Learning Disability Work Coach

Job Description: Work Coach

Reports to: Volunteering and Employability Manager

Salary: SP4/5 £25,081 – 27,453 per annum plus generous benefits package and mileage for within work travel

Hours: 37 hrs/week

Based at: The role is primarily covering Durham and South Northumberland but will involve covering all of Journey’s sites during staff holidays and will involve significant work within the community.

The Role

Generously funded by the Henry Smith Charity, Journey Enterprise’s Work Coaches will support adults with learning disability in to employment, self-employment and volunteering. Through skills development, training, volunteering and work experience placements we aim to enable Clients to achieve real work outcomes. The role will involve frequent travel across our area of operations and to each of our four Hubs.

Principal Duties

The post holder(s) will:

• Liaise with Local Authority’s Transitions & Learning Disability teams to identify Clients in receipt of Day Services for the Working Journey’s Programme;
• Link to Health & Social Care teams and students to promote Working Journeys;
• Work collaboratively with Job Centre Plus, the National Careers Services, Schools./Colleges and local employers to access suitable work-experience and employment opportunities;
• Work collaboratively with Voluntary Sector, Local Authority and NHS Partners to secure transition from day-care to volunteering & work placements;
• Advise on work placements and employment opportunities;
• Prepare Clients through job search, application and interview stages;
• Provide mentoring & support for Clients who are volunteering;
• Provide in-work facilitation for Clients who have progressed to employment;
• Provide information and guidance on DWP’s in-work benefits and services to support Clients and hosting employers (e.g. Universal Credit, Access to Work, Disability Confident);
• Provide pre-employment & retention support for hosting employers.

Responsibilities of all Staff at Journey

• To ensure Client Safeguarding in line with Journey’s Safeguarding Policy and the Care Act 2014;
• To work within Health and Safety guidelines and follow safe working practices;
• To be an ambassador for Journey, promoting, embodying and upholding our values with all stakeholders;
• To work as part of the Journey team, attending and contributing to team and whole-staff meetings as required;
• To undertake training as required by the Organisation including mandatory whole-staff training days.

Person Specification Qualifications & Training

Career experience and/or qualification in a relevant discipline (Advice and

Guidance, Information, Advice & Guidance, Social Care, Teaching (secondary or FE) - Essential

English and Maths Level 4+/5 - Essential

Disability-specialist training e.g. positive behaviour support, person-centred practice, autism awareness, Makaton, BSL - Desirable

Recent Safeguarding Adults training - Desirable

Experience and Skills

Experience supporting vulnerable adults in to employment, volunteering and/or self-employment - Essential

Experience working with partnerships within the community e.g. Voluntary Sector, Education, Employers, Job Centre Plus - Essential

Working with people with learning disability and/or complex needs - Desirable

Current UK driving licence and access to transportation for the role (or Access to Work ‘to’ and ‘within work’ transport package) - Essential

Confident IT skills i.e. Windows, Microsoft 365 (email, Word, Publisher, Powerpoint, Excel, Yammer, Teams) and Adobe, web Chat Forums, Video Conference Calling (Facetime, Zoom and MS Teams), social media (Facebook and Instagram) - Essential

Terms and Conditions

Contracts are offered on a permanent basis.

Employees are provided with 36 days leave/annum pro rata, a contributory pension scheme, a healthcare package, holiday buy-back scheme, Cycle2Work Scheme and a Journey promotional items welcome pack. Staff are also offered discounted lunches and free refreshments.

The Charity operates between 08.30 – 16.30 from Monday – Thursdays and 08.30 – 16.00 on Fridays. All Staff who work for six hours continuously must take half an hour for lunch daily.

Applications

Applications should be made on Journey’s standard application form. We do not accept applications by CV or any other recruitment form.

If you do not meet the essential criteria for the post we are, regrettably, unable to take forward your application for the post.

For more information and to apply please click "Apply on Company Website"