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Learning Disabilities Support Worker (Female)

Hours of Work: 40 per week
Salary: £28,808 per annum

Are you calm, caring, empathic, resourceful and organised?

Role Details

Overall Purpose: To provide high-quality care and support to service users in accordance with their support plan and comprehensive risk assessment, promoting independence, dignity, choice and wellbeing.

Person Specification :

Strong professional boundaries. The people we support are not our friends as such, although sometimes it might feel like that for them. We have policies and procedures to lay out the framework for professional conduct and to promote consistent support. You need to have a strong understanding of where professional boundaries lie and be able to guide colleagues when they may face situations with potentially blurred boundaries.
The ability to not take things personally. Some of the people we support may appear rude, ungrateful and disrespectful, and will sometimes use offensive language or aggression towards you and others. Dealing with these situations professionally is part of our job, and we provide training and support for frontline workers. Some people get referred to Rathbone because they have limited social skills and problematic behaviour, so they often function very badly in society as a result, which is why they need our support. As a professional, you need to be able to shrug it off and remind yourself that you are not being personally targeted and that your feelings are not the primary concern – it’s about the person’s needs. Rathbone has policies, procedures, and systems to support and protect you and to define the boundaries of acceptability. You need the capacity to stay calm, rational, positive and resilient when others are not.
A commitment to work unsociable hours. Some of the support hours Rathbone delivers are unquestionably unsociable for frontline workers, as we provide support according to service users’ needs. Team and individual rotas are intended to be fair and equitable, but you need to be able to commit to regularly working early starts, late finishes, weekends, bank holidays and sleep-ins as required.
The ability, insight, flexibility and resilience to work effectively with people of varying levels of need, including those with Autism and challenging behaviour.
An empathic approach and an understanding of the needs of people with learning disabilities (such as physical, psychological, and emotional) and the challenges they face in daily life.
Knowledge of the principles of working with service users from a range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Effective communication skills, including good spoken and written English, and a general understanding of non-verbal communication. Having a non-patronising approach to service users.
The ability to work in an empowering way, encouraging and supporting service users to develop their independence and daily living skills.
The ability to work effectively within a team and to work alone when required, prioritising work and managing a caseload.
Adaptability to change and flexibility to meet the demands of a busy service.
Computer literacy and admin skills.