Peer Circles Senior Caseworker

Responsible to: Look Ahead Volunteer Manager and Peer Circles Project Manager

Salary:Grade 3

Hours:Full time

Location:Westminster and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Background:Peer Circles will provide support and activities for people with complex needs and severe and multiple disadvantaged in order to enable participants to develop improved employability skills and progress into sustainable employment. The partnership which led by St Giles Trust contains four other organisations: Look Ahead Housing Care and Support, Evolve Housing & Support,Shelter and Warrior. The project will be delivered across the Central and South London boroughs jointly funded by the Big Lottery Fund (Building Better Opportunities)and the European Social Fund from January 2017 to December 2019.

The project will work with 571 participants, offering a client-centred approach personalised to meet individual requirements, while addressing wider barriers and issues as well as employability and readiness for employment.Peer advisors are central to the project and will be recruited from the participant group, they will be trained and supported to achieve the City & Guilds Level 3 Certificate in Advice and Guidance.

Purpose:Lead a team of peer advisors to deliver flexible services to participants with complex needs to improve their employability skills and to move into sustainable employment.

Duties and Responsibilities

  1. Take overall responsibility for the allocated delivery of the team
  1. Provide day to day supervision, support and guidance to the Peer Advisors, allocating work appropriately and also carrying out direct work with participants
  1. Organise the promotion of the project and coordinate the recruitment and engagement of participants, according to profiles and equalities targets
  1. Ensure that each participant has a comprehensive initial assessment of employment and wider needs, obtaining existing assessment information where possible
  1. Work with participants co- productively to agree and regularly review an action plan which addresses their employment and wider barriers
  1. Support participants to carry out actions on their plan, delivering one to one and group motivational, advice, guidance and employment activities to this end. Allocate tasks to the Peer Advisors according to their ability and capacity
  1. Ensure activities fit with project standards and carry out observations of sessions to promote high quality of delivery
  1. Liaise closely with the specialist Housing Caseworker and Substance Misuse consultancy to increase the support available to participants
  1. Develop excellent links with local stakeholders, to ensure sufficient referrals, achieve equalities targets, and identify wider local services that can provide support to participants. Work to ensure that interventions are ‘joined up’ for individual participants
  1. Ensure that participants achieve targets and outcomes as profiled, putting into place any corrective action to address any shortfall
  1. Set up recording systems for participants as required and ensure that information on participants, activities and outcomes are accurate, timely and fit with BBO requirements
  1. Provide monthly and quarterly data and narrative reports and support finance teams to produce accurate financial reports
  1. Develop close working relationship with the Project Manager and respond to and support requests for information or activity to be delivered
  1. Develop close working relationships with the Project Trainer Assessor, to ensure that the Peer Advisors gain the experience and skills needed for their qualifications. Address any
  1. difficulties through close supervision of the Peer advisors, utilising the support of the Trainer Assessor as required
  1. Manage day to day budget and expenses of the team and projects
  1. Ensure that gender equalities and equal opportunities are embedded in all aspects of work with Peer Advisors and participants
  1. Support activities to obtain and act on participant feedback and help with project evaluations
  1. Attend and participate in meetings with colleagues and other stakeholders as directed by line manager
  1. Carry out other similar tasks as directed by line manager and work at all times to Look Ahead’s code of conduct and associated policies

Person Specification

Essential

  1. Extensive experience of working successfully with challenging people who have multiple and complex needs
  1. Commitment to the concept and effectiveness of peer approaches
  1. Ability to assess the needs of vulnerable clients and provide client led support to address these needs in a variety of ways
  1. Thorough understanding of the principles of needs and risk assessment, and care co-ordination/planning, and the ability to coach others in these skills
  1. Experience of developing successful inter-agency work, particularly with a view to working successfully with referring agencies to support the needs of participants
  1. Proven experience of motivating supervising and supporting a team of volunteers to deliver positive outcomes for vulnerable people
  1. The ability to use monitoring systems to record all aspects of the project activity including: actions, outcomes and referrals and demonstrate achievement of targets
  1. Excellent written and communication skills, including familiarity with file-keeping procedures, letter writing, advocacy and competent IT skills
  1. Experience of maintaining accurate financial records and evidencing all spend
  1. Ability to work collaboratively with managers and staff to set and deliver organisational goals, and to resolve conflicts of interest professionally
  1. Awareness of and commitment to gender equality and equal opportunity practices and policies, and ability to promote diversity and treat colleagues and clients fairly and with respect

Desirable

  1. Level 3 Advice & Guidance qualification
  2. An understanding of co-production

December 2017