Welfare Support Officer

Mears Group; Bradford; On-site; GBP 10,000 - 40,000

Job description

Full time, Permanent, 40 hours per week Monday to Friday

Salary up to £27,000 per annum, plus company vehicle & fuel card.

Mears provides temporary accommodation to asylum seekers whilst their claim is being assessed in three regions: Northwest, Yorkshire and Humber, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. At the end of May 2021, Mears had over 19,000 service users across the three regions. Mears works in partnership with central and local Government, registered providers, tenants, landlords, and investors to find solutions to homelessness, provide more social and affordable housing, and create specialist housing for people with care needs.

About the Role:

As a Welfare Support Officer within Mears, you will be working alongside our Housing business, within the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract. This role forms part of the front-line delivery to our service users who may potentially be vulnerable or have a special housing need. Your role is to ensure service users are assessed at various stages, support needs identified, and follow through to meet their needs.

As a Welfare Support Officer within our Bradford branch, your main duties will be to ensure service users are supported at various stages of their Asylum application process, including any safeguarding and welfare issues. The role is to provide practical and emotional support to service users, monitoring service users’ wellbeing and support needs, and ensuring all records are updated and accurate for home office audit purposes. It is essential to maintain boundaries and be resilient to ensure a professional and well-defined service is provided to always meet the needs of the service users.

There is an expectation that any candidates will need to undertake OOH duties. This includes being on ‘standby’. This is paid at £30 per weekday and £50 weekend day. There may be a requirement to attend properties/service users during OOH. This is paid at x 1.5.

Role Criteria:

• Experience of working with vulnerable and diverse client groups
• Experience and understanding of safeguarding
• Ability to identify individuals and family needs and recognize the required support packages to maintain independence
• To communicate effectively with colleagues and clients
• Ability to work under your own initiative
• You will be supportive, trustworthy, a good listener, approachable, and empathetic to others
• Full UK driving license

All our roles require candidates to have the entitlement to work within the UK; Mears does not currently offer visa sponsorship.

Benefits we can offer you

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Annual Mears Fun Day - Our annual Fun Day is organized as a massive thank you from the Executive team for all the hard work!
• Volunteering Leave - Mears supports employees to undertake paid volunteering in the community, in support of our social value commitment.
• Staff perks with Mears Rewards - discounts of up to 10% on weekly groceries, holidays, eye test vouchers, Share save scheme, plus much more
• Family friendly policies
• Company Vehicle and Fuel Card
• Access to EAP which includes counselling sessions
• Access to additional training such as mental health first aid/fire marshal training/safeguarding level 2
• Mentoring for progression
• Opportunities to be part of staff forums

Mears Group is a Disability confident employer and recognizes our people as our greatest asset. We hire individuality, recognizing and valuing everyone as individuals and ensuring equal access to opportunities for all regardless of social economic background or individual makeup.

As part of the recruitment process for this role, we will carry out a DBS & BPSS check, as well as Security Clearance. For these checks to be completed, we will require from you the relevant identification, including Proof of Address, References, a valid passport, and proof that you have lived in the UK for the last 5 years.

About the company

Mears Group plc is a housing and social care provider.