37.5 hours per week / permanent / working onsite on a seven-day rolling rota, including evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
YMCA DownsLink Group is the leading charity for children and young people across Sussex and Surrey. We offer safe homes, mental health support and trusted advice.
We believe that every child and young person has the right to be safe, heard and to shape their own future. We work alongside them to make that happen.
We are here for children and young people, many of whom face multiple challenges and need our support.
Our Values - we do what’s right, we work with heart, and we build real connections – guide us in all our actions.
Our Eastbourne and Hailsham servicesprovide 24-hour supported housing for young people aged 16–25, offering low to medium levels of housing-related support. Eastbourne Foyer houses 33 young people, while our two Hailsham sites - Grove House and Newton Park - houses 7 and 3 young people respectively, all with shared communal facilities. Across all three sites, we support residents to develop the skills needed for independent living. This includes managing finances and budgeting, building life and work skills, and maintaining personal self-care.
Our staff take a trauma-informed and psychologically informed approach, supporting residents to build essential life skills, identify personal goals, and work towards their aspirations so they can move on to independent and fulfilling futures. Our dedicated team of Support Workers, Night Workers, and Bank Workers provide personalised guidance, practical assistance, and signposting in key areas including housing, budgeting, daily living skills, employment, and healthy relationship building.
We are looking for a Supported Housing Support Worker to join our team at Eastbourne Foyer, with the expectation of working from our other sites in Hailsham when required. You will hold a caseload of residents and carry out regular key work sessions with them each week. Through these sessions, you will work together to develop personalised support plans, track progress, and help residents achieve their goals.
Main areas of responsibilities are:
Housing and Compliance
- Support young people to understand and comply with their occupancy agreements, including coaching them to meet house rules and responsibilities as part of preparing for successful independent living.
- Promote a strong rent‑payment and credit culture, encouraging residents to maintain regular payments and understand their financial obligations.
- Maintain up‑to‑date knowledge of housing legislation, welfare benefits, and statutory requirements affecting young people, ensuring practice aligns with current housing law and organisational policies.
- Respond promptly and effectively to breaches of agreement, including rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, or property damage, using restorative approaches where appropriate and working collaboratively with the wider team.
Coaching and Engagement
- Coach young people so they can articulate their aspirations and ambitions and take the lead in acquiring the skills they need to live independent and fulfilling lives.
- Ensure young people are encouraged to take responsibility for their own personal development, to engage with the services on offer and build strong networks and connections within the local community.
- Ensure consistent standards of safeguarding and Trauma Informed Practice when supporting young people, observing our safeguarding procedures, and keeping yourself and residents safe by respecting professional boundaries.
- Maintain client records on In-Form (client database) detailing the young person’s journey in relation to their strengths and needs, any risks, and any outcomes (to monitor service performance).
There will be times when lone working will be a requirement for this role, but you will get to know the team and service, along with an induction and training prior to starting on a rota.
If you are enthusiastic about this opportunity but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway and demonstrate how your experience is transferrable. You may be just the right candidate.
This is a dynamic and varied role; you will be passionate about being involved in the support and growth of young people.
Experience and Knowledge
- Experience in housing or supported accommodation, ideally supporting young people with multiple and complex needs.
- Strong understanding of occupancy agreements, rent management, welfare benefits, and tenancy sustainment.
- Ability to manage arrears, ASB, and other non‑compliance issues using appropriate and restorative approaches.
- Good knowledge of housing legislation, safeguarding procedures, and compliance requirements, with the ability to maintain clear professional boundaries.
- Familiarity with statutory and voluntary services available to young people and ability to work proactively with a caseload to support progression towards independent living.
Skills and Abilities
- Confident in record‑keeping, including case notes, incident reporting, and health and safety checks.
- Ability to communicate clearly both verbally and in writing for appropriate recording of a resident’s progression, and to evidence outcomes achieved.
- Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with all stakeholders, including signposting and advocating for clients as necessary.
- Ability to work autonomously, and use own initiative, as well as being part of a team.
- Clear verbal and written communication skills, good IT, and keyboard skills.
- Ability to de-escalate volatile situations and manage challenging behaviour appropriately.
CLOSING DATE: Sunday 12th July at midnight.
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to provide work permits or visa sponsorship for this role, so applicants must already have the right to live and work in the UK independently.
An inclusive workplace We are committed to policies and practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion and to supporting our people to make sure our culture is consistent with this commitment.
Accessibility If you require assistance or have questions regarding the application process, please do contact us.
YMCA DLG requires all staff and volunteers to be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and to respond proactively to safeguarding concerns.
Successful applicants will undergo a thorough background screening process, conducted by an accredited third-party provider. This includes an Enhanced DBS check (with Children’s and Adults’ Barred Lists) as well as comprehensive reference and activity checks.
Our mission is to help children and young people have a fair chance to be who they want to be.

The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Are you looking for an exciting and new challenge? Are you passionate about supporting children, young people and families? If so, look no further!
Are you passionate about helping children, young people, and families achieve positive change? We are looking for a compassionate and motivated Administrative Worker to join our team. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys working with Children young people and families, thrives in a collaborative environment, and is committed to safeguarding and improving outcomes for children.
We are seeking a part time, Administration Assistant to work across our Best Start Family Hubs within Sandwell. This is a fantastic opportunity to become part of a passionate and committed team and be an active member of the wider Best Start Family Hub Network.
This role is ideal for someone who enjoys working with Children young people and families, thrives in a collaborative environment, and is committed to safeguarding and improving outcomes for children.
Car driver is preferred due to travelling across the whole of Sandwell when cover maybe needed.
Working pattern:
Monday to Friday with flexibility required for occasional evening and weekend work to meet the needs of the service.
Some key activities/objectives include:
- Provide a warm, friendly and approachable welcome, ensuring all individuals feel valued, respected and at ease.
- Arrange meetings, appointments, and events for visitors and external partners, ensuring all necessary facilities and health & safety requirements are in place.
- Support the Administration Lead and wider team to ensure accurate monitoring data is collected and reported on a quarterly basis, including case studies and service user feedback, in line with GDPR requirements.
- Support the safety and wellbeing of service users and visitors, including recognising and reporting safeguarding concerns and escalating appropriately in line with procedures.
- Ensure the hub is presentable at all times, including maintaining displays and preparing rooms in line with bookings and activities.
- Assist with signposting, logging requests and liaising with senior staff and project workers as required.
- Stock taking of resources to ensure that the hub is fully equipped with necessary items such as stationery and first aid supplies.
- Support the promotion of materials to engage communities, including newsletters, leaflets, notice boards, displays etc.
When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.
Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible
Pay & Reward Framework
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.
Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.
Benefits
Workplace Offer: What it means for you
Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.
Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)
- Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
- Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
- The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
- A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
- Service related sick pay from day 1
- Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
- Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
- Cycle2work scheme
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
- 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
- Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
- Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
- Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
*T&C's apply based on contract
About Barnardo's
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.
Our basis and values
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.