Are you looking to take the next step in your social care career?

Do you want an opportunity to make a genuine and positive difference to people’s lives?

Then Autism Initiatives wants to hear from you!

We have an exciting opportunity for Senior Support Worker’s to join our West Lothian Occupational Team!

The Senior Support Worker (SSW) will support the management team in developing and maintaining the organisation’s standards relating to autism specific and person centred practices. Liaising with the organisation’s practice support team, the SSW will assist in the preparation of support and communication plans, ensuring consistent practices throughout support networks.

The SSW will assist in the supervision and direction of the staff team while maintaining the high standards of support in line with the organisation’s quality standards and mission statement. Knowledge of current legislation and regulations relating to the social care sector and the requirements of the Care Inspectorate is essential for this role. The post holder will also be expected to commit to on-call duties.

The successful candidate will be required to register with the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).

This is a truly rewarding role, with the opportunity for you to develop your skills and knowledge and fulfil your career aspirations.

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

*New Development - West Harbour*

We are near completion of an exciting, brand-new housing support service in the Granton area of Edinburgh. We are therefore looking for wonderful people to make these houses into homes!

In preparation for the tenants moving into their flats from May 2024, we are now building our team of support staff. This is an exciting opportunity to work with the supported individuals to make sure their move to their new home is as positive as possible, and help them to settle into their new homes, and live happily there. Not only will you be directly supporting autistic people to ensure they have a great quality of life, but you will be part of the team who develop this brand new service.

Experience is not essential, but a genuine passion to making a difference to the lives of autistic people, as well as a positive attitude, is key to being successful in this role.

Benefits of working with us include:

• Competitive Salary - £11.97 to £12.40 per hour (under review)

• Sleepover rate paid at £10.90 per hour

• 31 days Annual Leave Entitlement, including bank holidays

• Your birthday off every year, to treat yourself!

• Ongoing Learning & Development throughout your Support Work role

• Opportunity to undertake SVQ Level 3 qualification

• Career Progression Opportunities

• Employee Assistance Programme

• Auto-enrolment pension scheme

• Cycle to Work scheme

• Medicash Healthcare Plan

• Eligibility to become a Blue Light Card Member for online & high street discounts

As a Support Worker you will promote the positive health and well-being of the people that you support, enabling them to have a meaningful life and encouraging them to live as independently as possible.

Given the nature of this role, successful applicants must register with the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme and Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) or equivalent regulatory body.

This is a truly rewarding role, with the opportunity for you to develop your skills and knowledge and fulfil your career aspirations.

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.