About Us

First started by Aberdeen University students as a soup kitchen, Aberdeen Cyrenians now put the needs of North East Scotland's most vulnerable and socially excluded people first — leading at the frontline of service, care and influence for 50+ years.

Aberdeen Cyrenians work continuously to shift perceptions and change the outlook on homelessness and vulnerability in society — the reality often differs drastically from the 'labels' that people use when thinking of those who need support. Not accepting the current perception of homelessness is something that underpins Aberdeen Cyrenians' work. Our approach puts the reality of these situations front and centre.

This reality reminds us that anyone can find themselves in difficulty, and Aberdeen Cyrenians exist to support anyone and everyone — whether they're living on the street, at high financial risk, in an abusive living situation, struggling with mental health issues, struggling with substance addiction or involved in the justice system. Our core values support a mission that prioritises close assistance, unique care and standing steadfastly by people in the midst of their most vulnerable moments.

It's the passion and integrity of Aberdeen Cyrenians that makes us a formidable force against homelessness, abuse, violence and social exclusion — we make a lifechanging difference when working alongside the people who need their support the most.

Join our team and make a real difference every day

Working at Aberdeen Cyrenians, you will be helping vulnerable people, who are often at the margins of society, every single day. You will be helping them to build a positive future, resolve their current issues and move towards positive outcomes.

In addition to competitive rates of pay, we offer both on the job and formal training, support achieving professional qualifications and good career prospects.

You can expect the following working for us:

• Comprehensive training through our online Learning Management System
• Opportunity to pursue on the job qualifications and career progression
• Industry leading systems and technology - we use an amazing apps to support our care at home services and case management systems, which helps us to ensure paperwork is streamlined and as much time as possible is spent with the service user
• Online timesheets and expenses paid weekly
• We are a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer - pay is reviewed annually each April
• Benefits including Bike to Work Scheme and retail discounts
• Employee Assistance programme offering confidential support 24/7/365
• Mileage paid at the national rate
• A warm and friendly team environment where everyone is valued.

One of our core values is that we value diversity and inclusion: exclusion has no place in our workplaces. Please let us know if you need us to make adjustments to allow you to apply for a role or attend an interview with Aberdeen Cyrenians.

If you are care experienced or have lived experience aligned to our area of work, we guarantee you an interview, subject to you meeting the minimum requirements of the role that you are applying for. We are also a Disability Confident employer.

Nothing we achieve would be possible without our employees - that's why we're as committed to their careers and professional development as they are.

You can find out more about us at www.weareac.org.

About Granite Care Consortium and Care Choices

The Granite Care Consortium successfully gained the commission for the delivery of Care at Home Services across the city of Aberdeen in November 2020. The Consortium are a group of local third and private sector providers with decades of experience in delivering health and social care services. The Consortium was set up to create market stability, improve outcomes and build a consistent trained and skilled workforce.

Aberdeen Cyrenians have established Care Choices - our Care at Home division to provide Care at Home services within the consortium.

Position:

Job title: Relief Worker | Care Choices (Care at Home)

Responsible to Lead Practitioners and Service Manager

Hours of work: This role offers flexible working including mornings, evenings and weekends

The service operates from 7 am to 10 pm. Hours are varied across the day

Salary: £10.50 per hour with £1.27 per hour holiday pay (£11.77 hour total).

Main Responsibilities

Participate in the provision of a high standard of person-centred and enabling care and support for service users in their own homes.

Job Purpose

Our Care at Home team is looking for caring, compassionate and motivated people to join their growing team. The role offers agreed flexibility in your hours of work. We will offer you extensive training to support your development in your role to enable a great sense of job satisfaction.

Job Activities

• Provide high-quality person-centred and enabling personal care, in line with individual and organisational risk assessments, policies and procedures, national standards and legislation.
• Provide a wide range of domiciliary care including personal and continence care, managing medication, household tasks and meal preparation as agreed in individual care plans
• Communicate effectively with service users, families and multi-disciplinary teams, record appropriate care notes and create a safe and positive environment in line with all relevant training and legislation which promotes service users’ well-being, choice, dignity and respect.
• Assist service users with maintaining social groups to promote positive mental health and provide support to service users through life changes or loss.

