Support Officer

We are a UK housing association committed to a new vision – providing homes people love to live in. With over 38,000 homes in management across London and southern England, we provide a wide range of homes for social, affordable, and private rent, specialist services, as well as homes for sale and shared ownership. Our 70,000+ customers come from a diverse range of backgrounds with varying levels of income. We’re here to provide them all with homes that are safe, high quality and sustainable.

Purpose

We are seeking a compassionate and dedicated Support Officer to work closely with Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) Care Leavers. The role involves supporting these young people in their transition to independence, including moving from supported housing to independent living within the community. The ideal candidate will have experience working with vulnerable individuals, a strong understanding of housing and benefits systems, and a commitment to helping young people gain independence.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop personalised support plans with young people, setting clear tasks and objectives.
• Regularly review and update support plans to ensure progress and address any changing needs.
• Identify potential risks to the safety and wellbeing of young people.
• Create and maintain risk assessments, updating them as required to reflect any changes in circumstances or needs.
• Help young people in managing the transition from supported housing to independent living, ensuring they are fully prepared and equipped to live autonomously.
• Forge and maintain relationships with partner agencies, stakeholders, and other relevant agencies.
• Ensure effective communication and collaboration with these parties to support the young people.
• Recognise and report any safeguarding concerns related to vulnerable individuals, adhering to established procedures.
• Attend case conferences, safeguarding meetings, and any other required gatherings to ensure appropriate action and follow-up.
• Ensure that all relevant records and documentation are completed accurately and submitted on time.
• Maintain high standards of data integrity and confidentiality in all client interactions.
• Empower clients by promoting responsibility and self-sufficiency in maintaining safety, security, and cleanliness within the project.
• Ensure adherence to internal policies and procedures, and report any maintenance or repair issues promptly.
• Work outside of regular office hours as required, delivering services and ensuring support to young people.
• Follow lone working procedures to ensure safety while performing duties in non-office settings.

Knowledge, Skills And Competencies

• Educated to GCSE level or equivalent in Maths and English (Grades A*- C)
• Experience of providing support to diverse client groups
• A working knowledge and understanding of how to support people in achieving and maintaining independence
• Housing or Support related qualification
• Ability to work under own initiative
• Ability to network and build strong relationships with partner agencies, community and key stakeholders.
• Organisational skills, including time management and ability to meet targets
• Ability to communicate effectively at different levels.
• Ability to use IT packages and management information systems.
• Ability to deal with distressed and aggressive clients
• Driving Licence and use of own transport

Whatever the role, we want you to bring your knowledge and experience to play your part in improving people’s lives.

Benefits

As an employee of A2Dominion, we want you to feel rewarded and have a choice of flexible benefits, salary exchange benefits, and rewards and discounts that work for you, wherever you are in your life. We offer a wide range of staff benefits. For this role, these include:

• 25 days’ holiday (Plus Bank Holidays) increasing up to 28 days with 3 years of service
• Up to 8% contributory pension
• Flexible working
• Investment in your learning and development.

If you require a reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process, please contact our Talent Team to request: recruitment@a2dominion.co.uk

A2Dominion Group is a Disability Confident Employer which means that we are committed to employing disabled people and will: actively look to attract and recruit disabled people, provide a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process, offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job, be flexible with assessing people so disabled applicants have the best opportunity to demonstrate that they can do the job, make reasonable adjustments as required.

At A2Dominion Group, we recognise the positive value of diversity, promote equality and inclusivity in our hiring processes. We always aim to recruit the person who is most suited to the job and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds – men and women, people of all ages, sexual orientations, nationalities, religions, and beliefs.