Waking Night Support Worker

Recruiting Waking Night Support Worker to join our Young People service inMilton Keynes.

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

£15,639.00 per annum, working 30 hours per week, plus Annual Leave pro rata, Pension schemes, staff discounts, healthcare and career progression.

Shift patterns: 9:45pm – 07:45am - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights. The role requires lone working. (30 hours per week)

Essential:

• Intermediate computer skills,

• Experience writing incident reports

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 Waking Night Support Worker to join our Young People service.

Milton Keynes Young Peoples Service is a Supported Accommodation Service for young people aged 16–21 with the capacity to support 45 Young People at any one time. The service provides a high level of support to Young People that may be care leavers, looked after children and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. They are supported with a variety of complex support needs such as child sexual exploitation, gangs and offending, substance misuse and mental health.

You will be working with and leading a team of specialists and supports workers to support Young People to meet their aspirations, stay safe and live independently. The service is compiled of 5 properties, the largest capacity at one site being 16 units with 24hr support. Customers are with us for 6 to 18 months and the Service encompasses a mix of units across 4 sites.

The aim of the service is to empower Young People to move towards independent living, supporting their successful transition from childhood; laying the foundations for healthy, ambitious, and safe adult lives with minimal ongoing support. Support is delivered in partnership with a number of stakeholders and partners in the community such as mental health services; substance misuses agencies, housing teams, police and social services.

The young people will have complex and multifaceted needs. This could include emotional and mental health issues, drug and alcohol misuse, partaking in criminal activity and anti-social behaviours or being at risk of sexual exploitation.

Whilst the majority of young people referred will not yet be ready to live fully independently, they will be ready to begin the transition to adulthood and develop their independent living skills. The young people will require a supportive, structured and stable environment with clear boundaries in which to do this.

Milton Keynes Young Person’s Service implements and promotes the Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) model. This is an approach which was developed to support people out of homelessness, in particular those who have experienced complex trauma or are diagnosed with a personality disorder. However, its application is far broader than only homelessness. It considers the psychological needs of staff: developing skills and knowledge, increasing motivation, job satisfaction and resilience.

• Building supportive, trusting relationships with customers and creating a positive atmosphere.

• Working proactively with other members of the team to handle the service caseload and administrative responsibilities.

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

• Ensuring ongoing assessment and management of risks associated with customers within an attitude of ‘positive risk taking’.

• Providing support with daily living activities, including practical assistance to support customers to independent living e.g. budgeting, cooking, establishing a night time routine.

• Assisting in the recording and reporting of customer incidents.

• Managing customer referrals, completing assessments and obtaining and maintaining all relevant paperwork.

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.

Job Overview:

As a Night support worker you will be responsible for building checks, fire escape checks etc, monitoring CCTV, reporting into the police, updating the emergency social services and key working. You will need to update risk management and provide a full handover for the day staff.

You need to have confidence in yourself, knowing that you can handle any situation, and if you are unsure, you’ll make the best decision using your training and understanding. You will be lone working, which is the most challenging part of the role, working with 16 young people and dealing with them all at the same time! It can be demanding knowing what to do and being patient and persistent. At night, the young people we support might gravitate to the office, but work still needs to get done, and we’re not looking for people who use the excuse that they are lone working – you must be available to help the young people at all times. You need to know your boundaries and have a grasp of what safeguarding is and how to keep yourself safe.

Look Ahead will provide full training and induction, including shadowing the shift. there will also be on call support.

Feeling like you’re making a difference in the most rewarding and noticing the subtle differences.

Confidence in themselves, know that they can handle any situation, if not wing it, patience, empathy care kindness, at night might be when they gravitate to the office, do not issue the excuse that they are lone working and can’t help. Deal with the behaviour, being part of that acknowledged there is a job still to do, knowing their boundaries and having a grasp of what safeguarding is and how to keep themselves safe.

• 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 organized.

• Able to apply the right balance of care and support dependant on the needs of the customer.

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

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.