Vocational Specialist Ambitions

APPLICATION PACK

JOB TITLE : Vocational Specialist – Ambitions

LOCATION : East Sussex

HOURS : 22.5 hours per week

REFERENCE : VS

Starting salary : £13,059 per annum £21,476* SALARY : Rising to : £13,485 per annum £22,176* (see FURTHER INFORMATION) Top of the scale : £13,932 per annum £22,912*

CLOSING DATE : Noon, Thursday 24th September 2015

INTERVIEW DATE : Friday 2nd October 2015

FURTHER INFORMATION  All salary scales at Southdown include several points. This recognises the value of staff who we believe generally develop their skills through experience within the job and the Association. New staff are usually appointed at the bottom of the scale with further increments awarded in April with each year of service, until the top of the scale is reached.  This post requires you to hold a driving licence and have access to a car for work purposes. *Plus essential car users allowance of £580 per annum JOB DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLE: Vocational Specialist

ACCOUNTABLE TO: Ambitions Project Coordinator

MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB To support people who have caring responsibilities to gain/retain employment, mainstream education or voluntary work.

To work directly with employers, educational and third sector providers, to secure employment, educational and volunteering opportunities and subsequently to provide ongoing support according to both the carer’s and the provider’s needs.

To provide specialist retention support to clients in all vocational positions, enabling them to either retain their existing employment, voluntary position, or to complete an educational course, or to support them to achieve a suitable resolution or alternative.

To promote contracted services and Southdown to external agencies and the wider community.

To hold specific responsibility and autonomy for the delivering of contract performance targets within the team.

MAIN TASKS  To promote the service and Southdown to external agencies and the wider community.

 To act as a champion to promote the Ambitions service as an important complimentary role to the work of the Carer’s Centre and other related vocational and carer providers.  To develop and maintain partnerships and networks with health care providers, carer organisations, employers, statutory, voluntary and third sector providers, the DWP, Transition Teams and Young Carers Service  To manage administrative systems that record the progress of individuals and maintain accurate records of their casework.  To update Southdown’s reporting systems, which record individual client information and vocational outcomes, meeting the performance indicators for the contract.  To undertake presentations and deliver training as required, externally to other providers, employers, clients and internally to departments within Southdown.  To attend the Carer’s Forums and networks with other vocational providers  To work in partnership with other providers to identify carers seeking to gain or retain employment, education or volunteering.  To work alongside the Ambitions Coordinator and Assistant Contract Manager to develop the packages of support being offered to the clients.  To develop and maintain referral pathways and to record referral sources into the service.  To liaise with other services and providers to provide vocational support to help maintain carer’s employment, volunteering and educational aspirations.  To be responsive to need and manage a case load of people who have caring responsibilities prioritising your own workload  To work with each client through the implementation of Southdown’s five stage ‘Vocational Framework’ to support them to achieve their vocational goals.  To provide retention support to clients and support them to maintain their employment, volunteering or education placement; this includes liaising with employers and providers, giving further advice and training if required on reasonable adjustments and support plans  To provide outreach services to individuals as necessary to allow for caring responsibilities.  To incorporate and undertake financial assessments at all stages of support using Southdown’s ‘Financial Benefit Toolkit’  To engage and devise a ‘Vocational Plan’ with clients, including vocational profiling and assessing work/volunteering/educational related support needs.  To offer on-going ‘in-work based support’ to individuals once they have secured their vocational goals, to assist them in sustaining their goal or develop further.  To participate in employer engagement, including providing education and support to employers to open up and secure employment opportunities for people who have caring responsibilities  To develop good working relationships with other organisations that can provide specific opportunities to help individuals achieve their vocational goals i.e. colleges and training providers.  To maintain a professional relationship with clients and other staff, paying particular attention to confidentiality and the maintenance of boundaries. To discuss the issue of disclosure of caring responsibilities to employers and providers, respecting the service user’s decision and choice. GENERAL  To work flexibly, as required by the service and Ambitions coordinator. This will require some working outside of normal office hours to reflect client needs and the industry’s requirements. This could include attending carer’s forums, running drop-in surgeries, offering retention support and employment start support.  This is a developing role that will require the post holder to be flexible and adapt to the needs of the service throughout the contract duration.  To work collaboratively with other Vocational Specialist colleagues in the department using a team based approach.  To adhere to all of the policies set by Southdown Housing Association specifically, Equal Opportunities, Confidentiality, Data Protection, Health and Safety requirements throughout all work practices  To be involved in creative solutions to problem solving  To encourage service user involvement in all aspects of decision making for the services  To use a variety of opportunities for learning, including practicing skills in front of others and receiving feedback, to improve practice  To attend and participate in appropriate training  To reflect on your work by yourself and with others  To maintain effective communication systems within Southdown  To meet the travel requirements of the role

