Housing Night Worker

37.5 hours per week / permanent / working onsite on a seven-day rolling rota, including evenings, weekends and bank holidays on a four-on-four off shift pattern.

Our mission is to help children and young people have a fair chance to be who they want to be. We do this by providing a safe home, increasing life skills and self-confidence, and improving emotional wellbeing and mental health.

YMCA Hastings provides medium-low supported accommodation for a total of 47 young people at risk of homelessness, aged 16 to 25, and care experienced young people under the age of 18. We have a dedicated team of Support Workers, Night Support Workers and additional Bank Workers who provide support, guidance, and signposting around areas such as housing, budgeting, living skills, jobs and relationship building. Situated just of the seafront, the service has strong links with and contributes to the local community.

We are looking for a Housing Night Worker to join our Hastings Foyer team. Main areas of responsibilities are:

Safety and security:

• Provide a friendly and professional front-of-house welcome to residents, visitors and staff, and ensure the building is safe, secure quiet and welcoming 
• Maximise the wellbeing of residents and visitors by ensuring adherence to health and safety protocols and house rules, all within the terms of tenancy agreements
• Assess and monitor the risks presented by residents to ensure they can keep themselves safe and, where possible, continue their development
• Record all incidents and accidents and share appropriately with the wider team, your manager and, if necessary, the central safeguarding team 

Engagement with residents:

• Welcome residents home and provide informal and responsive guidance
• Proactively promote the services on offer and ensure residents are encouraged to engage with those services

Administration and housekeeping:

• Undertake tasks as directed, including but not limited to - inputting data, assessments, reviews, interviews, case notes onto our client database and entering new resident’s details/closing ex-resident records
• Completing health and safety/compliance checks and recording estate inspectors and room checks. Add maintenance requests to our property services system
• Ensure that communal and welcome areas are clean, tidy and free from any health & safety risks
• Answering the telephone from residents and staff in other 24-hour services and answering the door entry system, allowing access to permitted persons and visitors to the service only

General:

• Work as part of a team, on a rota four on four off shift pattern, alongside another Housing Night Worker, ensuring young people at the service have non-judgemental, objective at night, along with taking responsibility for personal safety during periods of lone working
• Contribute to a great working environment, with a calm, yet assertive manner, being able to handle potentially difficult situations
• Participate in relevant continuing professional development and utilise Reflective Practice Supervision as part of leading psychologically informed practice 

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. Please download the job profile for full role details.  

If you’re 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 working with young people:

Experience and knowledge:

• Experience of working in a customer facing environment, remaining calm and solution-focused when dealing with challenging behaviour
• Basic understanding of the support needs of young people and/or adults at risks
• Understanding of the impact of trauma on others, and the ability to work with a strengths-based approach with people who may be in distress
• Demonstrated confidence and competence in recording notes/actions in service log, incident forms and Health and Safety check lists
• Basic knowledge of good safeguarding procedures in relation to young people and/or vulnerable adults, and the ability to maintain professional boundaries (training provided)

Skills and abilities: 

• Ability to communicate clearly both verbally and in writing for appropriate record keeping (vital for handover to colleagues working day shifts)
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to build and maintain strong relationships
• Ability to work lone work, work autonomously, and use own initiative, as well as being part of a team
• IT skills, including proficiency in MS Office 365 package, as well as healthy and safety and client management systems (training on YMCA DLG systems provided)
• Ability to de-escalate volatile situations and manage challenging behaviour appropriately