Recruiting Support Worker to join our Young Peoples service in Islington.

Looking for a new role where you can make a difference every day? We’re looking for a kind, compassionate and resilient Support Worker to join our Young People service in Islington.

£23,019.36 per annum, working 40 hours per week, plus Annual Leave pro rata, Pension schemes, staff discounts, healthcare, and career progression.

Look Ahead is a dynamic, leading, not-for-profit care and support provider in London and the South East. As an organisation we deliver over 110 services, providing support to around 7000 customers each year. We work across mental health, homelessness, young people and learning disabilities so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and progress your career with us.

We’re looking for a Support Worker to join our Young People service.

As a Support Worker you will manage a caseload of 2-3 young people, from a range of backgrounds including care leavers, young offenders and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
The role involves both supporting young people to develop their independent living skills whilst they are staying at the assessment entre and working with the young people to identify suitable move on options based on their needs. As a support worker you will be supporting them to attend GP Appointment and Court hearings.

Shift patterns:

• Early – 7:45am – 3:45pm

- Late - 12:45pm – 8:30pm

• No sleep ins or waking nights but you will be required to work 1 out of 2 weekends.

• High degree of emotional intelligence.

• Ability to engage with and form professional relationships with professionals from across a variety of agencies.

• Ability to appropriately manage challenging situations and conflict.

• Ability to use evidence-based approaches to the delivery of direct interventions to Young People e.g., social pedagogy model.

• Experience working with young people in supported accommodation setting.

• Knowledge of benefit system and appeal process.

• Understanding of LACS and Care Leaver entitlements.

• Understanding of youth offending and judicial system.

Job Overview:

Islington young people’s service is high needs service with 12 bed spaces, 6 self-contained and 3 shared. We support ages between 16-21yrs and at present most of our referrals are UASC and their focus is ESOL, Immigration status and Mental Health (commonly past trauma).

This is a 24/7 accommodation-based service, providing support for up to 12 young people. Customers are expected to stay no longer than 16 weeks at any time and all will be referred by Islington Council. During their stay at the service customers will be assessed for a suitable move on based on their needs and independent living skills.

The customers are mostly young people who are care leavers, homeless, on remand or under probation. We work closely with Islington Social Services to link customers in with local courses and support. They can display challenging behaviour both verbally physically, but this is very rare.

We are a small team made up of 1 Team Leader, 5 Support Workers and 2 Waking Nights Support Workers. As a small team communication is good as we have daily discussions and are flexible in supporting all young people in the absence of their Support Worker. We have an 'open office', we try to ensure that young people feel confident they can access on any day, we encourage young people to request support from any member of Staff in the office and not to wait for their support worker.

• Building a supportive, trusting relationship with the customer and creating a positive atmosphere;

• Supporting the customer including supporting with their personal care.

• Supporting the customer to undertake activities in line with their preferences;

• Ensuring the customer’s safety and wellbeing at night, providing emotional and practical support and reassurance as needed.

• Using positive behavioural support and Autism-specific approaches to manage any distress.

• Working proactively with other members of the team to meet the needs of the customer and handle administrative responsibilities.

• Conducting key work sessions as required, that are innovative and engaging in order to achieve Support Plan goals.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead.

• Approachable and open behaviour.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Is fundamentally calm and resilient, does not let emotion adversely affect them or obscure their judgement.

• Has a practical and logical mind and is naturally well organised.

• Flexible

Open to feedback and self-development.

• Thrives on change and enjoys dynamic diverse environments.

• Is confident with high levels of self-esteem.

• Is respectful, articulate, and sensitive in style of communication.

• Is essentially customer–focused.

• Sensitive to communication needs of service users, especially those with autism and learning difficulties.

• Is motivated towards excellence and improvement of personal performance with a can do attitude.

• Ability to cope positively with challenging and diverse behaviours.

If your application for this role is unsuccessful, but we feel that you would be suitable for another role, we may contact you to discuss alternative opportunities. If this occurs you would not need to submit another application for the alternative role.

We reserve the right to close this advert early if we are able to appoint to the vacancy before the advertised closed date.

This role requires a valid Right to Work for the UK as Look Ahead are not a sponsoring organisation.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion at work and are accredited with Silver in the Inclusive Employers Standard 2021. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds.