Young People Support Officer

About Outward

For 50 years, Outward has been providing high-quality support and care services to vulnerable people across London, predominantly in North East London. Established by families seeking alternatives to institutional care, we’ve grown into a respected provider of person-centred support for adults with learning disabilities, autism, mental health needs, and complex needs. We support over 1,000 people across nine boroughs, guided by our core values: engage, enable, and empower.

About the Role

We are now looking for enthusiastic, creative and committed individuals to join the team working in our Young People’s Service. The young people referred to our service face many challenges and deserve an enthusiastic staff team committed to supporting them to look forward to a promising future. Strong applicants for this role will have experience of supporting young people to address the issues that affect them, such as low self-esteem, getting into training and employment, gang links, mental health issues and developing the life skills needed to live independently. If you feel you can bring a fresh approach and a commitment to supporting young people to meet their full potential, then we want to hear from you.

Your Responsibilities:

• Ensuring each young person is consulted and empowered as the co-designer of their support plan
• Using your empathetic and caring approach to help the young people develop their confidence and skills.
• Having the confidence to take proactive and creative approaches to encouraging our young people to follow through on their plans and goals.
• As a medium term service, the young people must move on within two years and a key part of your role will be to support them to develop the skills necessary to manage in their own home.
• Assessing the suitability of referrals made to the service and managing relets and occupancy sign-ups.
• Supporting residents to maximise their benefit entitlement, budget effectively and adhere to their occupancy agreement.

· We are looking for 1 full time post to become a fixed part of the weekly rota. This post will involve working earlies / evenings, weekends & sleep in shifts as part of a 4 week rota, inc bank holidays. You will be provided with comprehensive training and be supported every step of the way to develop your career with us.

Essential Criteria

• Good understanding of Child and Adult safeguarding and risk management in a care/ support setting.
• Knowledge of Health and Safety issues within supported housing or care environments
• Understanding of confidentiality, GDPR, and data protection principles
• Good knowledge and understanding of Microsoft office.
• Computer literate and ability operate basic IT systems.
• Staff must have access to a smartphone capable of receiving SMS messages and installing authentication apps for secure systems access.

Desirable Criteria

• NVQ Level 2 or 3 in Health and Social Care (or equivalent)
• Additional training in PBS, safeguarding, or housing-related legislation

How to Apply

The above is not an exhaustive list of requirements for the role.

If you think you are who we are looking for, please submit a CV and statement detailing how you feel your experiences meets the requirements of the role by referring to the Job Responsibilities and the Person Specification.

There is no specific closing date for this advert. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a sufficient number of suitable applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible. It would be great to hear from you.

We value everything our staff do for the people we support, so we provide a great benefits package:

• 25 days Annual Leave excluding Bank Holidays (pro rata for part time)
• Comprehensive Learning & Development Programme
• Cycle-to-Work Scheme
• Death in Service Benefit
• Health Assured – Employee Assistance Programme
• Eye care Vouchers
• Flu Jab Reimbursement
• Pension Scheme
• Purchase Additional Annual Leave
• Refer-a-Friend Scheme

Diversity and Safeguarding at Outward:

We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

Outward applies its Equal Opportunities Policy at all stages of recruitment and selection. Shortlisting, interviewing and selection is carried out without regard to gender, sexual orientation, marital status, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins, religion or belief, age or trade union membership.

As an employer, who aspire to become Disability Confident Committed, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this position will be offered an interview. Please indicate clearly at the beginning of your supporting statement if you have a disability (as defined by the Equality Act 2010), and you wish to be considered for an Offer Of an Interview (OOI) Please note that the OOI is available to disabled candidates only. Regrettably, any false declaration of disability in order to secure an interview will impact on your overall application.

Outward is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults at risk and expects all staff to share this commitment. If the post you apply for involves working with or having access to adults at risk and/or their records, we will require a DBS for successful candidates.