Floating Support Worker

Permanent, full time post (37.5 hours per week)
Location Hertfordshire wide
Salary £25,584

Emerging Futures greatest resource is its people, so we also offer our employees generous annual leave, pension, and other benefits.

As a Floating Support Worker, you will be employed as part of a specialist floating support team working with people experiencing substance misuse issues who are also at risk of eviction/homelessness or struggling to engage meaningfully with services when leaving prison.

The role will involve working with people leaving the criminal justice system, and you will be responsible for identifying support needs and managing a referral and assessment pathway. You will be based across the county, working closely with CGL’s Hertfordshire treatment provider and EF’s housing services, providing an in-reach service to a variety of settings and partner agencies, including night shelters, hostels, and temporary housing provisions. You will also arrange continuation of treatment in the community, appropriate post-release accommodation ahead of time and referrals to Druglink to provide housing support and treatment continuation where an Emerging Futures property is not being utilised.

This job is for you if…

• You are someone who is committed to our passion statement and shares in our belief in the potential of all individuals, and that empowering individuals to support each other leads to positive change; not only for themselves, but also for their communities.
• You are passionate about improving the health and wellbeing of those experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping and can support complex individuals from first point of contact to resettling in their own home.
• You are fun, approachable, energetic, confident, warm, empathetic, ambitious, flexible, resilient, discreet, organised, and professional.
• You are passionate about promoting recovery, tackling homelessness, and working in collaboratively with partner agencies.

What you will be doing

• Providing tenancy sustainment support to reduce the likelihood of eviction and homelessness, in addition to ensuring service users are prepared to move forward towards independent living.
• Providing harm reduction techniques around substance misuse including preparation for change minimising alcohol use, safer injecting and advice on alternatives, poly drug use etc.
• Ensuring the safety of all tenants and service users and maintain awareness of risks and changes in the working environment and contribute to the maintenance and monitoring of health and safety and security policies, systems, and protocols.
• Providing a range of structured and opportunistic psychosocial interventions to prevent relapse and promote tenancy sustainment, improved wellbeing, and ‘SMART’ focused goal setting.
• Completing financial planning with clients, assisting with the payment of rent arrangements, and monitoring non-payment of rent and acting in line with the agreed policy and procedures. Provide debt counselling where appropriate.
• Case coordination of service users including assessment, recovery & life planning, keywork and support planning.

Some of the skills, knowledge and experience you will have

• Experience of providing a range of evidence-based interventions to individuals affected by substance misuse and/or offending.
• Experience of facilitating successful tenancy sustainment and working to achieve positive community connections.
• Keyworker based experience of case management of individuals with a variety of complex needs and the ability to lone work.
• An excellent understanding of boundaries and risk.
• Excellent all-round communication skills and the ability to manage relationships.
• IT Literacy skills including the ability to use Microsoft Office Applications.
• We welcome applications from people with lived experience; however, all employees are required to have an enhanced DBS.

How to apply

Please find attached job description and person specification. If you are interested in applying for this new and exciting role within Emerging Futures, please send your Application Form or CV along with a covering letter detailing why you are suitable for the role to the email below.

We would be grateful if you could complete the Equal Opportunities Form attached along with your Application Form to help monitor the effectiveness of our recruitment practices and assess the success of different advertising methods in attracting applications.

This information is separated from the application and used for statistical purposes only.  It will not be made available to anyone directly involved in the selection process.

Closing date the closing date for this role is 20th November 2023.

Anticipated interview dates are to be confirmed.