Qualified Habilitation Specialist

Guide Dogs; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

26 days annual leave

Real Living Wage Employer

Flex pot

Buy/sell annual leave

Discounts & cashback

Pension match

Job summary

Guide Dogs is seeking a Qualified Habilitation Specialist to deliver mobility and independence training for children and young people with vision impairment. You will assess needs, design tailored programmes and provide practical, person-centered support across home, education and community settings.

Based in South East London with regular travel, you will work with CYP to build confidence, track progress and adjust plans, while engaging with parents, schools and professionals to maximise

Qualifications

• Qualified as a Habilitation Specialist; refer to Essential Education/Qualifications criteria in the attached Job Description.
• Post-qualifying experience in statutory or voluntary sector.
• Experience teaching mobility and independence skills to individuals with vision impairment in home/education/community settings.
• Experience supporting children and young people (not necessarily vision impairment) e.g., Youth Work; in education settings.
• Proven experience carrying out access and environmental audits.
• Proven ability to liaise effectively with other professionals/agencies.
• Demonstrable evidence of effective assessment and planning skills.

Responsibilities

• Holistically assess needs and capabilities of CYP with VI; design person-centered training programmes.
• Plan, implement and review habilitation training programmes for CYP with vision impairment, including complex needs.
• Deliver habilitation services to support independence across region or nationally.
• Write reports, maintain records, monitor progress and adapt plans as needed.
• Deliver habilitation awareness training to parents/carers and professionals.
• Provide information and training to parents/carers and school staff to reinforce training.

Skills

Mobility training

Assessment skills

Independence coaching

Stakeholder liaison

Youth work experience

Environment audits

Education

Qualified Habilitation Specialist

Job description

About The Role

Unleash your potential - Your Career. Their Independence

Come and join us as a supportive and confident Qualified Habilitation Specialist and be part of something life-changing- helping people with sight loss live the life they choose.

As a Qualified Habilitation Specialist at Guide Dogs, you'll deliver specialist mobility and independence training to children and youngpeople, including those with complex needs, helping them build the skills they need to confidently navigate the world. The Qualified Habilitation Specialist will be an expert in assessing individual needs, designing tailored habilitation programmes, and providing practical, person-centered support in a range of settings. Our Habilitation Specialists play a huge part in ensuring everything we do enables us to deliver on our purpose and exceed expectations.

This role is 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm. However, flexibility is required to occasionally work outside of core hours and support weekend events when needed.

The role involves regular travel across South East London, ideally applicants should be based within a commutable distance.

Key Responsibilities

• To holistically assess the needs and capabilities of children and young people (CYP) with a vision impairment (VI) and produce appropriate person-centered training programmes and recommendations as required.
• Plan, implement and review habilitation training programmes for CYP with vision impairment (including those with complex needs).
• Deliver specialist habilitation (mobility and independence) services which support the Guide Dogs strategic objectives and bring independence and freedom to CYP with a vision impairment, across your region or nationally.
• Write reports, maintain accurate records, and monitor CYP’s progress against set training programme goals, adapting these as required to ensure they continue to meet the CYP’s individual needs and identify any further training requirements.
• Deliver habilitation awareness training to parents / carers and professionals.
• Provide advice, information and training to parents/carers, professionals including school staff and any others supporting CYP with a vision impairment to promote and ensure reinforcement of training programmes and to raise their awareness of vision impairment and resources available.

You

You’ll have a person-centered and collaborative approach to teaching mobility and independence skills, alongside carrying out assessments and developing tailored support plans. You’ll enjoy working in a variety of settings including home, education and community environments, with a dedicated focus on supporting children and young people to develop confidence and independence, whilst being committed to delivering high-quality, safe and effective services. You’ll act with integrity and honesty in everything you do.

Skills and Competencies

• Qualified as a Habilitation Specialist - please refer to the Essential Education/ Qualifications criteria within the attached JobDescription
• Demonstrable post qualifying experience in statutory or voluntary sector.
• Demonstrable experience of teaching mobility and independence skills to individuals with a vision impairment in home, education and/or community settings.
• Demonstrable experience of supporting children and youngpeople (Not necessarily vision impairment related) e.g., Youth Work, in an education setting, brownie or scout leader.
• Proven experience of carrying out access and environmental audits.
• Proven ability to liaise effectively with other professionals / agencies.
• Demonstrable evidence of effective assessment and planning skills.

Benefits

We would not be able to change the lives of people with sight loss without our people. That’s why it’s important for us to provide a variety of benefits that reward our colleagues in a way that suits them and recognises the hard work and contribution that they make.

• 26 days annual leave. After three years of continuous employment, this increases to 28 days plus bank holidays.
• Real Living Wage Employer
• Flex pot - equal to a proportion of your annual salary to use on our wide variety of flexible benefits
• The option to buy and sell annual leave
• Discounts and cash-back scheme
• Excellent pension scheme (We will match your pension contributions plus 2% up to a maximum of 9% employer contribution)
• And lots more!

For high-volume of applications, we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than advertised.

About Us

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

BehindEvery Guide Dog Is Someone Like You - We’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that celebrates and values diversity. Bring your whole self to work regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We don't want you to 'fit' our culture, we want you to enrich it.

Please note - If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK via our digital ID checking supplier. We cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Safer recruitment

GuideDogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If you are applying for a disclosure role, please note that you will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and sign up to the DBS update service.

At GuideDogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.