Support Assistant

**Job Title: Support Assistant**
**Contract Type: Permanent**
**Part time: 37.5 hours per week**
**Salary: £21,255**
**Working Pattern: Shift rota**
**Location: High Wycombe, Bearbrook place**

Want to make a real difference to the lives of people? For over 90 years, The Riverside Group has been providing affordable housing across the UK to people as well as care for the elderly and support for those who face homelessness.

**The difference you’ll make**

You will be key in the day-to-day running of one of our supported housing services. We don’t run care homes, so there’s no need to provide personal care. The priority in your role includes the safety and wellbeing of everyone in our accommodation, including our customers.

Working with people who have a range of needs, you could be doing any number of things. From supporting customers in conversations with calls from their GP, Social Services, or Benefits teams - to dealing with the emergency services including the Police and Ambulance, when the need arises.

You’ll log all incidents to make sure we have an accurate record of events. And when a customer leaves, you will clean and prepare their room, ready for the next occupant. This role also includes cleaning of the communal areas of the scheme.

**So, who are you?**

At times this role can be challenging but most of the time it can be incredibly rewarding. You will need to be resilient, empathetic, and able to leave your work at work and not take it home with you.

As a minimum requirement you’ll need:

- Experience of working with people in a customer facing environment

**Ideally, you’ll also have**:

- An understanding of supporting vulnerable people - this could include having your own lived experience of homelessness or drug or alcohol addiction

**Enjoy the rewards**

Working with us, you’ll enjoy competitive pay, 28 days holidays plus bank holidays, a wide range of benefits, flexible working, and the chance to learn valuable new skills. We empower our people to do great work by investing in learning, personal development, and technology.

If you’re the kind of person that wants to do a really great job and make a difference to our customers, we think you’ll love it here. Sound like a challenge you’d like to take on? Then get in touch and let’s talk about how you can help us transform lives and revitalise neighbourhoods.

We encourage applicants from all sections of the community so that we can truly reflect the neighbourhoods in which we work.

**Role Profile**

The Support Assistant is responsible for the delivery of individual, positive outcome focused support packages to clients of Riverside’s supported schemes and ensuring that the support service promotes empowerment and independence. It is imperative to work as part of a staff team committed to “best practice” in the social housing field working proactively with clients in achieving their personalised support outcomes.

**Role requires you to**:

- Deliver a ‘best practice’ support service, appropriate to clients’ needs.
- Ensure the delivery of individual personalised support packages, reflective of different client needs, including culture and diversity issues.
- Assist clients with day-to-day tenancy issues, payment of rent, claiming benefits, preparing units to let.
- Have knowledge of ‘best practice’ in both crisis intervention and planned support working.
- Undertake referrals and assessments of potential clients, working with them to identify the most appropriate housing solution for their needs.
- Ensure clients have access to relevant external support services.
- Work with clients to agree and set goals and actions.
- Meet clearly defined client outcome targets through key-working, support plans, risk assessments and other interventions.
- Ensure that opportunities for education, training and employment opportunities are integral to the support service. The aim being to enable clients to develop the life skills to live as independently as possible.
- Maintain accurate and timely records of all activities including the maintenance of a support planning database.
- Provide practical support and information to clients when entering the service and throughout their involvement with the service, e.g., assisting clients in the completion of occupancy agreements and welfare benefit claims
- Work in line with ‘health and safety’ and safeguarding requirements to ensure the overall
safety and security of the client.
- Report repairs and maintenance needs on behalf of the client following agreed procedures.
- Promote and encourage a high level of client involvement, consultation, and communication.
- To understand your role in the organisation and to be accountable for your contribution to maximise profitability
- To understand how your job contributes to the overall purpose of the organisation and be accountable for delivering it in the most efficient way.
- To understand that your efforts will be cl