Senior Support Worker

We are seeking compassionate caregivers to join our premium home care team, providing meaningful support to elderly and disabled individuals who deserve dignified care, personal assistance, and professional service in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes.

Job Description: Senior Support Worker

Position: Senior Support WorkerLocation: West Lothian/Edinburgh with travel to client locationsEmployment Type: Full-timeSalary: Competitive annual salary

About the Role

The Senior Support Worker is a hands-on supervisory role, combining the direct delivery of personal care and housing support with responsibility for supervising, developing and quality-assuring the practice of our Support Worker team across three local authority areas.

The post holder will spend approximately 28 hours per week delivering care directly to service users, and approximately 10 hours per week on supervisory, coordination and office-based duties. They will act as the senior operational point of contact for service users, families and external professionals, and will deputise for the Service Manager in relation to day-to-day care operations.

Key Responsibilities

Personal care and support

• Deliver personal care to service users in their own homes in accordance with their personal plans, including assistance with washing, bathing, dressing, grooming, oral care, toileting and continence care.
• Support service users with nutrition and hydration, including meal preparation, assistance with eating and drinking, and monitoring and recording food and fluid intake where required.
• Support service users with mobility, transfers, repositioning and pressure area care in line with their assessed needs and risk assessments.
• Deliver housing support to service users, including assistance with daily living skills, household tasks, correspondence, appointments and accessing community resources.
• Provide companionship and emotional support, promoting each service user’s dignity, choice, independence and wellbeing at all times.

Complex care and moving & handling

• Undertake two-carer (2:1) hoist-assisted transfers for service users assessed by an Occupational Therapist as requiring hoist transfers, in strict accordance with the individual’s moving and handling risk assessment and hoist protocol.
• Carry out pre-transfer safety checks including hoist battery status, sling condition and correct sling selection, and clearance of the transfer area.
• Support service users with catheter care, stoma care and other clinical support tasks where these have been appropriately delegated, and where the post holder has been assessed as competent.
• Recognise and respond appropriately to changes in a service user’s physical or mental condition, escalating concerns promptly to the Service Manager and relevant health professionals.

Medication

• Provide assistance with medication where this forms part of a service user’s assessed personal plan and in accordance with the Mercy Hearts Care Medication Policy.
• Accurately complete Medication Administration Records (MAR) where medication support is delivered, and report any medication errors, refusals or concerns immediately.
• Respect the autonomy of service users who self-administer their own medication, providing only such assistance as the individual requests and as is recorded in their personal plan.

Recording

• Record all care delivered contemporaneously and accurately in the organisation’s digital care management system at the point of care.
• Produce clear, factual, respectful and legible records that evidence the care provided and the service user’s response to it.

Supervision and development of Support Workers

• Provide structured, recorded supervision to Support Workers across Edinburgh, West Lothian and North Lanarkshire on a regular basis, in line with SSSC and Care Inspectorate expectations.
• Carry out direct observations of practice, providing constructive feedback and identifying development needs.
• Act as a role model of good practice, coaching and mentoring Support Workers in person-centred care, dignity, communication and safe working.
• Support the induction of newly recruited Support Workers, including those recruited locally in North Lanarkshire to form the dedicated second team required by our registration condition.
• Assess and sign off practical competencies, including safe moving and handling, hoist operation, sling selection, infection prevention and control, and medication support.
• Identify training needs and contribute to the organisation’s training plan; support staff undertaking SVQ qualifications.

Coordination of care delivery

• Coordinate care delivery and contribute to rota planning across three local authority areas, ensuring continuity of carer and that all commissioned visits are safely covered.
• Ensure that two-carer packages are appropriately staffed at all times and that no hoist-assisted transfer is undertaken by a lone worker.
• Plan efficient, geographically sensible rounds that minimise travel and maximise time spent with service users.
• Respond to short-notice changes, absences and emergencies, arranging cover and escalating to the Service Manager where necessary.
• Act as the senior operational point of contact for service users and their families, responding to queries, concerns and requests promptly and professionally.
• Liaise with social workers, Occupational Therapists, district nurses, GPs and other health and social care professionals in relation to service users’ care and support.
• Attend care reviews, multi-disciplinary meetings and assessments as required, representing the service professionally.
• Ensure that recommendations from external professionals (for example Occupational Therapy moving and handling assessments) are promptly reflected in personal plans, risk assessments and practice.

Personal planning and risk assessment

• Contribute to the development, review and updating of personal plans and risk assessments, ensuring they are person-centred, outcome-focused and reflect what matters to the individual.
• Ensure personal plans are reviewed within required timescales and following any change in need or significant event.
• Involve service users, and where appropriate their families and representatives, meaningfully in the planning and review of their own care.

Quality assurance and compliance

• Monitor the quality of care delivery through record audits, observations and feedback from service users and families.
• Support the Service Manager with quality assurance activity, internal audits, self-evaluation and preparation for Care Inspectorate inspection.
• Identify, record and escalation concerns, incidents, accidents, near misses and safeguarding matters in accordance with organisational policy and statutory duties.
• Support the implementation of improvement actions arising from audits, inspections, complaints or incidents.

Deputising

• Deputise for the Service Manager in relation to day-to-day care operations during periods of absence.
• Participate in the on-call rota as required, providing out-of-hours support and advice to Support Workers.
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience delivering personal care in a care at home service or comparable regulated care setting
• Experience of delivering complex care, including two-carer (2:1) support and hoist-assisted transfers
• Experience of supervising, mentoring, inducting or assessing the competency of care staff
• Experience of contributing to personal plans, risk assessments and care documentation
• Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills
• Experience of liaising with social workers, Occupational Therapists and other health and social care professionals
• Proficiency in care management software and Microsoft Office
• Experience of supporting people with catheter care, continence needs or long-term conditions
• Experience of rota planning or coordinating care delivery
• Thorough working knowledge of the Health and Social Care Standards
• Experience with Care Inspectorate regulations
• Previous experience in home care services
• Management qualification or training
• Knowledge of local health and social services
• Awareness of data protection duties in a care setting

What We Offer

• Competitive salary with annual reviews
• Professional development and training opportunities
• Flexible working arrangements where possible
• Company vehicle or mileage allowance
• 5.6 weeks per annum annual leave plus public holidays