Complex Lives - Intensive Support Worker

Location: Unit 4 Nelson Trade Centre, Nelson Street, Belfast, BT15 1BH

Salary: £25,394.88

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 35 per week Varied Shifts

Employee Benefits:

• Enhanced Annual Leave – 35 days per year, increasing as your length of service increases
• Paid Sick Leave
• Company maternity & paternity pay
• Contributory Pension scheme
• Health Cash Back & Rewards Plan
• Christmas Savers club
• Bluelight discount card
• Plus, many opportunities to learn and develop within the organisation

Depaul is a cross border charity supporting some of the most marginalised individuals, couples and families experiencing homelessness. Our mission is to end homelessness and change the lives of those affected by it. We are a values led organisation and aim, at all times, to live and breathe these values in our everyday work. Our values are based on four key principles:

• We celebrate the potential of people
• We put our words into action
• We aim to take a wider role in civil society
• We believe in rights and responsibilities

The primary role of the post holder will be to act as a trusted key worker and to ensure effective coordination of a wraparound support plan for each client which has been developed through the Belfast Complex Lives Multi Disciplined Team (MDT) process.

You will be a member of a multi-disciplined team using holistic approaches to support Depaul service users. Working to a housing-led, low threshold, harm reduction approach, where service users receive a high degree of support and advice. Depaul has a commitment to service user participation and to empowering our service users to manage their own lives.

Your role will ensure effective case management for a caseload of approx. 7-10 highly complex and entrenched individuals who experience multiple connected and dependent challenges, usually including homeless/unstable housing, problematic drug use, mental ill health, offending behaviour, poor physical health, often underpinned by trauma.

To provide effective ongoing case management and relationship building with service users, and those broader agencies/services supporting them, via sustained contact (including triage, initial support, detailed assessment and care planning).

Supporting people to engage with services, to stabilise and to settle into accommodation settings.

To connect with local community support and to make positive lifestyle choices to progress in the Service Users recovery journey.

Liaise with Belfast Complex Lives MDT partners and other agencies to secure support for, and activity towards, developing and delivering wrap around, dynamic and responsive support plans.

Organise key worker sessions with individual clients based on need; focusing on responsibility-taking, reflection, action planning, and overcoming crisis and trigger points that may result in disengagement.

Management and monitoring of progress; further develop and update support plans demonstrating progression, related activity and achievement against outcomes.

Develop effective working relationships with staff across key Community, Voluntary and Statutory Services, including the convening of multi‑agency meetings and case conferences/reviews to agree actions and ownership from services when/where needed.

Regularly review and address barriers to progress in partnership and with individual contacts.

Report progress to Complex Lives MDT and elevate issues as necessary.

Be responsible and resilient in the face of challenging behaviour and individuals who may be in crisis; disclose and discuss risks responsibly, work within existing data sharing frameworks, acknowledge areas of limitation; and liaise with all linked professionals responsibly.

Use innovative and creative thinking to find solutions and identify key interventions which will have a positive or preventative impact on the individual and reduce crisis management and/or disengagement.

Work within the wider Complex Lives MDT members and fellow support workers to define and agree priorities, share workloads, and support colleagues to achieve team objectives.

Adapt to new ideas and reflective practice to develop and enhance future service delivery.

Provide support and direct input to development work and practice to establish increasingly preventative approaches to supporting people with Complex Lives.

Provide learning from the approach into service and system development work; contributing to the ongoing development of the Complex Lives approach and work within Belfast, to support vulnerable people.

To ensure that Health and Safety standards are met within the service in accordance with Depaul’s Health and Safety policy and procedures.

To undertake assigned duties regarding the overall health and safety and security of the service and utilize available security systems to manage risk relevant to the service.

To ensure completion of all relevant wellbeing and health and safety checks.

Carry out service administration tasks such as upkeep of client records, financial transactions, internal and external reports, incident and accident management, and other record keeping relevant to the role.

To remain vigilant to IT and cyber risks and comply at all times with Depaul’s IT Security policies.

To be a contributing team player, taking part in handover, team meetings, core training, the mentoring of volunteers and supporting other team members in ensuring all decision making is appropriate and consistent.

To at all times undertake your role in a professional manner maintaining a high quality standard of work in line with Depaul Values and ethos.

The above list is not exhaustive; additional areas of responsibility may be added over time and flexibility to cover for other staff roles is required from time to time.

Essential Criteria:

• A formal Level 3 qualification in a social care field, e.g. diploma in health and social care or equivalent.
• At least 2 years paid experience working with vulnerable groups.
• A full driving licence and full access to a car insured for business purposes.
• Willingness to undertake regular travel in the local area.

This Post is subject to an Enhanced Access NI check. Having a criminal record will not necessarily debar you from working with Depaul. This will depend on the nature of the position, together with the circumstances and background of your offences or other information contained on a disclosure certificate.

This post is subject to NISCC registration, if you do not hold a valid registration this must be completed within your probationary period.

Depaul strives to create a diverse and inclusive programme and is committed to ensuring equality of access to our opportunities and equality of treatment for our staff in all our policies and practices. We welcome applications from individuals aged 18 and over from a diverse range of backgrounds.