We're looking for a kind, compassionate and resilient Waking Night Support Worker
£21,606.00 per annum, working 30 hours per week.
Want to feel in control of your career? You'll feel at home here.
Making you feel at home here means helping you thrive in every way. That's why we offer a wide range of benefits, award-winning Learning & Development and a culture that welcomes all. These aren't token gestures - we've thought long and hard about how best to support our team. After all, our people are doing something amazing: helping to transform lives every day.
All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the UK by the start of employment as Look Ahead are not able to offer sponsorship.
Oaklands & St Kilda's is made up of two newly refurbished six-bedroom homes, located close to each other in Ealing, West London. We work with up to 12 young people at a time, providing a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment. Many of the young people joining us are moving on from hospital, stepping down from more intensive placements, or transitioning from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to Adult services.
Our team delivers 24-hour trauma-informed and psychologically informed support. You'll play a key role in helping each young person shape their own support and service experience. Everyone receives a bespoke welcome pack and is encouraged to personalise their living space, helping them feel at home from day one.
We place a strong emphasis on participation and co-production. Young people are encouraged to make decisions about their care, engage in partnership meetings, and take part in activities that build skills and confidence - whether that's cooking, budgeting, managing medication, or accessing education and work opportunities.
Support workers will manage a number of young people to help them to identify, plan and achieve their goals, develop relationships meaningful to them and achieve greater independence by providing a flexible and individually tailored support package.
This is a Waking Night role working to support young people throughout the night at the service.
What you'll do:
- Building supportive, trusting relationships with young people and creating a positive atmosphere
- Working proactively with other members of the team to handle the service caseload and administrative responsibilities
- Conducting key work sessions as required, that are innovative and engaging in order to achieve Support Plan goals
- Co-producing ongoing assessment and management of risks in collaboration with young people with an attitude of 'positive risk taking'
- Providing support with daily living activities, including practical assistance to support young people to independent living e.g. budgeting, cooking, establishing a night time routine
- Supporting young people to maintain a healthy environment and where appropriate assisting them to clean their accommodation and maintain good personal hygiene
- Assisting in the recording and reporting of customer incidents
- Managing referrals, completing assessments and obtaining and maintaining all relevant paperwork
- Developing productive relationships with partner organisations to improve service outcomes
- Adhering to lone working protocols and maintaining high levels of awareness in relation to the health and safety of yourself and colleagues
This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead
About you:
Ability to advocate for young people in different professional and community spaces
- Values working collaboratively with young people to ensure the service best meets their needs.
- An understanding of peoples' contexts and how this might be impacting them their lives and mental health
- Cultural awareness and respect for the many different ways a person might make sense of their experiences and distress.
- We welcome applications from people with lived experience of some of the challenges that this service aims to support with for example, mental health difficulties.
- Plans and encourages involvement in local activities.
- Approachable and open behaviour
- Recognises the value of both 1:1 working with young people and the importance of working working as part of a group or team
- Confident in the completion of regular paperwork and is well organised
- Flexible
- Open to feedback and self development
- Recognises the likelihood that the service will be a dynamic diverse environment and considers the impact of changes
- Confident in the use of IT systems such as SharePoint and Microsoft Office suite.
- Is respectful, articulate and sensitive in style of communication
- Ability to cope positively with challenging and diverse behaviours
Look Ahead is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk, and expects all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.
If your application for this role is unsuccessful, but we feel that you would be suitable for another role, we may contact you to discuss alternative opportunities. If this occurs you would not need to submit another application for the alternative role.
We reserve the right to close this advert early if we are able to appoint to the vacancy before the advertised closed date.
We are committed to diversity and inclusion at work and are accredited with Silver in the Inclusive Employers Standard 2021. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds.
Please see our website for a full job description.