Senior Housing and Welfare Advice Worker - The Manna Society
Job Description
Who we are
The Manna Society is an ecumenical Christian organisation and registered Charity. It runs the Manna Day Centre at 12 Melior Street, London, SE1 3QP, the largest day centre working with homeless & vulnerable people in the London Borough of Southwark.
What we do
The Manna Day Centre, a drop-in Centre for homeless and long-term unemployed single men and women, is run by a team of project workers under the Director, who are responsible for its smooth operation. Basic Services offered include food, showers, clothing, housing & welfare advice, medical care, and access to laptops. The Centre opens to the service users 7 days a week, 8.30 a.m. – 1.30 p.m.
The Advice & Welfare team functions centre around finding accommodation, welfare benefits, debt management, sustainment of tenancies and support in becoming “job-ready”. Clients may approach us with other issues, and it will be the Advice & Welfare team’s collective responsibility to decide whether the matter can be managed within the team or requires external input/expertise e.g. immigration issues and refer/signpost accordingly. The focus is on delivering practical solutions to client issues.
Our advice sessions run from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm. The sessions offer a mix of appointments and drop-in opportunities for existing users of the Advice & Welfare service and those who are new to the service.
Working Hours
The working week for this particular post is Monday to Friday, 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. each day. Annual leave is 25 days plus time in lieu of bank holidays worked. The annual salary for this post ranges from £33,775 to to £41,359. The starting salary will be dependent on your experience.
Reporting
The Manna Society operates in a collegiate manner but ultimately the Director is responsible for all staff matters. The Manna Society is an Equal Opportunities employer. Wherever possible, decisions affecting the running of the Centre are taken collectively by the team and the Director. In the event of any policy disagreement, the Director’s decision will be upheld.
Ethos
All staff will have a commitment to homeless people, which includes empathy, acceptance and respect. They will also work for necessary social change to ensure justice for homeless and poor people. Responsibilities are shared among the team according to needs, skills and aptitudes.
Responsibilities – Advice & Welfare Work
Lead and manage other members of the team through supervision, advice & welfare meetings etc in coming to agreement on implementation of policies and procedures tasks and pathways for client cases. To manage a caseload of clients as agreed with the Director and the Advice & Welfare team representing/advocating for the client, as necessary To help develop partnership and networking opportunities to expand our repertoire of providers in housing and other key areas Keep up to date with appropriate legislation and policies. In doing so, attend relevant training to deliver “best advice” and make recommendations/research required training for other members of the Advice & Welfare team Write reports and deliver statistics on your clients as required Maintain confidential records and administrative systems including database, block grants and petty cash systems amongst others Contribute newsletter articles on a quarterly basis Attend team meetings of all staff as required Ensure compliance with all society policies relating to Advice & Welfare and the centre
Responsibilities – Administration
As the senior worker in the team, you will be expected to assume responsibility/provide support in the following areas:
Providing statistical analysis and reporting as required by LB Southwark grant which supports the cost of running the Advice & Welfare team in part Providing ad-hoc reports/case studies to support external grant applications on behalf of the society Support the Safeguarding Lead (the Director) in producing the Safeguarding policy and associated materials, ensure that the Advice & Welfare Team have up to date Safeguarding and Prevent training Manage all formal Subject Access requests in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and support members of the team undertaking SARs on behalf of Advice & Welfare clients Manage and disseminate all private rented property vacancies to the curated list of recipients on a daily basis Assume responsibility for the database to maximise efficiency and ensure that all records are maintained to enable production of reports Maintain all grant spreadsheets for accuracy and in readiness for annual accounts/audits Be responsible for managing regular Advice & Welfare meetings and subsequent actions arising from those meetings Prepare Advice and Welfare presentations for bi-monthly management committee and attend said meetings These are the principal responsibilities. However, the Director may require staff members to undertake other duties, as and when circumstances dictate – for example, staff/volunteer shortages, holidays, special occasions, etc.
