BACKGROUND

Action are looking for exceptional individuals who have the passion to deliver on our vision of supporting people out of Homelessness.
We are looking for a Rough Sleeper Accommodation Worker to support people to transition from rough sleeping into accommodation. You will act as a keyworker, encouraging positive and healthy lifestyles and assist people to access services that support complex needs such as drug or alcohol issues and mental health concerns. Your work will focus on the prevention of people sleeping rough and reducing the number of people having no other option other than to sleep rough.
Through the provision of intensive, flexible and person-centred support, people are supported to maintain their home. Unlike other supported housing models, individuals do not need to provide they are ready for independent housing, or progress through a series of accommodation and treatment services. There are no conditions placed on them, other than a willingness to maintain a tenancy agreement, and Housing First is designed to provide long-term, open-ended support for their on-going needs.
The anticipated staff-to-customer ratio is one staff member to six customers although this may vary through the life of the project.
Staff are expected to work flexible hours in line with the needs of the customers. Therefore some work may be required outside of the conventional 9-5 hours and working week.

QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING

(Desirable) - Relevant NVQs in social welfare, health & safety
(Essential) - Evidence of creative, innovative thinking, encouraging ideas from across teams, creatively working around new constraints and challenges.

KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE

Knowledge of Housing First and Housing Led approaches and their role in systems change across the homelessness services
Experience of supporting people who have experienced homelessness & have enduring and complex needs (either through professional, personal, voluntary experience or all three) (Desirable)
Working in housing, social care, criminal justice or a related field
Experience of developing working partnerships to gain the most positive outcome for the service user you are supporting.
Experience of operating effectively and collaboratively as part of a management team.
Understanding of systems and processes in housing, social care, health and/or criminal justice.
Knowledge and understanding of confidentiality and safeguarding duties and responsibilities ensuring safeguarding standards are adhered to and reported appropriately to the relevant people and organisations.
An understanding of accountability with respect of the role. A sense of urgency about results, performance and standards.
Good understanding of the complex issues participants face and able to apply trauma informed approaches
Excellent administration and record keeping skills with an attention to detail

SKILLS & ABILITIES (ESSENTIAL)

Ability to establish open and trusting relationships with people who are/have been living on the streets or in temporary/insecure accommodation.
Able to work assertively and empathetically with individuals who have enduring and complex support needs.
Able to deliver a strength based asset based approach to support, respond to varying needs and adapt to changing needs whilst recognising strengths and assets.
Ability to develop and maintain effective work relationships with integrity, credibility and influence.
Ability to demonstrate that you have expectations of a consistently high quality, an understanding of what an excellent service should look like.
Ability to adapt and respond efficiently to change and support a service user to articulate their goals and aspirations.
Able to build empathy and support a service user to recognise their needs and strengths.
A creative approach to problem solving and experience of engaging those who are hard to reach.
Ability to advocate on behalf of the service user, promoting the rights and responsibilities of a service user.
Flexible approach and desire to work directly with service who are rough sleeping

PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THE POST

The role of the Tenancy Sustainment Officer (TSO) is to offer expertise, flexibility, adaptability, energy, motivation and development to the Tenancy Sustainment Team and to the project. The post holder must positively promote and engage in the delivery of support models employed by the organisation and work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure that the organisation offers the best possible service to clients, in the most appropriate way.
Reporting to the Service Manager, the SHAP Worker is responsible for coordinating and providing a personalised, trauma informed support service to people with complex needs facing multiple exclusion.
Providing outreach support to clients rough sleeping and assisting them to access accommodation and providing support to create long term sustainable tenancies by increasing independence and maximising connectivity with the local community.

KEY ROLE SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

• Delivering wrap around intensive, trauma informed support to people with multiple and complex issues within their own independent tenancies in the community.
• Perform robust assessments of referrals for the service to ensure the service is provided to those that meet the eligibility criteria.
• Complete dynamic risk assessments and maintain own safety by following lone working procedures
• To adhere to good practice Safeguarding procedures with a positive risk taking approach to ensure the wellbeing of vulnerable people.
• Establish open and trusting relationships with people who are/have been living on the streets or in temporary/insecure accommodation.
• Supporting service users to achieve their goals and outcomes through intensive case management.
• Enable service users to access community resources, and offer personal/emotional support.
• Develop an enabling partnership approach that supports all people using the service to attain their rights and entitlement.
• Actively participate in achieving defined outcomes for service users. Identify the strengths and aspirations of service users and enable the access to relevant opportunities and/or services.
• Liaise with food banks and other homeless service food provisions to engage potential clients and identify people in need.
• Be responsible for the identification of risks and be able to demonstrate you are managing the risks for yourself, colleagues and service user being supported.
• Promote service user led service delivery and encourage service users to contribute to the continuous improvement of the service.
• Maintaining accurate up to date records on the chosen case management system of progress against individual support plans; safety plans and outcomes information.
• With customer agreement, liaise with other agencies to facilitate access to support including Adult Social Care, Criminal Justice services, Health services, employment and training agencies.
• Support the customers to access community resources including attendance at Actions Tenancy Ready Sessions
• Build relationships with other agencies with a view to improving the quality of wrap around support services and improve the long term sustainability of outcomes.
• Implement existing policies and procedures and to input into the development of new policies and procedures.
• Positively promote and engage in the delivery of support models employed by Action and work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure that Action offers the best possible service to clients, in the most appropriate way.
• Actively participate in achieving key performance indicator targets as set by Action Housing and the Local Authority.
• Contribute to regular reports on the service as required.
• Attend regular Steering group meetings, Homeless Forum and Rough Sleeper action group meetings and report on client progress.
• Build and maintain networks with staff from other agencies to ensure the Housing First pilot is widely known and promoted.
• Work in partnership with the Local Authority outreach team and other homeless services as part of the RSAP funding.
  Provide temporary cover for colleagues as required
  Person Specification