Job Description

:

Job Title: Support Worker
Contract Type: Permanent
Salary: \xc2\xa324,699.43 per annum, (\xc2\xa325,813.09 per annum is achieved after 18 months successful performance in the role)
Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week
Working Pattern: 4-week rolling rota of early (7-3), late (2-10) and flexi shifts, including some weekends.
Location: Chatham, Kent

For your application to be considered please ensure you 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

Diversity and Inclusion at Riverside:

We are inclusive. At Riverside, we value diversity in all its forms. We foster a workplace where all individuals are respected, empowered, and heard. Our commitment to inclusivity drives our success and enriches the lives of our customers and colleagues.

Application Process:

If you share our values and are excited about making a significant impact as the Support worker, we encourage you to apply with your CV and cover letter.

We encourage you to apply even if you don\'t meet all the criteria on the job description, at Riverside we recruit to potential not just on skills and experience.

The difference you will make as a Support Worker

You will be working from one of our supported services providing support to our customers in a variety of ways. For example, connecting them 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.

This is a Rough Sleeper Initiative funded position to work intensively with six people who are recent rough sleepers, and who are likely to have complex needs. Your role will be to support them as they move into our accommodation and adjust to their new environment, and then to develop the skills and knowledge they require to move on into alternative housing.

It will be your job to help boost their confidence and support them on their journey as they rebuild their lives. Through all of this you will need to keep records of everything, so there is some admin to do. 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.

About You

We are looking for someone with:

• Experience of working with vulnerable people
• Experience of delivering structured support and risk management
• To be a team player with a Caring and empathetic nature with a resilient, can-do attitude, able to work as part of a team
• An understanding of supporting vulnerable people - this could include having your own lived experience of homelessness or drug or alcohol addiction.
• Ability to work flexible hours to meet customer and business needs, which may not include normal office hours and may include lone working.

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
• \xe2\x80\x9cMary Gober\xe2\x80\x9d 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.

About Us:

Riverside is one of the UK\'s leading not-for-profit social housing and regeneration organisations, owning or managing around 75,000 homes from Irvine to Kent. We are a leading provider of supported housing services, particularly for those affected by homelessness, and our track record of transforming lives and revitalising neighbourhoods dates back over 90 years. We have plans to build over 15,000 affordable homes over the next decade.

Riverside