Support Worker Job Description

Job Title: Support Worker Location: (, Corby, )

Every day our staff are working to improve the lives of those they have the privilege to work with. We provide support to adults with learning disability, physical disability, Autism and Mental Health. For everyone that we work with we ensure that the support going in is ideal for that individual and enables them to reach their full potential and maximises their right to choose and have real life opportunities.

As a specialist in what we do, the people who want to join us will need to be passionate about people and are flexible in their approach to work. The customers we support will also have their own views on the type of person they want as their supporter, and it is our responsibility to meet this requirement.

Support Workers provide practical household support, social assistance and extra personal support. This may include giving full support to the customer whilst promoting their independence as much as it possible, and to be mindful of supporting them to retain any skills gained.

Household Support • With household tasks - cleaning, pet care, plant care and light gardening • With personal laundry, ironing and changing sheets on the bed • With shopping, menu planning, preparing and cooking meals • With dressing or undressing, personal hygiene and bathing • To manage their home - maintenance, repairs and home security • With getting in or out of bed, supporting them to move about • With money management - household bills, Council taxes, personal management of monies,

Social Support • With keeping in contact with their family and friends • By supporting them to social events, appointments, holidays, places of worship • To deal with neighbours and other tenants

Extra Personal Support • With their eating and drinking • By administrating medication and the collection of medications • By organising and supporting the customer to appointments - banks, doctors, hospital, opticians etc. • By reading, writing and dealing with correspondence • By teaching life skills - road safety, use of public transport, cooking and social networking • To use public transport

Our commitment to personalised support We deliver care and support through personal support plans which focus on the individual and their welfare, needs, wants and interests. Avens seeks to enable as many people as possible to have more control over everything in their life. This means that people can choose the support which is right for them. We are committed to supporting more people to make their own choices about the support they receive.

Training - Support Worker We provide you with a complete induction programme which runs in line with the Care Certificate. There is on-going training, continuing professional development available as you develop your career with us.

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Support Workers Role To support individuals to plan and complete activities that they want to do and to support the individuals to achieve something that they might not be able to do by themselves. This job will require you to support more than one person at a time.

Workforce Structure You will have a team of consistent support staff who work with the same customers, as well as being supported by a Head of Support, Senior Heads of Support, Service Team Leader, a Deputy Manager and Agency Manager. You will need to complete tasks set by your peers and colleagues that are in the best interest of the customer that you support, while keeping the customer involved and informed.

The things that you will need to do with the customer you are supporting

 Get to know them; what’s important to them and for them and how they want to be supported  Listen; support them to have a voice and be heard  Communicate; give information in ways that the customer understands so they can make their own choices and decisions  Support the customer with their personal care and health care in a way that is sensitive, respectful and has been agreed with the customer  Support the customer with practical household tasks and jobs  Support the customer with things they need to do, like taking medication  Arrange appointments for the customer and support them to attend  Support the customer to effectively deal with their finances, correspondences and neighbours  Encourage and support to try new things. Take planned risks and be part of the community  Work well as part of the customer or customers’ support team  Make sure that the support you give is professional, effective and helpful  Ensure that the customer is as safe as they possibly can be and that any risks are identified and assessed  Keep records and paperwork that affect the customer’s support up to date and accurate  Work with the customers’ friends, family or other people who are important in their life  Treat them with respect. Give them real choices.

Your responsibilities to your team and to Avens

 Being flexible in your work practices and approaches to ensure all customers get treated as individuals  Follow Avens policy and procedures to ensure you and those you support are safe  Keep records and paperwork that affect customer support up to date and accurate  To attend all scheduled team meetings and supervisions  To speak up on behalf of the people you support to your line manager and others  To report any accusations or signs of abuse to your manager immediately or follow Avens whistleblowing policy  To attend any training provided for you, to support you in the development of your role

This list is only a guide and there will be a number of other things you will be expected to do while working for Avens as a support worker. However, the ultimate goal of every action you take while working should be for the betterment of anyone you support, to ensure that they are safe, happy and have been given as much choice and every opportunity to make the choice they want as possible.

