Waking nights specialist support workers jobs
About the role:
Dennis Handfield House is a 39-bed service within the Camden adult pathway, supporting men and women with multiple and complex needs. We’re recruiting Project Workers to join a skilled, multidisciplinary team including Complex Needs Workers, a Specialist Worker, Day Concierge, Night Team, and access to a Work and Learning Worker and Psychotherapist shared across SHP. Together, the team creates a supportive, purposeful environment where people are given the time, consistency and respect needed to move forward.
As a Project Worker, you’ll be a steady and trusted presence for people navigating mental and physical health challenges, substance use and experiences of the criminal justice system. You’ll hold a caseload, build meaningful relationships and deliver strengths-based, psychologically informed support that helps people sustain accommodation, access services and develop the confidence and skills to shape their own next steps. Your work will sit at the heart of the service, turning plans into progress and potential into real change.
This role is for someone who shows up with compassion, grit and belief in people’s potential, even on the hardest days. You’ll be trusted to use your judgement, work creatively and contribute your voice within a team that values learning and collaboration. In return, you’ll gain rich professional experience, clear development opportunities and the chance to be part of work that truly matters, preventing homelessness and supporting lasting change, right at the heart of it.
About you:
- A good understanding of substance use is essential and an awareness of harm minimisation strategies and an understanding of a Strengths and Recovery model is desirable; a good understanding of the Cycle of Change.
- An understanding of the principles of risk and needs assessment, planning, goal setting, and reviewing.
- The sensitivity and flexibility to find ways to work with clients who may have a low level of engagement with the service.
- A level of numeracy, literacy and comprehension to do welfare benefit, rent and petty cash calculations, write letters, and analyse and extrapolate from written information.
About Us:
We’re London’s leading homelessness charity – and we get things done.
In a city where hundreds are forced into homelessness every day, our work has never been more needed or more challenging. And we’re not shying away. We’re rolling up our sleeves to make change and helping over 10,000 Londoners every year. We prevent homelessness, provide safe places to live and give people the opportunity to rebuild their lives and transform their futures. And we never give up.
We’re here for Londoners wherever they are on their journey. We start with trust, building relationships that help people feel safe, supported, and ready to move forward. Every day, we put people first in everything we do, challenging injustice and barriers that keep people from the safety, stability and opportunity they deserve. We stand alongside people as they rebuild and shape a future that feels their own.
Joining Single Homeless Project means joining a team that’s bold, compassionate and determined to do better for the people we support and for each other. You’ll work alongside colleagues with lived experience, in a space that’s trans-inclusive, disability-friendly, and actively striving to be anti-oppressive and equitable.
We’re not perfect, but we’re real. We listen. We learn. And we push forward, together. Because this isn’t just a job. It’s a chance to lead with empathy, spark change, and help build a London where no one is left behind.
Important Info:
Closing Date: Sunday 22nd February at midnight
Interview Date: Monday 2nd March online via Microsoft Teams
Please note shortlisted candidates will be required to complete a short psychometric test before being confirmed for interview.
This post will require an Enhanced DBS check to be processed (by SHP) for the successful applicant.
Please note applications are reviewed for AI use in application questions. Applications requiring sponsorship or with insufficient right to work will not be accepted or progressed.
Registered Charity
501 - 1000
Preventing homelessness, transforming lives.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
We're looking for a kind, compassionate and resilient Deputy Manager to join our Mental Health Social Care Service in Tower Hamlets. No personal care or experience is required, just the right values.
£36,000 per annum, working 40 hours per week.
Want to feel like you're making a difference? 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.
Our benefits include:
* Annual leave increasing up to 30 days with length of service
* Free DBS
* Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway® and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card
* Fully paid induction programme and further training
* ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes
* Cycle to work scheme
* Employee Assistance Programme for 24-7 confidential support
* Online wellbeing resources
* A generous pension - we will contribute up to 4% and life assurance cover up to £10,000 (T&Cs apply)
* Quarterly Staff Awards to reward & recognise our amazing staff's commitment and contribution
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.
The Deputy Service Manager will play a central role in the day-to-day leadership and development of Barnsley Street Project, a co-located pilot service operating with East London Foundation Trust (ELFT - NHS) and the Third Sector Mental Health Alliance partners. The service provides six hospitality beds for short-term stays and a drop-in service operating 8am-8pm for anybody in the community needing support with their mental health. This role is designed for a reflective, values-led manager who is comfortable working without fixed templates, and who can hold clinical, ethical, and organisational complexity.
Barnsley Street is intentionally experimental. It seeks to move away from coercive, compliance-driven models of mental health support and instead develop humane, relational, psychologically informed ways of working that prioritise choice, collaboration, dignity and proportionality in risk management. The Deputy Service Manager will work closely with the Service Manager to build, test and refine new processes in real time, while maintaining accountability, safety, and learning.
The post holder will provide operational leadership, line management and practice leadership to frontline staff. They will deputise for the Service Manager when required and act as a key interface between Look Ahead, ELFT and Third Sector colleagues, commissioners, and wider system partners.
Working pattern is 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday, with some flexibility to support the supervision of Waking Night Support Workers.
What you'll do:
Practice & service leadership
* Provide day-to-day operational leadership of the service, supporting the development of a psychologically informed, anti-coercive and relational culture.
* Act as a visible practice leader, modelling curiosity, reflective thinking, and ethical decision-making in complex and uncertain situations.
* Work collaboratively with ELFT and Third Sector partners within the shared building, contributing to genuinely integrated ways of working.
* Support the development, testing and refinement of new ways of working, including alternatives to traditional risk assessment, escalation, and containment-focused responses.
* Hold and communicate the service's values and purpose, particularly when under pressure and scrutiny.
Risk, safeguarding & governance
* Lead a proportionate, relational and least-restrictive approach to risk, balancing safety with autonomy, dignity, and psychological safety.
* Support staff to think critically about risk management, encouraging a proportional response that puts the customer at the heart of the process.
* Ensure safeguarding concerns are identified, held and responded to in line with statutory requirements, while maintaining a trauma-informed and non-punitive stance.
* Work alongside the Service Manager to ensure appropriate recording, learning, and reflective review of incidents, near-misses, and complexities.
* Contribute to a learning culture where mistakes, uncertainty, and anxiety can be thought about.
People management & staff development
* Provide direct line management, supervision, reflective space for Support Workers, Specialist Support Workers and Waking Night Support Workers.
* Deliver high-quality supervision that integrates performance, wellbeing, emotional impact, and practice reflection.
* Support staff to develop confidence in working relationally and tolerating uncertainty.
* Identify learning and development needs within the team and support progression, retention, and succession planning.
* Foster a culture of trust, shared responsibility, and mutual accountability, avoiding micromanagement while maintaining clear boundaries and expectations.
Please see our jobs site for the full job description.