Safe Places for Children Outreach Program NI

Youth Worker Position Description  

Position Title: Outreach Mentor (Full time or Casual) 

Reports To: Outreach Manager 

Operating in: Belfast; Lisburn, Bangor Areas

Benefits: 

• Career pathways towards towards Senior Positions. 
• Flexible working and planned roster. 
• Induction training which includes; Therapeutic Crisis Intervention Training (TCI), Health and Safety, Safeguarding, Medicine Management, Trauma and Attachment Training etc. 
• Ongoing commitment to training and your professional development.  
• Internal reflective supervision, ongoing coaching, professional development plan and supportive team ethos. 
• Access to 24 hour on-call support, 7 days a week with a trained TCI Post Crisis Response staff member. 
• Access to our Triple Tier support, that include external counselling service offered to all employees. 
• Multinational, friendly and supportive workplace. 

Employment Contract:  

The full terms of employment are outlined under an Employment Contract, Human Resources Policy and other employment related documents. 

Full Time Staff Position: 

• Annual Salary: £20,000
• 38 Hours per week (Hours Bank) 
• 28 days of Paid Annual Leave 

Casual Staff Position: 

• Weekday hourly rate: £10
• Weekend hourly rate: £15
• Operation between 8am - 10pm depending on needs of Young Person.

Shift Patterns: 

• A working week compiles 38 hours including travel, administration and contact time with young person, these hours can occur during both weekday and weekend and will include evening work.
• Community-based house 
• Work mobile provided.  

Overview 

The children placed generally range from 7 to 17 years of age.  Staff will be expected to provide support to ensure the continuation of the young person's care arrangements, providing support for the families and mentoring support to the young person. 

Approach 

Key elements of the “Safe Places approach” include: 

• The value of a small and stable team with a consistently calm and positive framework 
• A short-term goal of small steps including seeing the child engage in Outreach sessions and and build rapport with their individual worker. 
• A medium-term goal of effectively assisting the child to gain increased independence or goals identified by the Young Person's family / carers or the Health and Social Care Trust.
• The importance of understanding that the children’s behaviours are coping skills and our focus is more on what’s lying beneath the behaviour. The need to respond to behaviours in a way that role models an ability to remain calm, hopeful, caring, consistent, respectful and understanding of others (as opposed to reacting emotionally) 
• Collaboration is needed to support the child across the various areas of their life (i.e. protective services, health services, counselling services, educational facilities) 

Duties

• Transport Young Person from residence
• Provided mentoring support to each young person
• Liaise with family / carer and Health and Social Care Trust 
• Attend Team Meetings / LAC reviews
• Provide reports to an adequate standard

Position Requirements 

• A minimum 2 years’ experience working with challenging behaviours such as verbal and physical aggression. 
• Degree level in Social Work, Youth Work or a degree in a relevant subject is desirable, however minimum qualification would be a Level 3 Diploma (Relevant Subject) 
• Ability to work a flexible shift pattern
• Have a full UK Drivers License for 2 years and access to a vehicle with business insurance.
• Willing to undergo a Northern Ireland Social Care Council Registration and Enhanced Access NI
• Flexibility around roster changes and meeting the needs of the organisation in relation to picking up shifts at short notice. We endeavour to have all rosters completed 2 weeks in advance however due to the nature of the work changes in rosters can sometimes occur. 
• Participation in team meetings, staff meetings, training, supervision as required.  
• At least 21 years of age and 4 years older than our must current young person at placement. 

Skills and Attribute 

• Computer Literate and the ability to complete all reports via the Safe Places web-based systems 
• Ability to work autonomously in an isolated environment 
• Ability to work through work-related challenges 
• Communication skills including negotiation, networking, shift reports 
• Ability to remain calm in crisis situations 
• Ability to take initiative 
• Resilience, maturity, patience and confidence are attributes necessary to successfully undertake this role 
• Organisational skills 
• An understanding of the intensive nature of the work and the significant time the position requires candidates to spend away from home/family 

Application Process 

• All CV's need to be sent to: [email protected] 
• All posts will be advertising through Community NI, https://www.communityni.org  
• Please ensure you submit your current CV in a word format and provide information about your experience and qualifications on application.  

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL 

Safe Places is an Equal Opportunities Employer.  We aim to provide equality of opportunity to all persons regardless of their religious belief; political opinion; sex; race; age; sexual orientation; whether they are married or are in a civil partnership; whether they are disabled; or whether they have undergone, are undergoing or intend to undergo gender reassignment.  We do not discriminate against our job applicants or employees on any of the grounds listed above.  We aim to select the best person for the job and all recruitment decisions will be made objectively. 

In this questionnaire we will ask you to provide us with some personal information about yourself.  We are doing this for two reasons; firstly, to demonstrate our commitment to promoting equality of opportunity in employment.  The information that you provide us will assist us to measure the effectiveness of our equal opportunity policies and to develop affirmative or positive action policies.  Secondly, we monitor the community background and sex of our job applicants and employees in order to comply with our duties under the Fair Employment & Treatment (NI) Order 1998. 

You are not obliged to answer the questions on this form and you will not suffer any penalty if you choose not to do so. 

Occupational Health & Safety 

Safe Places is committed to the safety and wellbeing of its staff and ensuring a healthy working environment. Safe Places has comprehensive safety policies and procedures and is committed to complying with occupational health and safety legislation.  

Safe Places supports incident prevention and early intervention and firmly believes that accidents can be prevented. Safe Places is committed to a health and safety program focused on consultation and continuous improvement.  

Safe Places believes in shared responsibility in safety matters with all team members playing their role in maintaining a safe working environment. Team members will actively promote a health & safety culture through use of appropriate systems, identification and control of risks and reporting all incidents within 24 hours.