Homeless Health Support Worker (Fixed Term Contract)
Twickenham, Greater London (office/field based)

About Us

We are SPEAR, a charity dedicated to helping homeless people in South and West London find secure accommodation and work towards a positive future.

For 30 years, we’ve worked tirelessly to support homeless people to recover from their personal issues and break down the barriers that they face.

We recognise that homelessness is much more than just a housing issue, so we provide a range of accommodation and support services to help people reach their full potential.

We’re now looking for a Homeless Health Link Workers to join our team in Twickenham for a fixed-term contract until March 2021, dependent on funding with the local authorities with a view to extend further.

The Benefits

• Salary of £25,480 pro rata
• 26 days’ holiday pro rata
• Pension scheme
• Access to a free Employee Assistance Programme
• A range of benefits including cycle to work scheme and staff wellbeing sessions

This is the ideal opportunity for an individual with experience of working with homeless people or rough sleepers and great assessment and case working skills to advance their career with our amazing charity.

In this contract, you will discover a supportive, communicative environment where we are all focused on the same goal of reducing homelessness and providing safe, secure accommodation for people who have experienced rough sleeping.

As the colder weather approaches, homeless people find it harder and harder to stay safe and healthy. Your role will provide a vital link for them to healthcare services and accommodation and will potentially save lives.

So, if you are ready to make an impact on the homeless population of London and deliver outstanding services to people who need them the most, this is the role for you.

The Role

As a Homeless Health Link Worker, you will be tasked with engaging with homeless people including rough sleepers to gain them access to primary care, mental health and substance misuse services.

Focusing on casework and assessments, you will deal with single homeless individuals with complex needs who have slept rough or who are in danger of sleeping rough in Richmond and Kingston.

You will work closely with other homelessness service providers, local authorities, statutory and non-statutory health and housing services to improve pathways and enable people to access physical and mental health services.

As part of your role, you will be required to undertake some lone working and some out-of-hours work. You will be required to assess and mitigate risk for these requirements.

About You

To be considered as a Homeless Health Link Worker, you will need:

• Experience or an understanding of working with homeless people or rough sleepers, including key working, care planning and joint working with statutory agencies, with a particular focus on mental health and substance misuse services
• Experience or an understanding of supporting people to address their needs by the use of comprehensive assessment and case management and an understanding of involving the person in their own care, taking a person-centred approach
• Knowledge of substance misuse and/or mental health services and the range of services and treatment available for homeless people
• An understanding of the causes of homelessness and the pathways out of homelessness
• The ability to work with clients who may display challenging behaviour and complex needs
• The ability to work under pressure and with multiple SPEAR teams
• Good IT skills, including competence with databases, word processing, spreadsheets, and email, and the ability to learn how to use new IT applications
• Have an understanding of, and commitment to, confidentiality and professional boundaries

Use of your own transport would be an advantage but is not essential. Experience of working to a psychological informed approach: IAPT, motivational interviewing etc. would also be an advantage, as would knowledge and an awareness of homeless outreach services and practices to engage with rough sleepers.

An understanding of Health and Safety and the ability to manage the associated requirements practically and professionally would be equally desirable, as would thorough knowledge of appropriate legislation for mental health and homelessness, including welfare benefits and housing law.

Other organisations may call this role Homeless Outreach Worker, Homelessness Support Worker, Homeless Health Worker, Outreach Worker, Rough Sleeper Support Worker, Homeless Link Worker, or Homeless Support Link Worker.

The closing date for this role is the 8th December 2020.

At SPEAR, we welcome and encourage applications from everyone, regardless of age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. We are facing diverse problems, so need diverse people to tackle them.

So, if you’re seeking your next challenge as a Homeless Health Link Worker, please apply via the button shown. This vacancy is being advertised by Webrecruit. The services advertised by Webrecruit are those of an Employment Agency.