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12 months Fixed Term Contract
Y sort it Care Connections programme aims to support care experienced young people aged between 10-16 years, within West Dunbartonshire.
The role of the Care Connections Support Worker will be to provide support appropriate to care experienced young people’s learning needs, raising attainment by providing a supportive pathway throughout the young person’s school life and beyond.
You will be active at providing support and encouragement, helping them to overcome challenges and /or barriers working towards goals to improve their learning, skills and personal development.
Care Connection Support Workers will be the #Keeping The Promise leads, work with young people currently accessing Y Sort It services who are care experienced. Offering guidance, rights based information, creating learning opportunities. You will be developing support plans, providing advice and information, training and peer support. Your role will be to work closely with schools, partner agencies and family members.
The post holder should be flexible as the actual times of work will involve working, evenings, school holidays and weekends. The post holder should be flexible as the actual times of work may change to respond to the demands of the work of the Care Connections programme including overnight stays.
Main Role & Key Duties:
1. Develop and deliver quality support services for care experienced young people through a variety of approaches including group activities, 1-2-1 targeted support and training opportunities
2. Provide support for young people on a one to one basis and support them in making informed choices around issues relating to their learning and as a young person.
3. Undertake need assessments and care planning techniques which include focussing on personal outcomes important to Care Experienced Young People and their families.
4. Advocate on behalf of young people on a range of issues responding to individual needs.
5. Develop and deliver issue-based group work, learning opportunities and training for around a range of key issues according to need.
6. Liaise with partner agency staff for the purposes of seamless referral of care experienced young people as appropriate
7. Ensure support for each individual is reviewed ensuring ongoing provision of information and contact so changes in need are identified and the most appropriate support offered
8. Identify where group support, including youth clubs, workshops, training and learning, will address individual needs, and plan and deliver such support, working as appropriate with colleagues and volunteers to maximise outcomes for care experienced young people.
9. Carry out development work and delivery of further information and support based projects for care experienced young people throughout West Dunbartonshire as identified by Y sort it according to the needs of young people.
10. Work with schools (inc primary, secondary,) to identify and support; this may include developing, planning and delivering assemblies, attending school events to raise awareness of #Keeping the Promise with pupils and teaching staff, to help raise awareness in schools; encouraging schools to share good practices and experiences.
11. Deliver a range of workshops and school/college drop ins and training; this may include sibling and carers workshops, peer mentor training as well as specific training identified.
12. In collaboration with colleagues, develop and maintain a schedule of awareness and or promotion initiatives for care experience young people and #KeepingThePromise
13. Work with colleagues and wider Y sort it teams to identify areas of unmet need, develop ideas and contribute to plans and funding options to address need.
14. Keep up to date with changes in legislation and local services which may affect the lives of care experienced young people and/or impact our service
15. Ensure expenditure is maintained within budgetary constraints
16. Support outreach and awareness raising work, for example in Care Day, Kinship Care Week, #Keeping the Promise events or consultation.
Administration:
17. Organise and manage your workload in an effective and efficient manner.
18. Provide quality feedback, both written and oral, on your work as required by your line manager.
19. Keep orderly and confidential records of all work completed and ongoing for individuals
20. Keep up to date records of your work as directed by your line manager.
21. Produce information, data and analysis for quarterly and annual reports
22. Collect data and monitor and evaluate activities to ensure outcomes are achieved and documented for young people
23. Ensure availability diaries and timesheets for your own work, are submitted weekly by the appropriate deadlines.
24. Training and Development
25. Engage in team meetings, focus groups and monitoring and evaluation meetings for efficient running of the organisation and its services.
Skills & Abilities:
26. Ability to empathise with, and relate to, young people.
27. Ability to engage young people & families
28. Good teamwork approach
29. Commitment to self-development and learning
30. Excellent administrative & IT skills including Microsoft office
31. Supportive and enabling approach
32. Ability to demonstrate initiative
33. Ability to prioritise and organise own workload • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
34. Ability to be responsive and flexible.
35. You must demonstrate recent knowledge and experience of the Promise, GIRFEC (Getting it Right for Every Child), UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child).
36. You will have an awareness/experience of primary prevention approaches, developing learning opportunities and providing support either 1-2-1 or groups settings.
37. Must hold a UK Driving License.