Housing Support Worker

Cambridge County Council; Huntingdon; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 32,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing package

Additional annual leave (4 weeks)

Flexible bank holidays

Pension contributions

Development opportunities

Paid volunteering hours

Peer support groups

Employee Recognition Awards

Cambs Rewards discounts

Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking a Safe Accommodation Housing Support Worker to assist survivors of domestic abuse living in dispersed safe accommodation across Cambridgeshire. You will provide trauma-informed housing support, create and review move-on plans, visit clients in their accommodation and liaise with housing teams and other services to secure safe long-term housing.

This is a 1 year fixed term post with interviews in October.

Qualifications

• GCSE standard or equivalent required.
• Accredited housing and/or domestic abuse training.
• Experience delivering face-to-face support to people in crisis.
• Ability to build professional relationships with survivors.
• Knowledge of housing options for survivors of domestic abuse.
• Familiarity with benefits systems and related services.
• Understanding of domestic abuse, risk and housing impact.
• Excellent communication, advocacy and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently within a supportive team.
• Commitment to safeguarding adults and children.
• Ability to travel across Cambridgeshire.

Responsibilities

• Visiting IDVA clients living in dispersed safe accommodation in Cambridgeshire.
• Creating and reviewing bespoke housing support move-on plans face-to-face, over the phone and via email.
• Keeping accurate case management notes and updating the accommodation module.
• Collaborating with IDVAs, housing teams and other services to enable move-on and reduce risk.
• Advocating and supporting clients with statutory and voluntary agencies as required.
• Providing practical hands-on housing support in safe accommodation as needed.
• Contributing to development of the Safe Accommodation support worker role.

Skills

Resilience

Empathy

Communication

Advocacy

Problem solving

Teamwork

Travel flexibility

Education

GCSE or equivalent

Housing/domestic abuse training

Job description

Safe Accommodation Housing Support Worker:Helping navigate survivors of domestic abuse into safe accommodation.

Are you a person with the skills and flexibility to help create a new role in our Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (DASV) Partnership team, supporting survivors living in dispersed safe accommodation to move onto safe long-term housing.

Do you have an understanding of the barriers facing domestic abuse survivors seeking safe and secure housing. Can you walk with' rather than do for' people experiencing crisis and trauma. Would you like to be part of a service proving support to domestic abuse survivors across Cambridgeshire.

As aSafe Accommodation Housing Support Worker, you will provide practical housing, support to clients of the IDVA service who have experienced domestic abuse and are living in dispersed safe accommodation across Cambridgeshire.

You will be visiting survivors in their accommodation and working with them to achieve safe and sustainable housing outcomes. You will liaise with relevant statutory and voluntary services who can assist with a survivors housing plan.

As a Safe Accommodation Support Worker, you will be part of the IDVA team and work directly with our IDVAs. You will provide trauma informed housing support to survivors that will be bespoke to their needs and risk. The support will focus on practical support and empowering survivors who are moving onfrom the domestic abuse they have experienced.

This is a 1 year fixed term post

Interviews will be held 6 th and 9 th October.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage

• wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

What will you be doing?

• Visiting IDVA clients living in dispersed safe accommodation in Cambridgeshire.
• Creating and reviewing bespoke housing support move-on plans with the client face to face, over the phone and via email.
• Keeping accurate case management notes and updating the current accommodation module.
• Working collaboratively with Idvas, housing teams and other relevant services to achieve successful move on and reduce future risk to the client.
• As required advocating and supporting the client/survivor with various statutory and voluntary agencies.
• Providing practical hands-on support to clients in safe accommodation as required.
• Contributing to the development of the Safe Accommodation support worker role.

About you

You'll be a resilient, empathic and confident professional who can work flexibly. You will have a good understanding of domestic abuse, and housing options available to domestic abuse survivors. You will have an understanding of providing face to face trauma informed support to people who may be in crisis. You will be able to independently problem solve but also understand the importance of working collaboratively with other professionals.

. You will have:

• Educated to GCSE Standard or equivalent (Essential)
• Accredited housing and or domestic abuse training
• Experience of providing face-to-face support to people who are in crisis
• An ability to build and maintain professional relationships with survivors.
• Good knowledge of housing options available to survivors of domestic abuse.
• Familiarity with the benefits systems and other support services.
• Good understanding of domestic abuse, risk, and how it impacts on survivors housing
• Excellent communication, advocacy and problem solving skills
• The ability to work independently while thriving as part of a supportive team
• A clear commitment to safeguarding adults and children
• Ability to travel and work across Cambridgeshire

This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don't meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don't be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers