Job Title: Project Worker
Contract: Permanent – 18 hours per week
Location: Based at our Lochgelly office with travel throughout Fife (additional mileage payment)
Salary: £27,107.40 - £30,527.24 pro rata (depending on experience)
Mission Statement
Our long-term vision is to end youth homelessness. Our more immediate mission is to ensure that every young person in Scotland has access to expert youth specific services to assist them to avoid, survive, and move on from homelessness; making it rare, brief, and non-recurring.
Context
Working as part of our innovative Fife Short Term Housing Support Project, the Project Worker will work directly with young people age 16-25 yrs to coordinate and provide emotional and practical support to avoid, resolve and move on from homelessness.
Working directly with young people in their home or within a community setting the Project Worker will support young people to secure/maintain a permanent home, improve their independent living skills, access other services, manage finances and engage with resources within their communities.
The Project Workers are responsible for completing support plans and risk assessments and acting as co-ordinator for any key people involved in the care and support of young people.
Reporting to – Team Leader/Service Manager
Team size - 6.5 Project Workers, Team Lead and Service Manager
Responsibilities
Service Delivery
- Offer and provide practical, personal, emotional and social support to young people, collaborating with colleagues where necessary and practical.
- Actively and proactively coordinate and plan the provision of support for all the young people assigned to you, manging their competing and varying priorities and needs.
- Assess young people’s skills and abilities and work with them in a person-centred way to produce support plans, based on their needs and goals, with regular reviews.
- Assist young people in coordinating, building and maintaining a network of internal and external support.
- Participate in the referral, selection and placement process to ensure available places are appropriately and promptly filled.
- Maintain regular and accurate case notes, recording support provision and young people’s achievements and progress.
- Participate in the "on call" rota in accordance with agreed guidelines.
Service Development
- Participate in strategic and operational planning and development of day-to-day services.
- Participate in the gathering and processing of relevant statistical information to support senior colleagues with regular reviews and evaluations of services.
- Form and maintain effective and meaningful partnerships with external agencies.
Quality & Compliance
- Ensure a thorough awareness, application and adherence of organisational policies and procedures and promote best practice.
- Contribute to achieving the agreed standards of service and targets reflecting the aims and objectives of the Rock Trust, service level agreements or guidelines provided by statutory and regulatory authorities.
- Be aware of the composition of the annual service budget and collaborate, where appropriate and directed, with senior colleagues in ensuring a cost-efficient service.
- Ensure safe and hospitable environments within the properties used by the Rock Trust and, where directed, support the identification, acquirement and set up of new properties.
Leadership and Development:
- As part of the Fife Team, provide effective and professional leadership, supporting and promoting the activities of Rock Trust and contributing significantly to building a high performing organisation.
- Line manage and provide formal and informal support to allocated staff, students and/or volunteers.
- Nurture a culture of Respect, Safety, Positivity and Fairness, that allows our colleagues to thrive, take appropriate risks and learn from mistakes.
- Identify and make recommendations for improvements to contribute to the continuous operational improvement of the organisation.
- To provide visible leadership and motivate staff to ensure that delegated responsibilities are achieved, and effective communication maintained.
- Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation, policies and best practice related to youth homelessness and community care.
Other
- To act in accordance with Rock Trust values.
- To undertake other duties in line with the role as required.
This job description is not exhaustive. It merely acts as a guide and may be amended to meet the changing requirements of the Rock Trust at any time after discussion with the post holder.
Person Specification:
Essential
- A willingness to work towards a practice qualification that meets the criteria recognised by the SSSC.
- Experience of initiating and maintaining constructive and engaging relationships with young people and assessing their strengths and needs.
- Knowledge and experience of homelessness, mental health and isolation issues
- Working knowledge and experience of person-centred practice.
- Excellent communicator, including verbal, listening and written, with attention to detail.
- Ability to manage competing and varying priorities and demands of young people, in coordination with relevant colleagues.
- Confident in problem solving, using individual initiative and reasoned judgement to develop new ideas and solutions.
- Strong IT skills, including using Microsoft packages (Word, Outlook, Teams). A practice qualification recognised by the SSSC
- The willingness and ability to travel and adapt to changing work locations as necessary; A full UK driving license and access to a car
Desirable
- A practice qualification that meets the criteria recognised by the SSSC.
- Knowledge and experience of supporting looked after young people.
- Knowledge and experience of advocating on behalf of young people.
- Knowledge of psychologically informed environment (PIE) and trauma informed approaches.
- Experience of providing line management and provision of formal and informal support to allocated staff and/or volunteers.
- Knowledge of key strategic aspects of projects, including budget, evaluation and development.