Requirements:

Job Activities

• To undertake an induction shift/shifts as required at any service prior to starting work in that service.
• Support the service in any way as directed by management or delegate.
• Be familiar with, and adhere to organisational systems
• Tasks in residential and community services are likely to include but are not limited to:
• To assist in the implementation, review and development of individual support plans.
• To provide advice, support and practical help to the service users.
• To organise and participate in social, recreational and therapeutic programmes.
• To attend service user reviews to discuss progress.
• To assist service users to arrange appointments with outside agencies and escort them as necessary.
• To assist service users resettle in the community as necessary.
• To maintain service user centred and other records consistent with the above.
• To undertake such cleaning, cooking and laundry duties as required.
• To participate at staff meetings.
• To participate in staff training as arranged.
• To liaise with other agencies as appropriate.
• To undertake any other duties consistent with the post.
• Intervene in a crisis - effective pre-emption of accidents and incidents.
• Ensure that the basic needs of service users are addressed and met (food, shelter, warmth, bathing, clothing, etc.).
• Assist service users in their transition into the service or their own accommodation which may include practical tasks of getting/moving furniture, painting/decorating, cleaning and food preparation.
• Arrange life skill development programmes in line with agreed support plans and within time restraints.
• Advocate on service users behalf and generally assist them with communication skills.
• Work with service users to tackle debts, budget and maximise their income.
• Where required, assist service users with personal care (food, bathing, continence, etc.)

General terms of reference

In carrying out the above activities, the Relief Worker will:

• Work shifts as required, including evenings/weekends/night hours.
• Work effectively as part of a team.
• Maximise his/her own performance and contribution;
• Ensure they comply with internal and external regulations, procedures and other requirements appertaining to the project, if in doubt check with management.
• Maintain the good reputation of the organisation;
• Keep abreast of developments and legislation relevant to the project's range of activities;
• Seek to improve his/her knowledge and skills by both formal and informal means;
• Carry out other relevant work commensurate with the post as required by the Project Manager.
• Seek support/debrief from management when required.

Key Capabilities

• Interpersonal understanding – listens and understands expressed feelings; demonstrates concern for others; encourages others to express themselves.
• Emotional awareness – manages strong emotions and responds constructively; keeps own feelings in check; deals with stress and is aware of when to seek help/debrief when required.
• Service user orientation – strives to meet and surpass service users’ expectations; maintains appropriate contact until problem is resolved; makes self available to service users at critical periods; able to advocate on behalf of service users.
• Flexibility – adapts easily to changes at work; modifies behaviour in response to a situation; sees the merits of differing viewpoints.
• Initiative – takes responsibility; looks ahead and anticipates what needs to be done.
• Team working – contributes fully to team work; establishes positive relationships with the team.
• Working within Professional Boundaries – Demonstrates professional curiosity; accepts responsibility for own work; seeks and uses professional support; understands the principle of confidentiality.
• Developing others – assumes responsibility for addressing service users’ skills; encourages initiatives in problem solving and making choices.

Basis, values and equal opportunities

Able to respect the aims and values of our work including a commitment to work with those with the most challenging needs to ensure that they have every opportunity to avoid further exclusion.

Essential

• Relevant experience or transferable skills
• Literacy and numeracy at a level to maintain all the appropriate paperwork, write support plans and give budgeting advice
• Able to use basic computer applications like Office 365
• Own and be proficient in the use of a smartphone and willing to use it for work purposes.

Desirable

• An understanding of issues surrounding vulnerable elderly people and palliative/end-of-life care
• Previous experience in a social care environment in a voluntary or paid capacity
• An understanding of legislation/practice pertaining to the work.
• Experience working with disadvantaged people
• Able to work hours at short notice

Other information:

You can expect the following working for us:

• Free Uniform
• Comprehensive training through our online Learning Management System
• Opportunity to pursue on the job qualifications and career progression
• Industry leading systems and technology - we use an amazing app to support our home care which helps us to ensure paperwork is streamlined and as much time as possible is spent with the service user
• Online timesheets and expenses
• We are a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer - pay is reviewed annually each April
• A warm and friendly team environment where everyone is valued.
• Mileage paid at the national rate.

It's important to us that we recruit people who share our values and who want to make a difference. Our interview process is designed to get to know you better and to find out why you want to work for us. If you are nervous, please don't be - there are no right or wrong answers.

Because we work with vulnerable people, we have a responsibility to safeguard them. We undertake background and reference checks, and it is a term of employment with us that all employees register with the Protecting Vulnerable Groups ("PVG") scheme operated by Disclosure Scotland.

We guarantee an interview to candidates who have lived experience within the areas of society and the issues that we support and those who are care experienced, subject to meeting the minimum criteria for the role.

We're an equal opportunities employer and value diversity - exclusion has no place in our workplaces. If you need us to make reasonable adjustments to allow you to attend an interview with us, just let us know.

We regret that due to current Home Office rules, we are not able to sponsor applicants for this role, so you must be eligible to live and work in the UK without sponsorship.

The closing date for this position is 5 pm on Wednesday 22nd March 2023.



We review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early should sufficient applications be received.