Would you like to make a difference to a person’s quality of life? Would you like to learn BSL while being paid? We are looking for caring and motivated Support Workers to support deaf BSL users to join our team. Could that be you?

Who are we?

Deaf Action is a deaf-led charity, supporting and celebrating deaf people. We were established in 1835 and work with deaf people across Scotland and the South of England. Our work is geared towards empowering all deaf people to achieve their potential and fully participate in society, with equality of rights, access, and opportunity.

As well as our outreach service in Edinburgh, we are expanding our service provision in Glasgow and are looking for people who can make a major contribution to our plans for innovation and growth and who have the commitment and enthusiasm to contribute to the work of our support services to Deaf people throughout Edinburgh and Glasgow.

You can find out more about us at deafaction.org.

About you

We are looking for people who are caring, fun, motivated, willing to learn and show initiative. However, you would need some experience of working in a support service and managing /overseeing a team.

We will provide on the job training with the opportunity to complete formal qualifications in social care. If you have knowledge of BSL, or are a BSL user that is a bonus, however we will provide training if not.

The ideal candidates will be fully committed to our values, which can be found on our website.

The role

You will be leading a team to support *deaf people living in the community. As well as leading a team you will be lone working in the community, delivering a person-centred service supporting deaf people within their own living environment, to enable them to fully participate in the decisions affecting their lives, ensuring that wherever possible, service users benefit from informed choice, control, and independence. This will include both activities at home and within the community which will promote independence and social inclusion.

You will be accountable to the Support Services Area Manager. By working together, you will ensure that a consistent, high quality support service is provided to deaf service users in their own homes, and that staff are supported to develop and maintain such a service.

Due to the nature of this role, its essential that you can drive and have access to a car.

*deaf: this to includes Deaf Sign Language users, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing people.

You will be asked:

• To actively monitor and develop individual and team performance by ensuring effective supervision and Performance Development Reviews/Reports (PDRs).

• Be responsible for any risk assessments at the service users home as part of your Health and Safety responsibilities.

• To provide clear direction, co-ordination, feedback, and day to day line management for the work of a delegated group of staff. Thus, ensuring their motivation to provide outcome focused, person centred services.

• To assess any new service users for the service and match them with staffs.

• To be involved in recruitment for new staff for the service.

• To take an active role in assessments / recordings and to work with service users to develop their skills and abilities to achieve identified outcomes.

• To assist service users with personal care tasks where appropriate.

• To be involved, as appropriate, with all household tasks, maximising service users’ participation.

• To record the day-to-day finances (where relevant) and household budgets of service users.

• To enable service users to access information to be fully informed of their rights and valid expectations from the service provided.

• To ensure the health, safety and security of individuals and their environment.

What is on offer? What do we offer?

• Occupational pension scheme with employer contributions of 6%.

• 32 days leave pro rata (including bank holidays) pro rata for part time.

• 24/7 access to an Employee Assistance Programme provided by Health Assured.

• In-house Mental Health First Aiders.

• Access to the Cycle to Work Scheme and IT Voucher Scheme.

• Ongoing support for learning and development through our PDR process

• Death in service benefit

This is a newly created post within Forth Valley, which has been developed in response to the long standing need for us to extend the reach of our services to ensure we are a genuine Forth Valley wide service, expanding our provision for people who are deaf or have hearing loss who have not recently or previously engaged with our services.

Through provision of information sessions to community groups, employers and service providers, the Deaf Advocate will identify people with hearing loss who have previously had no or limited knowledge or contact with sensory services, build relationships with them and identify further ways that we can provide the support they need.

For example, FVSC currently deliver an outreach social group for blind people in Stirling, one of the key objectives of this post will be to examine the feasibility of creating more outreach social group provision for Deaf people and those with Hearing Loss in Clackmannanshire and Stirling areas.

In addition to extensive networking, the Deaf Advocate will be responsible for administration and reporting to line manager and other Team members as required. Reports are likely to include gathering feedback from participants, including testimonials, keeping a record of the number and location of activities carried out by the Advocate, and number of people engaged with and the outcomes that happen as a result of our activities.

You will be helping disabled people feel unstoppable. As Family Support Team Lead in the North of Scotland you will be delivering vital support to families affected by spina bifida and hydrocephalus.

You will be the person who will empower them to reach their potential, offering one to one support and coordinating chances for people to get together, make friends and build their support network.

You will be the person that raises awareness of spina bifida and hydrocephalus within the community and with service providers to ensure that no one affected by our conditions feels alone.

What Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland can offer you

Flexibility – We offer flexible working, including the opportunity to work from home or around caring responsibilities.

Motivated and supportive colleagues – Staff scored SBH Scotland as 9 out of 10 for motivation and a supportive work environment.

An opportunity to express yourself – Staff scored SBH Scotland as 8 out of 10 for being supportive in taking risks with new ideas.

We also offer: Workplace pension scheme, salary sacrifice scheme, death in service benefit, childcare voucher scheme, 30 days annual leave entitlement and 4 days Public Holidays.

Role reports to: CEO

Key duties and responsibilities:

To be as unstoppable as the people we support.

• To coordinate the delivery of engaging social groups for our children, young people, adults and their carers.
• To provide one to one support to people with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and their families – offering specialist information and advice.
• To work with families and people with spina bifida and hydrocephalus to help them advocate for services and support.

To be a team player who unifies people around our cause.

• To liaise and work in partnership with other statutory and voluntary organisations to respond to and develop resources to meet the needs of service users.
• To manage and motivate a small team of sessional workers and recruit volunteers.
• To work with fundraising and communications colleagues in identifying stories that can promote the work of the charity and motivate our service users, supporters and staff.

A commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

• To provide regular analysis of the service’s impact.
• To ensure that reporting and recording of all service user intervention is accurate, up to date and secure.
• To gather data and feedback to learn from failures and apply learning to improve processes and service delivery.
• To ensure all Safeguarding disclosures and regular updates are notified and recorded as per current SBH Scotland guidelines.

The Independent Living team delivers a local information, advice and support service for vision impaired veterans living in Scotland. As an Independent Living Worker you will be expected to work with veterans, their families and carers to assess, plan and review their sight loss needs, in order to create and maintain independent living.

About us

We're one of Scotland's oldest charities - for more than two centuries, we've been supporting and empowering people with sight loss to live fulfilling lives. We're proud of all we've achieved in the past - but we have our sights set firmly on the future.

We're determined that no-one should face sight loss alone. We're committed to improving, diversifying and growing our services to make sure we can reach many more people with sight loss - when and where they need us.