Peer Support Worker

About Care and Repair North East Wales

We are a Community Benefit Society with charitable status covering Wrexham and Flintshire. Our role is to assist older and disadvantaged people to live independently by providing support with regards to repairs, renovations, maintenance and adaptations, enabling people to live in a safe, warm and secure home.

Knowing our Values

We are passionate about people and their wellbeing, and so we put our clients at the heart of every decision.

We focus on empowering our clients to identify and achieve what they want, not what others tell them they need.

Behind this simple and powerful ethos lies a commitment to building social capital through flexible and innovative services and practices.

Our model embraces going the extra mile in order to find efficient and personal solutions for each and every client.

Our values:

• Caring - We listen to what people want, and do what matters to them.
• Accountable - We focus on solutions and make things happen.
• Respectful - We draw strength from each other and our different perspective and experiences
• Excellence - Empowering our people to delight our customers.

About this role

This is a new service commissioned by Flintshire County Council on behalf of health and social care partners through the Welsh Government Regional Integration Fund. The service has been commissioned to fill a gap identified within existing service provision. The service will deliver face to face support with a focus on practical interventions which are responsive to both clients and referring agencies. The project lead will coordinate and deliver a rapid response service to meet immediate needs, and then ensure delivery of short-term support interventions to reduce reliance on statutory services, prevent (re)admission to hospital, and maximise long term independence in the community.

The purpose of this role:

To plan and deliver solutions in collaboration with clients to ensure that people are provided with short term practical support which prevents escalation in need or which facilitates hospital discharge.

To produce case studies and reports which demonstrate improved wellbeing for people using the service.

To work as part of a Multi Professional Team (MPT) and Single Point of Access (SPoA) teams to ensure that this service adds capacity and contributes to reduced pressure on hospitals and statutory services

All staff are expected to:

Promote and maintain an active approach to health and safety, in respect of yourself, colleagues and customers.

Care and Repair is committed to complying with Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and meeting the requirements of the Information Commissioners office (regulating data protection compliance in the UK). It is your responsibility to ensure the work you undertake is compliant with the GDPR.

You will be responsible for a caseload of clients undertaking duties such as:

• Prioritise needs and offer solutions to meet immediate needs.
• Carry out home visits to assess needs and agree support plans.
• Develop creative solutions with the client to ensure that their wishes are at the heart of the interventions.
• Develop support plans which maximise independence and which puts in place long term solutions which facilitate independence for the person supported to provide resilience and successfully close the referred case.
• Identify and report unmet needs and/or escalating need.
• Partnership working with external and internal teams to ensure the best solutions for the client.
• Ensure that case files are accurate and up to date.
• Support the Project Lead to collate data and prepare reports which show both how many people have been supported, how many have avoided hospital admission or reliance on statutory services, the outcomes achieved, the difference the service has made, and provide case studies which illustrate this.
• Provide a point of contact for responding to clients or professionals calling the office.
• Provide advice and support the client to identify their needs and discuss the support they want.
• Ensure that the client understands and is kept informed of all the procedures and practices involved with their particular circumstances.
• Provide information to the Project Lead, Client Services Manager and other bodies responsible for monitoring the projects performance.
• Ensure that good records are kept in all cases, updating computerised records as necessary and maintaining case notes and progress forms.
• Participate in staff meetings and training courses as required.
• Work effectively with local statutory and voluntary organisations and colleagues within the team to progress each case
• Produce case studies which demonstrate the impact of our work.
• To be aware of and committed to the promotion of the agency’s values, mission and diversity statements in both employment and service delivery.
• To work within the agency’s guidelines and procedures.
• Support the smooth running of the office, including managing visitors in the building and answering client queries
• To undertake any other duties requested by the Line manager, which are consistent with the overall purpose of the role.
• Adhere to the agency’s Equality and Diversity policy and procedures within own work and to generally support and promote the Associations Equal Opportunities Policy
• To adhere to Health and Safety legislation and the Agency policies and procedures in relation to Health and Safety.

In this job you will need:

• Ability to work accurately on own initiative and as part of a team.
• Skilled in organizing resources and establishing priorities.
• Time and workload management skills – being able to plan ahead and manage multiple and competing priorities.
• A good standard of literacy and ability to record case notes.
• You may have some experience in casework, support work, community work or voluntary work in this or a related field.
• It is desirable that you have some experience of planning and delivering practical solutions which address multiple needs – using short term interventions which create and maintain independence.
• Committed to our policy for participating in supervision and workforce support.
• It is essential that you have strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of people in a diverse community in order to be able to design solutions around peoples wishes.
• A people person, interested in people and committed to a strengths based approach and a focus on solutions to problems.
• An understanding of person centred support, ideally with experience of coproducing support plans.
• An ‘enabler’ - creativity in looking for solutions which foster independence.
• Persistence – you take nothing at face value, and can skilfully and respectfully make every visit count so that each client feels seen and heard.
• Problem solving skills – having a flexible approach to finding solutions that maximise independence and choice.
• Clerical, word processing, and office skills.
• As this role requires you to carry out home visits which may be anywhere in Flintshire ideally you will have access to a vehicle; however, we are open to consider applications from people who do not drive.
• As part of our safer recruitment process and our duty of care to our clients a DBS check is required for this role.
• Conversational ability in the Welsh language is desirable but not essential. You will, however, be expected to adhere to our Welsh Language policy in the delivery of this contract.
• An understanding of health and social care context would be desirable.
• Experience of working within the sector or a related field in a paid or voluntary capacity.
• Understanding of the range of human needs, what impacts on our wellbeing, and how our needs might change.
• Developed communication skills and the ability to respectfully challenge, explain consequences and maintain respect for their choices.
• Committed to our values and able to demonstrate them in their behaviours. You want to work in a values led organisation and recognise yourself in the agency’s core values. You have a ‘can do’ approach, remaining focused and calm under pressure. You look for solutions which keep the processes moving because your priority is to ensure our clients receive a high-quality service.

Data Privacy

We take data privacy seriously and are committed to protecting the personal information of our employees, clients, and applicants. During the recruitment process, we may collect and process personal information provided by candidates, such as names, contact details, employment history, qualifications, and other relevant details. This information is collected solely for the purpose of assessing candidates' suitability for employment with Care and Repair North East Wales.

All personal data collected during the recruitment process is stored securely and treated with strict confidentiality. Personal data collected during the recruitment process will not be shared with third parties.