This is a developing and changing service; therefore the aims of the post will require review and change to meet these needs

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Vocational Project Coordinator

Essential Desirable

Qualifications Although no formal qualifications are essential – it will be necessary to demonstrate adequate levels of literacy and numeracy and to work  effectively with individual candidates and external partners

Experience Experience of providing support services to carers or vulnerable  people An understanding of the support needs and the barriers people with  caring responsibilities face in the employment market Experience of developing and maintaining professional joint working  relationships with external, statutory and voluntary agencies Experience of helping to establish and promote a new service  Experience of running training courses and/or undertaking  presentations Experience of producing action plans  Experience of community based (outreach) work  Experience of working to contractual targets and deadlines 

Knowledge An awareness of the Equality Act 2010 and Carers Act 2014  An overview and understanding of the range of support available to  carers in East Sussex A good working knowledge of welfare benefits and practice issues  including Carer’s Allowance Knowledge of the principles of service user involvement  A working knowledge of Human Resources good practice and employment legislation in relation to supporting people with caring responsibilities in the workplace (capability, sickness, reasonable  adjustments, flexible working) An understanding of the philosophies of social inclusion 

Skills And Abilities Excellent literacy and numeracy skills to a standard that enables you to write reports, assist people to fill out application forms and  administer your own general correspondence. Good IT skills including ability to self administer (Word, Excel,  PowerPoint, Outlook) Good financial and numeracy skills to a standard that enables you to support carers to undertake financial assessment and review welfare  benefit entitlements Essential Desirable Excellent communication skills – written, verbal and presentational, to  enable you to represent the organisation in a variety of situations Excellent organisational and administration skills  Able to prioritise own work  Evidence of negotiating skills and diplomacy  Ability to win support for new initiatives  Able to create and maintain links with key stakeholders  Basic counselling skills  Basic coaching skills  Able to reflect on your work (by yourself and with others), including reflecting on what you bring to it, and plan how to improve your  practice/behaviour accordingly Skills in building relationships with external agencies  Able to directly or indirectly support service users in ways that  promote equity and empowerment

Qualities Able to demonstrate a sense of personal enthusiasm for vocational  support for people with caring responsibilities Non-judgmental with a willingness to let go of traditional power  relationships Empathy for people with caring responsibilities  Proactive – with ideas for promoting service to others and  implementing creative solutions Able to work collaboratively both within the association and external  agency representatives Friendly, open & even tempered – able to cope with emergencies and stressful situations  Openness and commitment to learning and personal development (including training) and able to accept feedback and develop  practice accordingly Display a good eye for detail and accuracy 

Specific Needs Able to work 37 hours per week (full time roles) or the required  contracted hours (part time roles) Able to work flexibly to include some evening and weekend working  in response to service and client needs Able to work within various office bases and undertake regular  travel Be a driver with access to a car for work purposes  GENERAL INFORMATION

Southdown Housing Association Limited is a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Southdown is also regulated by the Homes and Communities Agency as a registered provider of social housing.

Southdown was established in 1972 and is one of the largest not-for-profit specialist providers of care, support and housing services to vulnerable people in Sussex.

We support people with learning disabilities, people facing mental health challenges and those at risk of homelessness or severe hardship. We provide holistic and tailored care and support that focuses on all of a person’s needs be they physical, economic, psychological, social or spiritual.

Everything we do is driven by the individual needs and aspirations of the people we provide care and support for. We involve our clients in the quality review and ongoing development of our services.

We believe the best way to increase people’s independence is for staff to work alongside them and coach them to develop their skills and confidence to take action and responsibility to achieve their personal goals.

We track and monitor the impact our services have on the people that use them. As well as regular satisfaction surveys, we also undertake detailed research to look at what works, for whom and in what circumstances.

We are a robust and successful organisation with a turnover of £24.5 million. We are governed by a Board of 12 members. We employ over 950 staff who we value and invest in. We have an excellent reputation for staff training and development.

We provide value for money. Whilst we’ve had to find ways to reduce our costs due to public sector budget cuts, we have not compromised on quality. We work with commissioners to deliver cost- savings whilst keeping people’s needs at the heart of what we do.

Contracts with local authorities and NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) for East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove supply most of our income to provide our services.

