Homeless Outreach Support Worker

CIH International Housing Group; Guildford; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 28,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading social housing organization is seeking a Homeless Outreach Support Worker in Guildford. The role involves delivering personalized support to vulnerable individuals facing homelessness, with responsibilities ranging from outreach to developing support plans, aimed at transforming lives and encouraging independent living.

Benefits

Access to ongoing personal career development opportunities

Pension Scheme

Eye tests, glasses, and lenses

Riverside Rewards scheme

25 days holiday per year

Qualifications

• Understanding of challenges faced by at-risk individuals.
• Experience working with diverse and vulnerable groups.
• Ability to demonstrate effective communication and decision-making skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide housing-related support to clients in need.
• Undertake assertive outreach and assess client needs.
• Develop personalized support plans for clients.

Skills

Empathy

Resilience

Communication

Time Management

Initiative

Job description

Job Description

Homeless Outreach Support Worker

Location: Guildford HOST

Salary £25,965.41 per annum, (£27,112.48 per annum is achieved after 18 months successful performance in the role)

Apply by 06/06/2025

Introduction

This is a brilliant and unique opportunity to join our very dynamic and enthusiastic Homeless Outreach Support Team (HOST) in Guildford. Together, we will be able to transform the lives of people who has been affected by the trauma of homelessness in this area. So, we are looking for a person who needs to be resilient, empathetic and with positive attitude to support people to move away from homelessness and settle into the community.

What will you do?

Our aim is having tailored Support in place for vulnerable people who has been suffering from or at Risk of Homelessness using the Trauma Informed Care principles through the Psychologically Informed Environment model.

The Homeless Outreach Worker post holder will be responsible for the delivery of a knowledgeable, creative, and highly personalised support service to people who are rough sleeping or at risk of rough sleeping. You will work flexibly, on your own and as part of the team to support each client, negotiating solutions to access suitable housing and offering opportunities to engage with a range of other services to promote good health and wellbeing and reduce the risk of future homelessness.

Riverside are looking to recruit for this post a full time Outreach Worker in Guildford working 37.5 hours per week. Working hours Mon to Fri, shifts are during business core hours of 7am - 6pm with occasional early outreach. Working Pattern: as per rota

You will work through challenging barriers, but you will be rewarding when you are knowing that your support is making a difference in people's lives by transforming them into more resilient and independent lives.

Job responsibilities

• You'll be working from one of our supported services and you'll support a number of different people.
• Provide a housing related support service to clients who are homeless and are in need of temporary accommodation.
• Attend meetings within the local partnership focussed on problem solving and information sharing.
• Feeding back relevant information to the team related to the support of our customers
• Ensuring the delivery of individual personalised support packages, reflective of different client needs, including culture and diversity issues.
• Undertake assertive outreach, visiting known sleep sites, searching for new rough sleepers in response to reports and carrying out regular early morning/late evening checks to maintain an overview of the current rough sleeping situation in Guildford.

(This involves walking up hills, flights of stairs and occasionally rough terrain)

• Take steps to form positive and supportive relationships with clients from first point of contact, adapting your approach as necessary to maintain good relations for the duration of their time with the service.
• Carry out assessments of need with sensitivity, asking questions to clarify understanding and listening carefully to find out what is important to your clients.
• Work with clients to agree next steps and develop a plan to support the client to find the accommodation and other help. The ability to have open and frank discussions with people and manage expectations is essential.
• Make referrals to a wide range of specialist services e.g. mental health, substance misuse, housing etc. to address the wider needs of the client and do what is needed to help clients maintain engagement. E.g. texting reminders, attending appointments, discussing concerns.
• Providing ongoing practical help, advice, information, support and encouragement to clients throughout their involvement with the service, keeping in daily contact (or as otherwise agreed) to update on progress.
• 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.

As a minimum requirement you'll need:

• An understanding of the challenges, traumas and barriers faced by people at risk of homelessness.

• An understanding diverse customers group and vulnerable individual with complex needs.

• Team player with a caring, empathetic, flexible approach and a resilient, can-do attitude.

• Excellent time management with the ability to prioritise on a daily basis to do your work effectively.

• Effective communication skills

• The ability to demonstrate initiative and the confidence to make and act on decisions.

• Competent administrative and IT skills and ability to produce reports and other communications.

Ideally you'll also have:

• An understanding of supporting vulnerable people
• Knowledge of Psychological or Trauma Informed approaches to support.
• Experience of working in challenging environments with the ability to plan, prioritise and organise tasks to achieve results.
• Knowledge of current benefit systems particularly Universal Credit.
• Knowledge of processes involve in accessing Rent deposit accommodation and Private rent.
• Clean driving licence and access to their own car

Does this describe you?

You demonstrate an optimistic, flexible and non-judgemental approach and have excellent verbal and written communication skills with individuals from a variety of different backgrounds.

You have an understanding of the barriers faced by vulnerable customer groups and experience working with individuals with complex needs as well as from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. You are experienced in delivering structured support and risk management in a supported environment. You are not only able to work independently and use own initiative but within a multi-disciplinary team. You are proficient in the use of Microsoft Office programmes and comfortable with learning additional company specific systems where required.

While by no means compulsory, it would be to your advantage if you have knowledge of the current benefit systems, housing regulations and how these impact locally as well as Trauma Informed Care with psychologically informed approaches to support our customers.

Click on the job description linked below to see a full list of our essential requirements.

What's in it for you?

In return for your hard work and dedication, we offer you:

• Access to ongoing personal career development opportunities through Learning Zone

• Pension Scheme

• Eye tests, glasses and lenses

• Riverside Rewards scheme and app, providing valuable access to discounted benefits including high street and online savings

• 25 days holiday per year

Who are Riverside?

We are one of the UK's leading social housing and regeneration organisations. We are a group of not-for-profit and commercial companies with a charitable housing association at our core. Operating across 150+ local authorities in England and Scotland and housing 90,000+ people, we are fully committed to improving the lives of thousands of individuals and families. We seek to transform lives and revitalise neighbourhoods.

Is Riverside for you?

We want you to feel empowered and that your voice is truly heard. Being a company focused on people, we treat our customers with this same respect.

We trust you to protect our customers, our people and our business and we see outstanding worth in those with the courage to take responsibility, innovate and find solutions.

Your focus on performance and ambition is rewarded with development opportunities. With Riverside, you can achieve.

If you're thinking of joining us as a Support Worker, we'd love to hear from you. We encourage applicants from all sections of the community so that we can truly reflect the neighbourhoods in which we work.

Please Note: Riverside are putting in measures to protect candidates and our colleagues from Covid-19. Whilst we are still continuing to recruit for this position and other roles in the organisation we will be implementing virtual interviews.

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.

Our ways of working

Commitment to Diversity