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Shift Patterns ASLN uses a number of different shift types to make up contracted hours, which is agreed with the successful applicant in a regular shift pattern during the interview process. Below is a table detailing the most common shift types. We offer alternate weekends off to staff and ask all full time staff to work either Weekend Shift Type 1 or Weekend Shift Type 2.

Shift Type Days Title Day One Sleep in Day Two Hours Hours Hours Shift Type 1 Monday-Sunday “Day Hours” 10:00-15:00 n/a n/a

Shift Type 2 Sunday-Thursday “Core Hours” 15:00-22:00 22:00-07:30 07:30-10:00 Weekend Shift Type 1 Friday – Saturday “Weekend Core Hours” 15:00-22:00 22:00-08:00 08:00-15:00 Sunday – Monday 15:00-22:00 22:00-07:30 07:30-10:00 Weekend Shift Type 2 Saturday – Sunday “Weekend Core Hours” 15:00-22:00 22:00-08:00 08:00-15:00

Please note these shift types are flexible depending on the needs of the customers and business

Applicant Qualities

Skills and Experience; Essential  Be able to read and write in plain English and work with numbers  Be willing to take part in training and learn more about the job  Be able to work with someone who needs extra support  Be able to support someone who is exhibiting challenging behaviour  Able to travel to and work in different work locations  Able to work alone in the home of the individuals receiving the support

Skills and Experience; Desirable  Experience of working with people with a learning disability who need extra support  Health and Social Care NVQ Level 2/3  Able or prepared to learn how to use a computer for writing documents

Personality; Essential

 Someone of “good character” which CQC define as someone who is  Honest  Trustworthy  Reliable  Respectful  Is committed to the rights of people with a learning disability  Is able to remain calm, confident and professional at all times.  Is able to use own initiative and confident to work alone  Has a positive outlook  Take an interest in the people you support  Takes pride in what they do  Is flexible in how they work  Is punctual

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About Avens Ltd

Avens Ltd started in 1996 as one 29 bedded residential care home for adults with learning disabilities. Avens now has 3 residential care homes and provides support to over 20 supported living properties in East Sussex and Northamptonshire.

Avens continues to work towards supporting people to find their own homes in life, someplace where they are happy, comfortable and safe.

For more information on Avens Ltd and its key staff, we would invite you to visit our website www.avens.co.uk

About Avens Supported Living Northants Avens Supported Living Northants (ASLN) is a Supported Living and Domiciliary Care Agency that has been supporting adults with learning differences to live in their own homes since 2002. Spread across the heart of Northamptonshire, in Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough, housing over fifty customers who are supported by over sixty staff in either a supported living or domiciliary care setting.

The manager, Daniel Andrews, began his career with Avens as a support worker in 2008. Since then he has progressed through the company as a Head of Support (individual house manager), Senior Head of Support, Deputy Manager and now Agency Manager.

His deputy, Bella Wood, has similarly worked her way through the organisation from the position of Support Worker, since she joined ASLN in 2012. This offers both of them a unique advantage of knowing how best to support staff and the customers to ensure a positive result for all involved, as they have been there themselves and know the customers on a 1-1 basis.

ASLN, like the rest of Avens, has a Person Centred approach when it comes to care. This is backed- up by support plans, written with those they are intended to support and pictorial plans that are easy to engage with. They have had great success in terms of supporting young men and women to progress from living with family or in care to gaining new life skills they need to help them progress towards independent living.

These successes have helped ASLN’s partnership with the Local Authority, Northamptonshire County Council, to grow stronger and because of this, ASLN continues to expand, with the business growing 30 percent between September 2014 and November 2015. Our most recent Contract Monitoring Inspection report yielded a result of 97.9%.

ASLN hosts a monthly disco, which all of the customers and service users are invited to. There are themes and prizes for the best fancy dress costumes, as well as drinks, snacks, funky disco lights, fantastic music, and staff on the dance floor including Daniel and Bella. Everyone always has a fantastic time and it only continues to grow in success.

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