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Domestic Abuse Refuge Practitioner Job Description

SALARY: £ 22,571 - 23,484 (points 12-14)

RESPONSIBLE TO: Lead Practitioner

RESPONSIBLE FOR: Clients, Volunteers, Student Placements

SWA support hundreds of women and children every year to end violence against women and children. SWA believes that women and children have a right to live their lives free from all forms of violence and abuse, and that society has a duty to recognise and defend this right.

Domestic Abuse is a violation of women and children’s human rights. It is the result of an abuse of power and control, and is rooted in the historical status of women in the family and in society.

Our aims are to:

• provide services run by women for women, which are based on listening to survivors and empowering them to take back control of their lives.
• provide safe temporary refuge accommodation to women, children and young people from all communities who have experienced domestic abuse, including the harmful practices of so-called ‘honour’ based violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
• understand and help to meet the needs of children and young people affected by domestic abuse.
• challenge the disadvantages which can result from domestic abuse.
• respect and support diversity and promote equality of opportunity.
• promote co-ordinated multi-agency responses to domestic abuse and work in partnership with the specialist domestic and sexual abuse services and other agencies.

ROLE PURPOSE

The post holder will provide high quality support and safety planning to women and children in crisis. This includes enabling women to access housing, welfare, benefits, and legal advice. A key requirement is to provide personal welfare support and to ensure that women are provided with a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment in accordance with Sheffield Women’s Aid’s philosophical principles.

This post is only open to women: The Equality Act 2010, Schedule 9, Part 1 applies.

Job Description

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Support.

• To recognise, respect and address the needs of women and families with lived experience of domestic abuse, and who face particular barriers/intersecting needs when seeking help to access the service, including those from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, Black and Minoritised communities, LGBTQI+ communities, disabled people, survivors with complex needs and other hard to reach groups.
• To promote equality, diversity and inclusion as an integral aspect of working at SWA, and lead by example in both actions and behaviours.
• Deliver the service from the survivors perspective (person centred) using a variety of techniques designed to make survivor’s feel comfortable and confident in the assessment and support process, and not replicate secondary abuse/victim blaming behaviours
• Maintain professional relationships with service users and offer support as per identified support plans and assessments. Apply professional boundaries policies and principles. SWA has a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to their staff using verbal or physically abusive behaviours towards adults or children that are encountered in the course of their duties.
• Use SWA frameworks to assess systematically the needs and risks of each client and develop support plans that are SMART, regularly reviewed, and effectively delivered and evidence specific outcomes for survivors.
• Conduct key-work sessions and reviews on a regular basis and keep case work records up to date by establishing individual support plans and risk management plans which outline the support and risk needs of survivors, and ensuring reviews take place with survivors and their feedback is detailed on all reviews and reflected in records that are kept.
• Ensure that each client and her children (if applicable) receive appropriate interventions that are well planned, regularly reviewed and effectively delivered. You will support families from a “whole family approach” ensuring you support families as well as the adult women.
• Identify and work in partnership with other practitioners and agencies to deliver support, ensuring that specialist support is co-ordinated effectively. Promote person centred, PIE approaches within partner agencies to achieve the best outcomes for survivors.
• Promoting and ensuring the safety and well-being of self and others in line with safeguarding policies, health and safety policy together with any other requirements aimed at keeping people safe from harm.
• Provide practical and emotional support to survivors including the welcoming to all new referrals ensuring they receive a recorded and thorough induction into the service.
• Ensure all survivors are aware of the options for move-on including private rented options available, and develop a proactive move on strategy for each survivor, within the expected commissioner timeframes.
• Assess the benefit requirements of survivors to ensure prompt take up of housing and other benefits, and ensure that survivors are aware of their rights to legal protection for themselves and their children including the accessing of legal advice as required.
• Attend MARAC meetings as required.
• In all interactions recognise the need for compassion and warmth, and recognise the impact trauma has on survivors and their potential behaviours.

Health and Safety.

• Responsible to co-operate with and apply the Health and Safety Policy at SWA and take personal responsibility for any Health and Safety concerns that you become aware of, including taking appropriate action if you have concerns about a colleague’s practice or safety.
• Ensure that the refuge environment is safe, healthy and secure for both survivors and workers. Advise survivors on how to keep their homes safe, healthy and secure both within the refuge and in their own home.
• Undertake health and safety checks effectively and report findings
• Participate in the and on-call rota to provide advice and guidance to clients out of hours.

Housing Management.

• Work as a team to ensure occupancy targets are met and maintained in line with SWA policy and rental/service charge income is collected in a timely manner.
• Work with survivors to ensure they maintain a healthy and safe environment in their flat
• Work as a team to ensure that vacated flats are cleaned and checked in a timely manner and ready for occupancy, which may involve cleaning flats.
• Respond positively and quickly to referrals into the service and be flexible in your approach to ensure that clients feel welcomed and settled into their new home.
• Ensure weekly service charge is collected promptly and prioritised, supporting survivors with budgeting plans as appropriate

Survivor User Participation and Involvement.

• Encourage positively compliments, comments and complaints that enable SWA to continually improve the service.
• Coordinate and participate in a variety of activities and deliver group work programmes such as Power to Change and the VOICE programme.
• Communicate effectively with the children’s practitioners about child-care or family participation events.
• Coordinate and participate in residents meetings and deliver formal and informal information giving sessions and activities to further enhance survivors experience in refuge. Be pro-active in encouraging all users to attend these meetings.

General.

• Ensure that Support Worker duties are carried out at all sites and provide cover when needed.
• To participate in regular group reflective practice meetings, supervisions and other relevant meetings.
• Contribute to the development of funding bids including providing statistical monitoring or reports as required
• Provide support and guidance to volunteers and student placements within the service.
• Be ambassador for SWA, working in partnership with other agencies to ensure an effective, coordinated community response to survivors
• Participate in the on-call rota providing 24-hour support over 7 days to ensure an effective out of hours service, and cover the staffing rota over 7 days, evenings and Bank Holidays to ensure effective support cover.
• Any other duties and responsibilities commensurate with the grade of the post

Person Specification

Please use this Specification for your application form to demonstrate how you meet the criteria.

Criteria

Essential

Desirable

Qualifications and experience

Experience of working with the client at the centre of the process and the ability to use imaginative and varied methods to support the client in achieving their goals.

X

Working in partnership with key stakeholders in a multi-agency setting.

X

Good IT skills including a working knowledge of Microsoft Office packages, email and internet.

X

A thorough understanding of professional boundaries and confidentiality issues in direct work with the client and their children, within the team and with external agencies

X

Ability to support clients to apply for benefits, loans and grants whether in the refuge or in their own homes. Ensure that this is done in a timely manner to mitigate the risk to the client and the service and collect refuge charges as necessary.

X

Relevant qualification (SafeLives, Women’s Aid, Social Care).

X

Experience of working with clients and children who have been affected by domestic and / or sexual abuse with a thorough understanding of associated complex issues.

X

Experience of the assessment of clients with complex needs, demonstrable experience of working with partner agencies to deliver specialist support as part of the client’s support plan

X

A proven track record of compiling SMART support plans based on needs and risk assessments with an outcome focus.

X

Experience of the assessment of risk including encouraging appropriate risk taking and discouraging risk avoidance in supporting clients to develop their independence.

X

Knowledge of Adult and Children’s Safeguarding policies and procedures and an ability to identify those clients that fall within these guidelines including ability to assess risk in both the refuge and client’s own homes

X

Basic knowledge of the civil and criminal justice system and other remedies such as ‘Sanctuary Schemes’ as it applies to victims of domestic and / or sexual abuse.

X

Able to identify clients at high risk and seek support to assess whether independent Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocates or other agencies may need to become involved.

X

Skills and abilities

Able to keep clear and concise records that are easily understood and can be used effectively by other support workers; they stand up to scrutiny internally, and by external agencies such as Social Care, Police, Legal and benefits agencies, etc.

X

Be literate and numerate, able to keep administrative and financial records up to date including the administration of tenant records and payments.

X

Able to work closely with clients and colleagues and negotiate (where appropriate) when the choices of the client may conflict with the needs of their children or others

X

Able to take referrals and make initial assessment of needs and risk and confident to take decisions to accept clients into the service, including advising the client on how to leave the perpetrator safely, documents and possessions to bring and welcoming the family into the service in co-operation with the children’s service.

X

Able to key-work across the service in refuge

X

Have initiative and involve clients in planning activities and outings – with and without children - including allocation of resources, risk assessments and working within a budget.

X

Ability to involve service users in developing the service, arranging and facilitating weekly house meetings in the refuge or monthly client involvement meetings and acting as advocate for them if necessary to ensure that their needs are central to service provision

X

Communication skills

Good communications skills with demonstrable listening skills, ability to influence and an ability to negotiate effectively.

X

Ability to support Service Users whose first language is not English.

X

Team working

Able to work as part of a team. Confident to challenge and receptive to the opinions of others. Must accept responsibility for self and be accountable for your work as part of the team.

X

Supporting staff /volunteers

Ability to encourage, support others and assist with supervising volunteers.

X

Problem solving and decision making

Ability to propose and implement improvements to systems and processes.

X

Personal effectiveness

A commitment to SWA’s core values equality and diversity in both employment and service provision. To have a non-judgemental approach to supporting families from a variety of backgrounds and value systems.

X

Ability to identify and use available policies, procedures, frameworks and guidance to support clients with complex needs and the ability to identify where you need additional specialist support for clients

X

Be approachable, non-judgemental and sensitive and have a real ‘can do’ approach that gives client’s confidence in your and their own abilities.

X

Have a sound knowledge and understanding of Confidentiality, GDPR, Equal Opportunities and Diversity; Health and Safety; Quality Assurance; Safeguarding; Lone Working and how these relate to the role of Support Worker.

X

Positively deal with challenging and diverse behaviours and opinions and you will be aware of your own values and prejudices and how they may affect your practice

X

Proven commitment to development for self - including pro-action to maintain up to date knowledge of developments in your field of work

X

Enthusiastic with a flexible approach to work to meet the needs of the service.

X

You will be required to undertake training in relation to your post to ensure that duties can be discharged safely and in line with policy and procedure and maintain knowledge in the specialist sector of domestic abuse.

X

Ability participate on an on-call rota, and cover a rota that provides support over 7 days a week, evenings and over Bank Holidays.

X

Contribute positively to supervision, reflective practice and annual 360 appraisals, ensuring you are prepared and complete all paperwork prior to meetings

X

Hold a full driving licence and have access to a car as there will be a requirement to travel across Sheffield in this role

x

Further Information

The jobholder will be required to work flexibly to meet the needs of the organisation which will include occasional evening or weekend working. There will be regular local and occasional regional or national travel required.

Main Terms and Conditions of Employment:

Salary: Currently £ £22,571 point 12-14 on pay scale. All new starters will commence on point 12, with no possibility to negotiate a higher starting point or salary.

Pension: A contribution of 6% of your salary will be paid into the company pension scheme in line

with auto enrolment regulations.

Hours: 37.5(to include evening and weekend work as required). The current support cover is between 8.30 a.m. to 7:30 pm subject to operational requirements and 9 till 5pm on a weekend.

(weekends covered approx. one in every 5 – 6 weeks) You will be required to work a combination of earlier and later shift times.

Holidays: 28 days per year, plus bank holidays

Travel : Mileage rate is currently paid at 45p per mile for authorised travel.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: £22,571.00 per year

Benefits:

• Additional leave
• Casual dress
• Company pension
• Enhanced maternity leave
• Free parking
• On-site parking
• Sick pay

Licence/Certification:

• Driving Licence (required)

Work Location: One location

Reference ID: SWADAP2023