Senior Support Worker

We are recruiting for a Senior Support Worker to lead, manage and deliver a Young Person’s programme across Orkney mainland and Orkney isles. The Senior Support Worker will work in partnership with Grown Your Own Routes (GYOR) to support 12 – 26 year olds affected by others use of drugs and alcohol and ensure that the right support is available at the right time.

The Senior Support Worker will lead a team of Support Workers to provide a high-quality support service, offering a person-centred approach.

Main duties and responsibilities will include:

Programme Delivery

• Lead, develop and deliver Grow Your Own Routes Project, with the assistance of support partner organisations and the Service Manager
• Responsible for coordinating and providing appropriate levels of high-quality support to young people in their homes and community, supporting specific issues relating to alcohol and drug use in their families. This will include face-to-face and telephone/online support
• Ensure positive, respectful and compassionate relationships are developed with the people we support, focusing on their strengths and aspirations as individuals, supporting emotional development, resilience and coping strategies, helping them to increase their self-esteem and confidence.
• Use a flexible approach so that young people receive support whenever is best for them including evenings and weekends.
• Provide advocacy to individual young people and also advocate for young people in general affected by family substance use.

People Management

• Develop positive and supportive relationships with your staff team
• Develop positive relationships with other senior support workers and management team
• Arrange and facilitating regular support and supervision sessions with your team members, utilising best practice in performance management to ensure staff are supported to undertake their roles.
• Complete yearly appraisals and personal development plans with your staff team.

Information and Finance 

• Compile KPI’s and maintain appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for the project and complete reporting to funders and line manager as required

Full details can be found in the job & person specification which you can download below

Our values make us who we are and define our actions and behaviours every day. We’d expect the post-holder to uphold and represent our organisation in a way that reflects our values and person-centred way of working.

We’re looking for someone who has gained experience of supervising and supporting a staff team as well as being confident in managing your own workload whilst working to deadlines. You will also have experience and knowledge of working with vulnerable people supporting key areas such as trauma, poverty and substance use. Knowledge of current relevant legislation and policies relating to children, young people and families, including GIRFEC, UNREC and The Promise is required.

Working hours are mainly Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm however flexibility is required to work out with this, including on a Saturday to reflect the needs of the people we support.

What you can expect from us..

• The post holder will report to the Service Manager
• Working 35 hours per week, Monday to Saturday, flexibly between the hours of 8am and 8pm depending on the needs of the service, with 1 hour unpaid break
• Your usual place of work will be 18 Queen Street, Kirkwall, KW15 1JE. Working arrangements are in agreement with your line manager based on the needs of the service
• Annual leave entitlement of 210 hours (equivalent to 6 weeks) pro rata in your first year, rising to 280 hours (equivalent to 8 weeks) pro rata in your second year. This includes public holidays
• You will automatically be enrolled into the People’s Pension in the month that you will complete 3-months of employment, providing you meet the auto-enrolment criteria
• Life insurance 4 x salary
• Option to purchase and sell annual leave
• Comprehensive induction and ongoing learning and development
• Cycle to work scheme
• Wellness programmes

Interested in applying?