Job Title:Assessment & Mediation Worker

JOB DESCRIPTION

Report to:Assessment & Mediation Coordinator

Location:Youth Hub, St Basils Centre, Heath Mill Lane, Deritend, B9 4AX

Salary:Scale 5, Point 22-25, £19,370 - £21,244 per annum, pro rata

Hours:Full time 37.5 hours per week and Part time 18.75 hours per week. Occasional evening work will be required and will be compensated with time off in lieu, in negation with your manager.

INTRODUCTION:

St Basils Housing Association is a voluntary organisation whose aim is to work with young people to enable them to find and keep a home; develop their confidence, skills and opportunities and to prevent homelessness. The age range of our clients is 16-25 years and the majority of the work is in accommodation provision, with additional services in information, advice and counselling, resettlement and family mediation, personal development and increasingly in employment, education and training.

St Basils operates over 30 sites, of these, 27 offer accommodation, with 400 bed spaces across three borough's in the West Midlands. The organisation is one of the largest working with young homeless people in the country and is the largest in the West Midlands. It employs over 200 staff.

We seek to work with young people in creative ways, through the provision of facilities, the teaching of skills, and the development of links with others in the community.

Initially based at the Youth Hub, but the company reserves the right, giving reasonable notice, to re-locate the post holder to another location, dependent on the requirements of the Agency, at any time.

BACKGROUND:

The Youth Hub was established in 2010 in response to the requirements arising from the 2009 “Southwark Judgment” and the subsequent Department of Children Schools and Families guidance to Children Services and Local Housing Authorities (April 2010), which sets out local authorities duties to secure accommodation and support services for homeless 16 and 17 year old young people.

Birmingham recognises that the most effective response is provided through partnership working to maximize the effective use of resource, staff skills and expertise to provide the best possible accommodation and support options to prevent homelessness.

St Basils is funded by Birmingham City Council’s Adults and Communities Directorate and Children Young People and Families Directorate to work in partnership to provide a multi - agency service for young people aged 16-25 who may be homeless or at risk of homelessness.

St Basils provides a range of homeless prevention, housing advice and support services for this target client group and the aim of the Youth Hub is to prevent crisis homelessness through early intervention, Prevention and identifying, developing and delivering suitable housing pathways for young people.

JOB PURPOSES:

To work with young people who present as homeless or in housing need to assess their housing and support needs in order to identify appropriate support to prevent homelessness.

To operate within the Youth Hub providing a multi-agency approach to the prevention of youth homelessness for young people aged 16 – 25.

To support young people and their excluders to resolve issue of conflict, to enable the young person to return home or remain in their current accommodation and where required work towards a planned move.

MAIN DUTIES:

Assessment and Support

To undertakecomprehensive and holistic housing and support needs assessments.

To ensure detailed risk and needs assessments are produced, ensuring relevant background checks are undertaken to assist in the development of robust risk management plans.

To maintain accurate, precise and professional case records, ensuring internal monitoring systems and paperwork are kept up to date and accurate at all times i.e. monitoring forms, day to day case records etc.

To provide high quality homelessness and housing advice services to young people, ensuring that their needs are met and expectations managed, wherever practicable.

To build and maintain effective and professional working relationships with internal and external partners/agencies, to provide a holistic multi agency responses to young peoples housing and support needs, through the use of CAF/ fCAF’s, Child In Need Plans and Multi agency joint working agreements.

To develop detailed support/ action plans to ensure young people are referred on and signpost appropriately to relevant services e.g. Floating Support, drugs services, counselling, debt advice, food banks etc. and follow up on engagement, where required.

To safeguard young people and vulnerable adults at risk through appropriate escalation and reporting to statutory services e.g. Inter-agency referral and follow up work.

To operate within a duty system at the Youth Hub.

Home Visit and Mediation

To undertake mediation sessions with young people and their excluders to improve relationships and prevent homelessness incl. initial meetings and family sessions.

To utilise standard assessment tools to assess the needs of young people and their families so that plans made are shared, evidence based and agreed to by all.

To manage a small caseload of young people and families that require on-going/ follow-up work to reduce the risk of homelessness through the fCAF process.

To undertake home visits and accompany young people to appointments, where required.

To plan, implement, review and evaluate interventions to ensure positive outcomes for young people and their families.