7 MH2.16 – Team Manager- Community Links Sept 15 Data Protection Statement The Data Protection Act 1998 requires that any staff handling personal data on others must follow certain principles in relation to the data that they hold. Individuals have rights of access to data that is held on them and rights to claim for damages if various offences occur. This covers manual as well as computerised records.

In implementing the legislation, Southdown adopts a simple and straightforward policy that is, so far as is possible, easy to understand and unambiguous in its application. This is best achieved by adopting the principles of openness, which will, in turn, contribute to the fostering of open and honest management. The Association should not keep on record any information, opinion or judgement that we would not be comfortable showing to its subject and explaining and justifying if called upon to do so.

Application Records Applicant records will only be made available to appropriate persons involved in the selection process. Details will be stored securely at all times.

Where individuals have not been successful, applicant records will be held for a period of twelve months.

Diversity and Equality Monitoring Form – This is destroyed after twelve months whether the applicant is successful or not.

Diversity & Equality At Southdown, we pride ourselves on creating a culture that challenges prejudice and values diversity. We are committed to ensuring that all staff and service users feel welcome and are not discriminated against or treated unfairly.

We recognise that certain groups and individuals in society are disadvantaged because of discrimination experienced as a result of, race, nationality, belief or religion, physical or mental disability, health status, marital status, sex, sexuality, trade union activity, caring responsibilities, criminal convictions unrelated to the job, age or class.

Southdown believes that such direct or indirect discrimination is wrong and will ensure that the policies and practices of the Association in recruitment provide equal treatment for everyone. Adherence to our Diversity and Equality Policy is a condition of service for staff, and a copy of the policy is given to all staff and job applicants.

All managers are trained in anti-discriminatory recruitment practice. The diversity of our staff is monitored to ensure we continue to represent the diversity of the local communities. We are accredited by several national bodies for recruiting staff to best practice standards including Investors in People, Stonewall, Mindful Employer, Positive about Disabled People and Stonewall.

EX-OFFENDERS & THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS Introduction

As an organisation using the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to assess applicants’ suitability for positions of trust, Southdown Housing Association complies fully with the DBS Code of Practice and undertakes to treat all applicants for positions fairly. It undertakes not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a Disclosure on the basis of conviction or other information revealed.

Southdown is committed to the fair treatment of its staff, as indicated by its Diversity & Equalities Policy Statement, including those with an offending background.

8 Southdown welcomes applications from a wide range of candidates and would consider those with criminal records. We select candidates for interview based on skills, qualifications and experience.

However, we will exclude candidates who do not comply with the requirements imposed by regulatory bodies that set standards for the staffing of the services we provide.

Recruitment 1. For those positions where a Disclosure is required, application forms and job adverts will specify that a Disclosure will be requested in the event of an individual being offered the position.

2. Where a Disclosure is to form part of the recruitment process, we encourage all applicants called for interview to provide details of their criminal record at an early stage in the application process. We request that this information is sent confidentially to the Human Resources Department and we guarantee this information is only to be seen by those who need to see it as part of the recruitment process.

3. The nature of jobs within Southdown allows the Association to ask questions about an applicant’s entire criminal records including ‘spent’ convictions.

4. We ensure those within Southdown with a decision making role in the recruitment process have been trained to identify and assess the relevance and circumstances of offences. We also ensure they have received guidance and training in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

5. For shortlisted candidates we ensure discussion takes place on the subject of any offences that might be relevant to the position. Failure to reveal any relevant information relating to any such offences is likely to lead to withdrawal of an offer of employment.

6. We make every subject of a DBS Disclosure aware of the existence of the DBS Code of Practice and make a copy available on request.

7. We will discuss any matter revealed in the Disclosure with the person seeking the position before withdrawing a conditional offer of employment.

Having a criminal record will not necessarily bar someone from working with the Association. This will depend on the nature of the position and the circumstances and background of the person’s offences.

December 2012

INFORMATION ON CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

Pension Scheme Southdown automatically enrols eligible staff in the organisations pension scheme to which Southdown will contribute 2% in addition to the1% paid by you. Other alternatives are available to enable staff who are not eligible to join the pension scheme.

Sick Pay In the event of your being unable to work because of illness, you would be eligible for occupational sick pay, as set out below:

Length of Service Occupational Sick Pay 0-12 months 10 days (no more than 5 in the first six months) 12-24 months 15 days

9 MH2.16 – Team Manager- Community Links Sept 15 24-36 months 20 days 36-48 months 30 days 48 months or more 3 months

NB these figures apply to occupational sick pay only and do not affect your entitlement to statutory sick pay.

