Day Opportunities Support Worker in New Milton

As a Day Opportunities Support Worker, you'll be supporting both young adults with learning and physical disabilities and older adults with dementia. We understand everyone has their own unique needs, abilities and interests – so you'll help them engage in fun, personalised activities that build social networks, promoting choice and inclusion whilst ensuring they are safe and well.

Due to the remit of this role to provide services/personal care to vulnerable women, and hence the sensitive nature of the work, only female applicants can be considered for this post, in accordance with the provisions of the Occupational Requirement (Equality Act 2010, Schedule 9, Part 1, Paragraph 1).

What you’ll do:

• Engage in fulfilling personalised activities: Support service users to take part in activities tailored to their individual physical, mental, social and emotional needs, such as sensory experiences, cooking, arts and crafts, gardening, bowling, trips to the cinema and sharing their hobbies.
• Help with daily living activities: Support service users with eating, drinking, mobility, personal care and medication, ensuring everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
• Provide tailored support: Support wheelchair users with moving and positioning activities, as well as supporting service users who present challenging behaviours through positive behaviour support, following robust induction and training.
• Promote community involvement: Support service users in their involvement in local community projects, helping them to integrate and develop important social networks.
• Build relationships: Establish positive connections with service users, celebrating their achievements and milestones.

What we’re looking for:

• You may already have experience of providing care, but it’s not essential - we provide all the training you need to be a great Day Opportunities Support Worker. What’s more important to us is that you have the right values, skills and motivations to enable people to lead full and active lives as independently as possible.
• Patience and dedication: A genuine desire to help others and make a positive and lasting difference to their lives. Your commitment to promoting independence will empower our service users to learn, grow in confidence and enjoy a wide range of interesting activities.
• Empathy and compassion: Understand and share the feelings of others to build trust and provide emotional support.
• Flexible and resilient: Responsive, flexible and able to work without direct supervision. Resilient under pressure and can adapt positively to changing situations and demands.
• Communication skills: Clear and effective communicator and the ability to interact with service users with a diverse range of complex communication and sensory support needs.
• Team player: Enjoy working closely with others to provide the best support possible.

Take a look at our Candidate Pack for more information about the Day Opportunities Support Worker role, team and our values. The section ‘About you’ explains what specific knowledge, skills and experience we want you to tell us about. Make sure you explain how you meet these requirements and demonstrate our values, in your application.

Rewarding work: Make a real difference in the lives of our service users, knowing that you can create a lasting impact while building a great career.

Career growth and development: We invest in your future. With ongoing development opportunities, you’ll have the chance to enhance your skills and your career.

Supportive environment: Work in a friendly and collaborative team who feel proud of the work they do to support people in our community.

Employee support: Access to Health Assured's comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme to support your physical and mental wellbeing, including 24/7 telephone support, a suite of online resources, and legal and financial advice.

Competitive benefits package: Including generous annual leave entitlement, occupational sick pay, and access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

For this role there is no requirement to work evenings, weekends, or bank holidays. The working pattern is Monday, Thursday and Friday.

Please note: We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role and therefore it is essential that you already have the right to work in the UK before applying. Applicants can expect to hear from us within two weeks of the advertised closing date.

It may be helpful to review the following roles you may have experience of could include: Care Assistant, Mental Health Support Worker, Community Support Worker, Home Carer, Disability Support Worker, Health Care Assistant, Activity Coordinator, Day Activities Coordinator, Day Service Facilitator, Day Opportunities Facilitator, Wellbeing Coordinator, Learning Support Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Special Educational Needs Coordinator and SEND Assistant.

Values Based Recruitment: We recruit for attitudes and values in Adults’ Health and Care. We invite you to evidence how you demonstrate our 5 core values in your application. For more information on our values, please refer to the candidate pack.

This post is subject to a Criminal Records Check.

Contact Details for an Informal Discussion: For an informal chat about the role, please contact Nicki Ward, Day Opportunities Manager on nicki.ward@hants.gov.uk

Hampshire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. We expect all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment.

In order to combat discrimination, no unnecessary conditions or requirements will be applied which could have a disproportionately adverse effect on any one group. All sections of the population will have equal access to jobs. No applicant or employee will receive less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership and pregnancy or maternity, unless a Genuine Occupational Requirement (GOR) applies.

We are a Disability Confident Employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive.