Job Title : Support Worker
Contract Type : Permanent Job role
Salary : £22,898 (£23,974 is achieved after 12 months successful performance in the role)
Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week
Working Pattern : 4 week rolling rota, shift work 7.30am-3.30pm and 2.30pm to 10.30pm including alternate weekends
Location: Wakefield, Leeds

For your application to be considered please attach a current CV and cover letter.

Applications may close before the deadline, so please apply early to avoid disappointment.

Why Riverside?

At Riverside, we’re a housing association with a difference – enhancing the everyday for all our customers. For 90 years, we’ve been revitalising neighbourhoods and supporting communities by providing the homes they need to live full, fulfilling and rewarding lives.

We have a portfolio of over 75,000 affordable residential and retirement homes across the UK. Our work ranges from homelessness services to social care, employment support to retirement living, and we need the best people on board to help us.

Working with us, you’ll enjoy:

• Competitive pay & generous pension
• 28 days holidays plus bank holidays.
• Flexible working options available
• Investment in your learning, personal development and technology
• A wide range of benefits
  

The difference you will make as Support Worker

You will work collaboratively as part of a committed team to deliver an outstanding service and a range of personalised support that puts customers first and empowers people to achieve their goals and aspirations. Contribute to the day-to-day service by undertaking a range of tasks to ensure the safe operational management of our care and support services.

You’ll support our customers in a variety of ways. For example, linking them in with employability coaches and other support agencies, helping them manage their money, signing up for benefits or to move on to a more permanent home.

It’ll be your job to help boost their confidence and support them on their journey as they rebuild their lives.

Through all of this you’ll need to keep records of everything, so there is some admin to do.

About you

At times this role is tough but most of the time it can be incredibly rewarding. You will need to be resilient, empathetic and able to leave your work at work and not take it home with you.

As an essential requirement you’ll have an experience of working with vulnerable people and an understanding of supporting vulnerable people – this could include having your own lived experience of homelessness or drug or alcohol addiction. Ideally you’ll also have an experience of delivering structured support in either housing or social care and be able to demonstrate IT Skills to include a basic proficiency in Microsoft Office including Word and Excel

Role Profile

Role requires you to:

• Deliver a ‘best practice’ support service, appropriate to clients’ needs.
• Ensure the delivery of individual personalised support packages, reflective of different client needs, including culture and diversity issues.
• Assist clients with day-to-day tenancy issues, payment of rent, claiming benefits, preparing units to let.
• Have knowledge of ‘best practice’ in both crisis intervention and planned support working.
• Undertake referrals and assessments of potential clients, working with them to identify the most appropriate housing solution for their needs.
• Ensure clients have access to relevant external support services.
• Work with clients to agree and set goals and actions.
• Meet clearly defined client outcome targets through key-working, support plans, risk assessments and other interventions.
• Ensure that opportunities for education, training and employment opportunities are integral to the support service. The aim being to enable clients to develop the life skills to live as independently as possible.
• Maintain accurate and timely records of all activities including the maintenance of a support planning database.
• Provide practical support and information to clients when entering the service and throughout their involvement with the service, e.g., assisting clients in the completion of occupancy agreements and welfare benefit claims
• Work in line with ‘health and safety’ and safe guarding requirements to ensure the overall
  safety and security of the client.
• Report repairs and maintenance needs on behalf of the client following agreed procedures.
• Promote and encourage a high level of client involvement, consultation and communication.
• To understand your role in the organisation and to be accountable for your contribution to maximise profitability
• To understand how your job contributes to the overall purpose of the organisation and be accountable for delivering it in the most efficient way.
• To understand that your efforts will be client led and be accountable for positive and tangible outcomes.
• To understand that Riverside is a nationally focused organisation and to be accountable for adhering to the agreed corporate policies and procedures.
• Working as part of a multi-disciplinary staff team and meeting the requirements of a rota system, ensuring support is available across all schemes in the cluster.
• Actively involved in team meetings and attend regular supervisions.
• Working with colleagues to ensure key performance indicators (e.g. voids and arrears) are being met.
• Working in line with company policies and procedures and the requirements of funders and stakeholders to ensure effective service delivery.
• Working in line with other key agencies, both in statutory and voluntary sectors.
• Ability to use appropriate IT systems and maintain professional and timely records.
• Attending appropriate training and development opportunities as required.
• To provide a high quality, customer-orientated service championing
• “Mary Gober” practices.
• Constantly review work outputs, setting improvement targets and appraising individual performance.
• Participate in the work of the Divisional team, encouraging innovation
• Undertake personal development and training as necessary to keep up to date with legal, political, financial and other developments in the fields of housing and customer service.
• To ensure compliance with Riverside’s Equality and Diversity policy, in respect of employment and service delivery.
• Ensure that all data is compliant with legislation and policies relating to data quality
• To actively promote Riverside locally

Person Specification

Essential

• Experience of working with vulnerable client groups.
• Experience of delivering structured support in either housing or social care.
• An understanding of the barriers faced by vulnerable and diverse customer groups and individuals with complex needs.
• Experience of delivering structured support and risk management.
• Be a team player with a caring, empathetic, flexible and have a resilient, can-do attitude.
• Previous experience in positively resolving incidents.
• Demonstrate initiative and confidence to make and act on decisions.
• To demonstrate IT Skills to include a basic proficiency in Microsoft Office including Word and Excel as well as a willingness to learn specific IT systems used within Care and Support; and complete relevant IT training where required.

Desirable

• Knowledge of Psychological or Trauma Informed approaches to support.
• Experience of working in challenging environments with the ability to plan, prioritise, organise tasks to achieve results.
• Knowledge of current benefit systems.
• Experience of working in a care and support environment.