Annual Leave Our annual leave year runs from April to March. The initial leave entitlement is 25 days rising to 30 days after 5 full years of service.

If you work part-time you would receive a proportionate entitlement to annual leave and statutory leave.

Training and Development Southdown is committed to providing a good standard of training for its staff and you will be encouraged to participate in appropriate training courses. Southdown holds the Investor in People award which acknowledges the emphasis we place on staff learning and development.

The annual Staff Appraisal Review should help reinforce a planned approach to your career development.

All new staff may be required to undertake induction training in house and on specially designed courses.

Supervision Regular support and supervision sessions are offered to all staff.

Stress Management Advice, support and training are offered to promote staff well-being

New Employee Staff Support Procedure New staff joining the Association will be subject to 26 weeks probationary period, which will be reviewed through our Staff Appraisal Scheme at 10 and 22 weeks. Providing that staff satisfactorily complete this period, they will become a permanent member of staff of the Association. On appointment to permanent staff, employees are obliged to give and entitled to receive a minimum of one month's written notice of termination of employment (the notice period will be outlined in the Statement of Particulars of Employment on appointment).

Salary Payments You will be paid monthly on the last banking day of each month. Your salary will be paid by direct transfer to your Bank.

Other Conditions of Employment Full details of all conditions are contained in the Staff Handbook.

10 Disclosure and Barring Service – Enhanced Checks for Regulated Activity

As a safeguard for our service users, Southdown is required to liaise with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), which makes a thorough check into the background of those candidates to whom we have made provisional job offers to work in regulated activity. This is a process we are legally entitled to follow by the Police Act 1997 and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.

Obtaining information about an individual via the DBS is called ‘Disclosure’. A DBS Disclosure informs us of information about criminal behaviour, and the details of such record. This then enables Southdown Housing Association to make a judgement about whether the criminal record is such that we consider there potentially to be a danger to our service users.

Please be aware that having a criminal record will not necessarily prevent you from working either directly or indirectly with vulnerable adults. This will depend on the type of offence and the circumstances involved.

At Southdown, an Enhanced Check for Regulated Activity is requested for posts such as :  Support Workers  Floating Support Officers and Assistants  Senior Support Workers  Employment Specialists  Deputy / Service Managers  Senior Posts

Enhanced checks for regulated activity include details of unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings held on the Police National Computer, and local Police Force information considered relevant by Chief Police Officers. This check also requests information from the Adults Barred list which is maintained by the DBS and replaces the former ISA Adults Barred List.

Adults Barred List: The DBS Adults Barred List is part of the DBS process for staff undertaking work in regulated activity, and is designed to ensure that anyone who presents a known risk to vulnerable adults is prevented from working with them. It is an offence for barred individuals to seek or undertake work with vulnerable adults and for Southdown, as an employer, to knowingly employ someone on the Adults Barred List.

(Referral of individuals to the DBS Adults Barred List is a statutory requirement where it is considered that the individual has harmed or poses a risk of harm to a vulnerable adult.)

When applying for a post at Southdown please ensure you enter any details of unspent criminal records on your application form.

Disclosure and Barring Service checks are only requested if your application is successful and an Enhanced Check for Regulated Activity is applicable. Further documents will be sent to you at the time a provisional job offer is made to enable us to take up the Enhanced DBS Check for Regulated Activity if this is the case. (Alternatively we will be able to undertake a ‘status check’ with the DBS Update Service if you are registered and you have a DBS check which meets criteria set for the role you are applying for.)

All disclosures provided by the Disclosure and Barring Service are stored securely and destroyed within 6 months of issue (for job roles in services regulated by the Care Quality Commission, we are required to retain information to confirm a DBS Check has been obtained – this will include only personal information e.g. name, address, date of birth, Disclosure number and issue date - no details of convictions or cautions are retained).

By completing and signing the application form for a job vacancy at Southdown Housing Association, you are agreeing to participate in the DBS disclosure process (including a DBS Adults Barred List check), if applicable, should your application be successful.

11 MH2.16 – Team Manager- Community Links Sept 15 OUR VISION

Everyone, no matter what their life experience, background or challenges will have the opportunity to lead their life to the full.

OUR MISSION

To offer vulnerable people the support they need to lead a fuller life

OUR VALUES

 Responsive to need

 Ethical in all we do

 Dedicated to quality

 Competitive on cost

 Focused and stable