Intensive Support Worker- Complex lives
Salary: £25,726.86
Contract: Permanent
Hours: 35 per week – (Rota based – 7 day week – Mornings, Evenings & Week-Ends)
Location
Housing First, Unit 4 Nelson Trade Centre, Nelson Street, Belfast, BT15 1BH
Your new role
You will be a member of a multi-disciplined team using holistic approaches to support Depaul service users. Working to a housing-led, low threshold, harm reduction approach, where service users receive a high degree of support and advice. Depaul has a commitment to service user participation and to empowering our service users to manage their own lives.
To ensure effective case management for a caseload of approx. 7-10 highly complex and entrenched individuals who experience multiple connected and dependent challenges, usually including homeless/unstable housing, problematic drug use, mental ill health, offending behaviour, poor physical health, often underpinned by trauma.
The primary role of the post holder will be to act as a trusted key worker and to ensure effective coordination of a wraparound support plan for each client which will have been developed through the Belfast Complex Lives Multi Disciplinary Team (MDT) process.
Service user focus
- To provide effective ongoing case management and relationship building with service users, and those broader agencies/services supporting them, via sustained contact (including triage, initial support, detailed assessment and care planning)
- Supporting people to engage with services, to stabilise and to settle into accommodation settings
- To connect with local community support and to make positive lifestyle choices to progress in the Service Users recovery journey.
- Liaise with Belfast Complex Lives MDT partners and other agencies to secure support for, and activity towards, developing and delivering wrap around, dynamic and responsive support plans.
- Organise key worker sessions with individual clients based on need; focusing on responsibility-taking, reflection, action planning, and overcoming crisis and trigger points that may result in disengagement.
- Management and monitoring of progress; further develop and update support plans demonstrating progression, related activity and achievement against outcomes.
- Develop effective working relationships with staff across key Community, Voluntary and Statutory Services, including the convening of multi-agency meetings and case conferences/reviews to agree actions and ownership from services when/where needed.
- Regularly review and address barriers to progress in partnership and with individual contacts.
- Report progress to Complex Lives MDT and escalate issues as necessary.
- Be responsible and resilient in the face of challenging behaviour and individuals who may be in crisis; disclose and discuss risks responsibly, operate within existing data sharing frameworks; acknowledge areas of limitation; and liaise with all linked professionals responsibly.
- Use innovative and creative thinking to find solutions and identify key interventions which will have a positive or preventative impact on the individual and reduce crisis management and/or disengagement.
- Work within the wider Complex Lives MDT members and fellow support workers to define and agree priorities, share workloads, and support colleagues to achieve team objectives.
- Adapt to new ideas and reflective practice to develop and enhance future service delivery.
Strategic Responsibilities
- Provide support and direct input to development work and practice to establish increasingly preventative approaches to supporting people with Complex Lives
- Provide learning from the approach into service and system development work; contributing to the ongoing development of the Complex Lives approach and work within Belfast, to support vulnerable people.
Health & Safety
- To ensure that Health and Safety standards are met within the service in accordance with Depaul’s Health and Safety policy and procedures.
- To undertake assigned duties regarding the overall health and safety and security of the service and utilize available security systems to manage risk relevant to the service.
- To ensure completion of all relevant wellbeing and health and safety checks
Administration & Record Keeping
- Carry out service administration tasks such as; upkeep of client records, financial transactions, internal and external reports, incident and accident management and other record keeping relevant to the roles.
- To remain vigilant to IT and cyber risks and comply at all times with Depaul’s IT Security policies.
Other duties
- To be a contributing team player, taking part in handovers, team meetings, core training, the mentoring of Volunteers and supporting other team members in ensuring all decision making is appropriate and consistent
- To at all times undertake your role in a professional manner maintaining a high quality standard of work in line with Depaul Values and ethos.
The above list is not exhaustive; additional areas of responsibility may be added over time and flexibility to cover for other staff roles is required from time to time.
Employee Benefits
- Enhanced Annual Leave – 35 days per year, increasing as your length of service increases
- Paid Sick Leave
- Company maternity & paternity pay
- Contributory Pension scheme
- Health Cash Back & Rewards Plan
- Christmas Savers club
- Bluelight discount card
Plus, many opportunities to learn and develop within the organisation
Essential Criteria
- A full driving licence and full access to a car insured for business purposes
- Willingness to undertake regular travel in the local area
Closing date for applications: Wednesday 11th June 2025.
Dependent on the number of applications, we may contact applicants before the closing date. Please check your spam/junk folders.
