Support Worker (Outreach)

Confidential; Wakefield; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 31,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

25 days holidays plus bank holidays

Investment in learning and development

Wide range of benefits

Job summary

Riverside Housing Association in Wakefield is seeking a Support Worker (Outreach) to provide outreach support from Marsh Way House, Wakefield. You will connect customers with employability coaches, assist with budgeting, sign up for benefits, and support moves to more permanent housing.

You will need to be resilient and empathetic, travel by car around the Wakefield district, and work flexible hours including weekends to help customers rebuild their lives, while maintaining detailed records.

Qualifications

• Experience of working with vulnerable people is essential.
• Ability to deliver structured support and manage risk.
• Car is essential due to travel to Wakefield district.
• Flexible hours, including lone working and weekends, are required.
• Lived experience of homelessness or related challenges is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Provide outreach support to customers across a range of services.
• Connect clients with employability coaches and other agencies.
• Assist with budgeting, benefits signup and tenancy readiness.
• Signpost to external services and support self-management of medication.
• Maintain accurate records and document interactions on systems.

Skills

Car required

Experience with vulnerable people

Structured support delivery

Risk management

Team player

Lived experience of homelessness/adds

Flexible hours including lone working

Job description

Job Title: Support Worker (Outreach)
Contract Type: Fixed Term until 31/03/2027
Salary: £28,031.56 per annum
Working Hours: Full Time, 37.5 hours per week
Working Pattern: Monday to Sunday, rolling rota to include early starts (from 5:30m) and weekends
Location: Marsh Way House, Wakefield

The difference you will make as a Support Worker (Outreach)
You will be working from one of our supported services providing support to our customers in a variety of ways. For example, connecting them 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 will be your job to help boost their confidence and support them on their journey as they rebuild their lives. Through all of this you will need to keep records of everything, so there is some admin to do. At times this role is tough, but most of the time it can be incredibly rewarding. You will need to be resilient, empathetic, and able to leave your work at work and not take it home with you.

About you

• A Car is essential as the role requires travel to identify and support rough sleepers in the Wakefield district
• Experience of working with vulnerable people
• Experience of delivering structured support and risk management
• To be a team player with a caring and empathetic nature with a resilient, can-do attitude, able to work as part of a team
• An understanding of supporting vulnerable people - this could include having your own lived experience of homelessness or drug or alcohol addiction.
• Ability to work flexible hours to meet customer and business needs, which may not include normal office hours and may include lone working

Why Riverside?

At Riverside, we're a housing association with a difference - enhancing the everyday for all our customers. For 90 years, we've been revitalising neighbourhoods and supporting communities by providing the homes they need to live full, fulfilling and rewarding lives.
We have a portfolio of over 75,000 affordable residential and retirement homes across the UK. Our work ranges from homelessness services to social care, employment support to retirement living, and we need the best people on board to help us.

Working with us, you'll enjoy:

• Competitive pay & generous pension
• 25 days holidays plus bank holidays
• Investment in your learning, personal development and technology
• A wide range of benefits

Diversity and Inclusion at Riverside:

We are inclusive. At Riverside, we value diversity in all its forms. We foster a workplace where all individuals are respected, empowered, and heard. Our commitment to inclusivity drives our success and enriches the lives of our customers and colleagues.
Riverside is a Disability Confident Employer and operates a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for any applicant who declares they have a disability. If the applicant meets the minimum requirements for the role (as set out in the role profile and/or person specification) they will be guaranteed an interview.

Role Profile

Support customers

We use Psychologically Informed approaches and Trauma Informed Care principles to support our customers to develop new ways of thinking and to make steps towards independence, by:

• Leading on Co-producing bespoke support and move-on plans, involving key stakeholders (e.g. family/other support providers), where appropriate.
• Organising and carrying out regular planned reviews of support and risk plans, or following an incident/significant change in a customer's circumstances.
• Engaging customers to meet agreed outcomes and develop life skills.
• Assisting customers with day-to-day support and tenancy-related matters.
• Identifying and promoting opportunities for employment, education and training and supporting customers to remove barriers to accessing these opportunities.
• Signposting customers to appropriate external support services, including interventions such as food banks and other community resources.
• Supporting customers to be 'tenancy ready' to enable successful move on.
• Supporting customers to be financially independent through budgeting plans and maximising income.
• Supporting and monitoring customers' healthcare needs, ensuring appropriate contact with healthcare professionals.
• Empowering customers to move towards self-management of their medication by following the medication procedure.
• Leading on support initiatives including Group Work.
• Ensure the safety of our customers by following local safeguarding procedures, recognizing and acting on any significant risk, and escalating appropriately.
• Record and update clear, factual, accurate, strengths based customer information on the local or appropriate digital platform.

Deliver a support service

• Facilitate the referral process into the service and assess potential new customers.
• Contribute to the delivery of a housing management service, including income collection and providing customers with tenancy-related support.
• Work