check and references. Candidates who are already on the DBS update service are asked to note this on their application/CV.

Service Manager – Learning4living – Dual Diagnosis & Supported Living Pathways

Northampton Hope Centre tackles poverty and homelessness.

Our work helps people experiencing the most acute problems of disadvantage, exclusion and marginalisation. As well as giving practical support, we focus on helping people to help themselves, provide support and services that will enable individuals to take back control of their own lives. The charity was established in 1974

Purpose of Post

The purpose of this new post is to be a key member of staff delivering the Hope Centre’s new specialist support projects, services for Mental Health, Substance Misuse and Supported Living (Housing), including the line management and support responsibilities of staff working on the projects and continual service development.

Reports to: Head of Service Delivery

Team: Client Services

Hours: 37 hours per week (Full time). Some evening, bank holiday or weekend work will be required and time off given in lieu of extra hours – Fixed term for 1 year, with potential extension

Salary Grade: £27500 - £30000 per annum

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Key Responsibilities

Services & Staff

• To play an integral role in leading the delivery of support for Mental Health, Substance Misuse and Supported Living  services

• To be responsible for the management and delivery of the new ‘Hope Supported Living’ housing provision,  proactively identifying any trends, gaps in service provision and improvements required to grow credibility and scale of the project – maximising allocations and minimising voids

• To ensure that needs and risk assessments for all potential new residents to ‘Hope Supported Living’ are carried out in line with departmental procedures
• Ensuring ‘Move On’ and ‘Support Plans’ are person centred, maximising potential for service users progression
• To provide consistent and clear line management and leadership to the staffing and volunteer teams
• To work with the Service Manager – ‘Hand Up’, Skills & Employability Lead and Head of Service Delivery to generate new approaches to support services in line with identified need.
• Co-ordinating and managing a programme of support, training, therapeutic workshops and activities to enable service users to develop professional and life skills and increase confidence
• Ensuring exceptional standards of delivery in therapeutic group work with service users related to mental health, substance misuse and tenancy support/independent living skills
• Co-ordinating and managing the one-to-one support we offer to service users, using appropriate validating tools in order to measure their progress
• Networking with other organisations within and out of the “homeless sector” and pulling in their resources and expertise

• Building a cooperative and collaborative team that is flexible and adaptable to changing requirements.
• Assigning work to team members, monitoring and supervising the day-to-day delivery and quality standards of the work.
• Working alongside the Skills & Employability Lead to identify suitable service users for supported Work Based Learning, education & training or therapeutic groups/activities
• Leading by example, with exceptional case management and operational management skills to deliver against desired outcomes
• Providing professional guidance and coaching on case management to staffing team and arranging suitable training to meet team competences and capability
• Monitoring own and team’s performance to ensure it meets expectations and agreed performance criteria, reporting variances to the Head of Service Delivery and implementing performance management procedures where necessary
• Participating in training and development opportunities as agreed with the Head of Service Delivery
• To provide regular line management, supervision and appraisal for staff, in line with organisational standards
• To co-ordinate the recruitment of staff and deliver an appropriate induction and ongoing professional development.
• Act as a positive role model showing professional and caring attitudes and behaviour towards other team members, service users and partner agencies.
• To ensure good practice in the support of the vulnerable adults we support
• To participate in regular team meetings and SMT meetings

Accountability

You will be line managed by the Head of Service Delivery but will manage your own workload, prioritising both personal and team tasks and working on your own initiative.

Service Objectives

• To improve the mental and physical wellbeing of people experiencing mental health and substance misuse in Northampton, encouraging access to treatment and continued engagement
• To be a leading agency of choice in progressive and preventative support services within the homelessness sector
• To deliver a leading package of support to all residents within our supported housing projects, enabling them to move on to settled housing
• To offer leading advocacy services
• To work with people who are not ready to accept treatment, to encourage and motivate them to consider options available to them, and to support clients who lack confidence/motivation.
• To develop the services to meet the needs of this client group in conjunction with the Service Manager – Hand Up , Skills & Employability Lead and the Head of Service Delivery

• Supporting clients in the service provided by the Hope Centre and identifying service users suitable for case management
• To support, encourage and supervise service users who are involved in therapeutic workshops / groups
• Working alongside the volunteering co-ordinator and Service Managers to develop and grow the organisations volunteering opportunities (externally and for service users) with a high focus on services to support non English speaking service users

Key Responsibilities (Service Users Support)

• Ensuring service user involvement and a person centred approach are embedded within the team.

• Provide education and raise awareness to help service users manage factors that affect their mental health, substance misuse, tenancy sustainment, independent living skills and physical/mental wellbeing.
• Listening to service users and encouraging positive steps towards personal development
• Providing advice, information, practical and emotional support to service users regarding their support.
• Developing, alongside service users, flexible and realistic person centred plans within agreed guidelines.
• Regurlarly reviewing and reporting findings of department caseloads
• Attend weekly Multi Agency Homelessness Pathway Panel, as appropriate, and represent Hope on a variety of forums, exchanging information and improving joint working and achieving better outcomes for people we support
• Work closely and collaboratively with support work partner agencies, ensuring a  joined-up support offer, avoiding any unnecessary duplication of work and ensure an even distribution of the workload for shared outcomes

General

• All information must be maintained within GDPR regulations
• To be an active and effective Manager, driving the same from your teams
• To work some hours outside of normal office hours (including evenings and weekends and the on-call ROTA).
• At all times to carry out every aspect of your duties with due regard to Northampton Hope Centre’s  policies and procedures
• To ensure Northampton Hope Centre’s values are embedded in the service delivery
• To maintain a professional level of communication at all times.
• To keep clear records and plans of all contacts with clients, professionals and meetings with external agencies.
• Undertake other duties as may be reasonably determined by Head of Service Delivery, the CEO or Board of Trustee’s.
• To participate in regular supervision and annual appraisal, and help identifying your own job-related development and training needs.

Administrative

• To raise and maintain service user records in terms of attendance to workshops and as required for case management
• To complete and file required records in line with the requirements from external funding bodies
• To complete reports to the Board of Trustees when requested
• To record, monitor and report on service user progress and outcomes

Other 

• To attend staff meetings as and when required
• To attend relevant training sessions and courses
• Being a member of the Management bank holidays and out of hours shift rota.

Person Specification

This person specification sets out the essential and/or desirable experience and abilities needed by the successful candidate for this post. Please bear these points in mind when applying for the role as these requirements will be taken into account at both the shortlisting and interviewing stages.

Service Manager – Learning4living & Housing

Qualifications

1. A level 5 Health & Social Care or relevant counselling, social work, mental health nursing or substance misuse qualification
2. First Aid certificate

Knowledge

Essential Criteria - Understanding of developing and delivering services within a support setting

Essential Criteria - Understanding of the relationship between mental health and substance misuse and how these may impact on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing

Essential Criteria - Knowledge and understanding of risk assessment and risk management in a mental health or substance misuse setting.

Essential Criteria - Knowledge and understanding of safeguarding procedures and reporting any relevant issues in a timely manner

Experience

Desirable Criteria - Good understanding and awareness of housing and homelessness issues, including working with rough sleepers

Desirable Criteria - Experience of running therapeutic activities and group processes.

Desirable Criteria - Experience in Motivational Interviewing techniques

Desirable Criteria - Awareness of local services

Essential Criteria - Minimum 2 years’ experience of line managing staff within a challenging work environment specifically within a mental health, substance misuse or homelessness/supported living setting

Essential Criteria - Experience of developing and sustaining effective working relationships with, and working successfully in partnership with, other services and organisations

Essential Criteria - Development and management of projects in either a Mental Health, Substance Misuse or Homelessness/independent living setting

Essential Criteria - Proven experience of delivering and/or managing an efficient and effective casework management service in a Mental Health / Substance Misuse or Homelessness/independent living setting

Essential Criteria - An understanding of mental health conditions

Skills and Abilities

Essential Criteria - Ability to deal with stressful and difficult situations in a calm manner

Essential Criteria - Excellent negotiating and advocacy skills, and the drive and commitment to achieve positive outcomes for service users

Essential Criteria - The ability to communicate effectively, both across all levels of the organisation, and with external stakeholders

Essential Criteria - Ability to take control and responsibility for stressful, disruptive or highly-charged situations, calling on emergency services when required

Essential Criteria - Excellent organisational and record-keeping skills

Essential Criteria - Ability to work on own initiative and work well under pressure, prioritise work and meet tight deadlines

Essential Criteria - Empathetic and able to relate to staff, volunteers, customers and external agencies

Essential Criteria - To keep composure in the face of emergency and unexpected events

Essential Criteria - Ability to prioritise and manage workload

Essential Criteria - Ability to engage, lead and motivate others

Essential Criteria - A self-starter who is outcome focused and target driven

Practical

Essential Criteria -Good IT skills including Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint, with proven ability to input and extract information and produce reports