Support Assistant

Job Title:  Support Assistant
Contract Type: Permanent
Salary: £24,627 per annum
Working Hours: Full time 37.5 hours
Working Pattern: Monday - Sunday, rolling rota between 07:00 – 22:00, including some weekends and bank holidays
Location: Mike Jackson House, Aldershot

If you share our values and are excited about making a significant impact at Riverside, please ensure you attach a current CV and covering letter. At Riverside we recruit to potential not just on skills and experience, so we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet all the essential criteria on the job description.

The difference you will make as a Support Assistant
You will be key in the day-to-day running of one of our supported housing services. We don’t run care homes, so there’s no need to provide personal care. The priority in your role includes the safety and wellbeing of everyone in our accommodation, including our customers.
Working with people who have a range of needs, you could be doing any number of things. From supporting customers in conversations with calls from their GP, Social Services, or Benefits teams – to dealing with the emergency services including the Police and Ambulance, when the need arises.
You’ll log all incidents to make sure we have an accurate record of events. And when a customer leaves, you will clean and prepare their room, ready for the next occupant.
About you
We are looking for someone with:

• Experience of working with people in a customer facing environment
• An understanding of supporting vulnerable people – this could include having your own lived experience of homelessness or drug or alcohol addiction

Why Riverside?

At Riverside, we’re a housing association with a difference – enhancing the everyday for all our customers. For 90 years, we’ve been revitalising neighbourhoods and supporting communities by providing the homes they need to live full, fulfilling and rewarding lives. 

We have a portfolio of over 75,000 affordable residential and retirement homes across the UK. Our work ranges from homelessness services to social care, employment support to retirement living, and we need the best people on board to help us.
Working with us, you’ll enjoy:

• Competitive pay & generous pension 
• 28 days holidays plus bank holidays 
• Investment in your learning, personal development and technology
• A wide range of benefits

Diversity and Inclusion at Riverside:
We are inclusive. At Riverside, we value diversity in all its forms. We foster a workplace where all individuals are respected, empowered, and heard. Our commitment to inclusivity drives our success and enriches the lives of our customers and colleagues. 
Riverside is a Disability Confident Employer and operates a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for any applicant who declares they have a disability. If the applicant meets the minimum requirements for the role (as set out in the role profile and/or person specification) they will be guaranteed an interview.
Applications may close before the deadline, so please apply early to avoid disappointment.

Role Profile

We use Psychologically Informed approaches and Trauma Informed Care principles to support our customers to make positive choices, develop new ways of thinking and take steps towards independence, by: 

• Assisting in the planning and delivery of a range of personalised support and move-on plans
• Understanding the risk management process and assisting the team to organise and undertake regular reviews of support and risk
• Inspiring and motivating customers to meet agreed outcomes and develop life skills
• Assisting customers with day-to-day support and tenancy-related matters
• Assisting the team to identify and promote opportunities for employment, education and training and support customers to access them
• Signposting customers to appropriate external support services, such as food banks and other community resources
• Supporting customers to be ‘tenancy ready’, enabling successful move on
• Supporting customers to be financially independent through budgeting plans and maximising income
• Supporting and monitoring customers’ healthcare needs, ensuring appropriate contact with healthcare professionals 
• Empowering customers to move towards self-management of their medication by following Riverside’s medication procedure
• Maintaining and updating clear, accurate and strengths-based records on the appropriate digital platform
• Assisting in the promotion of customer involvement and consultation
• Assisting with the delivery of a range of group work sessions

Deliver a support service:

Support the delivery of the referral process for new customers

Contribute to the delivery of a housing management service, including income collection and providing customers with tenancy-related support

Work with customers to maintain a safe environment, including reporting any repairs or health and safety concerns

Clean and prepare customer rooms as appropriate

Resolve difficult and challenging situations in a sensitive and informed way, balancing the needs of the individual with the safety of the service

Ensure customer safety by following local safeguarding procedures, recognizing and acting on any risks and escalating appropriately

Contribute to and maintain local partnerships to ensure availability of a holistic range of support for customersCarry out...