Advocacy

To assist young people through the application processes ensuring that they are supported to fully understand the outcomes and where required, provide assistance in the appeal process i.e. Homeless Application, Initial Assessments.

To advise and advocate on issues relating to benefits, housing rights etc. ensuring the young people are fully supported through application processes.

To utilise legal advice services to enable you to effectively advocate on young person’s behalf

General

To maintain up to date relevant information and resources.

To represent and promote the work of the agency and/or project at relevant external and internal meetings and forums.

To assist in the development of promotional materials e.g. leaflets, fliers, websites. To attend and participate in promotional events.

To promote and facilitate the participation of young people in the management of the project e.g. service user questionnaires, forums etc.

To manage and report all incidents in line with St Basils procedures

To undertake all relevant administrative duties

To highlight trends, gaps in service provision and improvements required to Line Manager.

To liaise with key partners/funders as appropriate

To be involved in making funding applications, where required.

To contribute to project performance indicators and targets.

To contribute to service development and business planning, where required.

To attend and actively participate in supervision, PDR, training, team meetings and case reviews

To be involved in the induction of new staff, to support volunteers, trainees and students.

Promote good practice in equal opportunities in all aspects of the post holder’s work.

To be responsible for the health, safety and welfare of yourself and others at work.

To share the duties of other members of the team who may be absent.

To attend staff meetings and other meetings deemed necessary by the Line Manager or Senior Management Team.

To undertake any duties deemed necessary by the Line Manager in order to ensure the efficient and effective operation of the service and organisation as a whole.

It is expected that the post holler will not pursue any other paid employment which would interfere with the proper discharge of their duties

St Basils is dependent upon its ability to raise funds in order to sustain and develop its work with young people. Therefore, all employees are expected to support the work of the Fundraising Department an, wherever possible, to be involved in Fundraising Events.

Media

To consult with his/her Line Manager and/or the agency’s PR/Media Officer when likely to be involved in any campaigning issues or before any involvement with the media on matters relating to St Basils.

Condition of Employment:

Wherever you are initially based, it must be recognised that the company reserves the right, giving reasonable notice, to re-locate the post holder, dependent on the requirements of the Agency, at any time.

All employees MUST abide by the Terms and Conditions as per St Basils Staff Handbook and Equal Opportunities & Diversity Policy document.

Hours of Work:

37.5 hours per week and 18.75 hours per week.

Holidays

25 days per annum, plus 8 Statutory Bank holidays and 3 Concessionary days holiday, pro-rata, per annum.

Interview Date:To be confirmed

Unsuccessful candidates

Applicants who have not been contacted within six weeks of the closing date will know that, unfortunately, they have not been successful.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

JOB TITLE:Assessment & Mediation Worker

Applicant should ensure that they address the requirements of the post within their application.

Essential Requirements / Desirable Requirements / How identified
QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAINING
NVQ 3Advice & Guidance, Care or equivalent or working towards
- Youth Work, Social Work, or equivalent /  /  / Application form
EXPERIENCE
Working with young people in the following settings/
Types of work – Youth Work, Residential or Social Work, Probation, Community Work, Education and Training
Working with Volunteers/Students /  / Application form
Interview
SKILLS
Ability to write reports
Ability to keep accurate records
Ability to communicate verbally and non-verbally
Ability to Mediate and Advocate
Ability to manage conflict
Ability to relate to those in authority
Ability to relate to external agencies
Ability to motivate/enthuse young people
Ability to relate to young people
Ability to integrate projects/agency as a whole
Ability to follow through decisions and monitor
Working knowledge of current IT and databases / 
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Interview
Test
SPECIAL APTITUDES AND KNOWLEDGE
Flexible in approach to work
Flexible in weekend and evening work
Ability to work with figures
Ability to drive
Housing Rights, Welfare Reform Knowledge
Knowledge of Children’s Act i.e. Section 17, 20 and 47
Ability to maintainand improve standards
Relevant Legal knowledge relating to homelessness
Knowledge of and Commitment to E.O.P/Anti-Discriminatory practice
Knowledge of Social Skills/Job Training skills. / 
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Interview
Test
MOTIVATION
Commitment to task
Commitment to ideas of the organisation
Self Reliance
Stress tolerance
Career Ambition / 
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Interview