Caseworker Victims First Support Service

**Victims First Support Service - Caseworker**

**Location**: Oxfordshire

**Salary**: £26,000 per annum

Our client is an established registered charity of 29 years’ operating a range of support programmes across the three Thames Valley counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

The charity are now recruiting a team of staff to run a new Victims’ First support service for adults across the Thames Valley, offering specialist support for adult victims and their families, providing them with crisis intervention, advocacy and longer-termpractical and emotional support.

**The Role**

To provide prevention, intervention and crisis support to anyone who is/has experienced or is deemed to be at risk of any form of harm (i.e. sexual, modern slavery, criminal, financial) and to identify and engage with these individuals on a one-to-one basis,enabling them to access services and make positive, empowering choices to change their lives. A knowledge of the full range of civil, criminal and other practical support options available, and the role of an independent advisor within them is necessary.

**Overview of Key Tasks**
- To provide crisis intervention & support to service users in a variety of circumstances.
- To manage a caseload of complex adult client cases, providing practical & emotional support.
- To conduct risk assessments, do case management & safety planning in partnership with other key agencies as directed by the Service Manager or Area Manager.
- To advocate in a range of settings on behalf of the service user.
- To help service users to make informed choices about their future options.
- To support throughout the Criminal Justice process or any civil proceedings as appropriate.

**Skills, Knowledge and Abilities**

Essential:

- Experience of direct support work with victims or other vulnerable people including providing emotional and practical support
- Excellent caseworker with good assessment, motivational and empowerment skills
- Organising, prioritising, risk management & problem-solving skills
- Experience of working cooperatively and effectively in a team
- Willingness to be able to work flexible hours when necessary and be part of an on-call rota
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills including presentation skills
- PC literate (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
- Compassionate towards the individuals the service supports
- A driving licence and own transport
- Sensitivity to cultural differences and the ability to work in diverse settings and with people with diverse needs.
- Good knowledge of a full range of civil, criminal and practical options available to service users.
- Good knowledge of restorative interventions or ability to learn them and make use of them with appropriate service users.
- Knowledge and skills to operate within a trauma informed approach.
- Ability to provide non-judgemental, non-directive and confidential support to service users in crisis
- A clear understanding the gendered nature of some crime types crime, and a clear understanding of how different crime types disproportionately affect different groups of people
- A commitment to working within an equality and diversity framework and an awareness of barriers to accessing support

Desirable:

- Ability to determine strategies, outcomes & opportunities to develop the role
- Experience and knowledge of exploitation and modern-day slavery, sexual violence and other complex issues.
- Experience of working with diverse groups with multiple complex needs.
- Mental Health Awareness including the impact on an individual and the services available
- Have an ISVA qualification or be prepared to undertake training
- Knowledge of domestic abuse - at least level 2 DASH training
- Awareness of differing counselling approaches

**For this role you will also need**:

- The ability to travel within Thames Valley and occasionally outside of.
- To be free from any criminal conviction which would conflict with the responsibilities of the post; you will be required to have a DBS Enhanced disclosure, or a portable DBS
- To be able to deal with all information on a confidential basis and understand data protection requirements.
- To have Citizenship of the UK or the EU, or have entitlement to work in the UK

**To Apply**

This is an equal opportunities employer; the aim of their policy is to ensure no job applicant, employee or worker is discriminated against either directly or indirectly on the grounds of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, religious belief, sex, maritalstatus, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, age or disability.The charity does not disbar applicants with criminal convictions and are mindful of the requirements of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, 1974