Community Caseworker

Job Description

Job Title Community Caseworker

Community Renewal Rom Romeha - Govanhill

Location Govanhill, Glasgow

Salary banding Pay band B2-1 to B2-5

FTE £24,733.80 to £28,683.60

Pro Rata 17.5 hours £12,366.90 to £14,341.60

Depending on experience

Benefits Employer pension contribution.

36 days annual leave pro rata

Free Access to Health Assured Employee

Assistance Programme and online Health Portal.

Loyalty scheme with up to 48 additional days

leave.

Contracted hours and FTE 2 posts x 17.5 hours per week

hours Would consider full time for the right person

Report to Neighbourhood Manager

ROMA EMPLOYABILITY CASEWORKER

Do you want to help make a difference to Roma Community Members Lives? Do you

want to challenge discrimination and poverty? Are you passionate about making

change happen? Then we really want you to apply for this role!

Applicants should apply by sending their C.V. which should be no more than 2 pages

and a cover letter/email to [contact hidden]

Please note that applicants must be able to speak a language relevant to the Roma

community members e.g. Slovak/Romanian.

ROLE SUMMARY

This role will combine providing one-to-one casework and supporting community

engagement activities across the Govanhill neighbourhood of Glasgow. Community

engagement includes working with community groups and arranging community

events. Close coordination with a wider team providing community engagement and

community casework is essential. We have some preference for people who could

add some specialist knowledge around either health, welfare advice or employability

(including employer engagement), however, this is desirable rather than essential.

This role is ideal for someone at any stage in their career who can demonstrate their

ability to provide whole-person whole-neighbourhood support. We are looking for

people who can quickly learn our methodology and who can help build on people’s

strengths and foster their resilience/self-care.

INTRODUCING [Employer hidden — view at passion-project.co.uk]

Community Renewal is a dynamic and innovative organisation at the cutting-edge of

work towards ending persistent poverty and inequity in Scotland. We work in

deprived communities where we have been long-established to develop, deliver and

share better approaches based around whole-person, whole-neighbourhood support.

This means we always place people and communities in the lead: listening to them,

identifying their strengths, supporting them on their terms, and building their

capacity to flourish.

Community Renewal alleviates poverty by engaging and forming trusting

relationships with individuals, whole families and whole communities together then

supporting them by combining holistic case management (e.g. around income, work,

health, wellness) with community development (e.g. forming new community

activities/groups). This work is about testing change which can inform policy, be

scaled up or replicated to achieve a much greater impact than our direct delivery

alone. A set of core values guides all the work of Community Renewal:

• The most important element of any support relationship is listening to what the
• person wants deep down and working alongside them to achieve it
• To stay alongside people for as long as it takes
• Many people find it hard to articulate what they want at first and so need to be
• able to experience an environment of trust and safety in order to uncover buried
• aspirations – this cannot be rushed
• People don’t resist change – they resist being changed.
• People in deprived communities already know what is required to improve their
• lives – what they need is help with how to make it happen.
• Compassionate listening is a basic human need and is central to the way that we
• engage with people.
• Every individual and community has assets
• Sustainable transformation in communities is possible but needs a long-term
• commitment.

A team of around fifty staff we deliver community services based around three key

neighbourhoods: Pennywell/Muirhouse (Edinburgh), Bingham (Edinburgh),

Govanhill’s Roma (Glasgow). The full Community Renewal Group consists of the lead

charity [Employer hidden] SCIO plus four subsidiaries: Caledonia Funeral Aid

CIC, Community Renewal Rom Romeha (registered as Roma Life CIC), Pennywell

[Employer hidden] SCIO and Community Renewal Training & Consultancy Ltd.

ROLE SUMMARY

This role is an exciting opportunity to work with our multilingual and multi-skilled

team of

caseworkers/advisers, youth workers and community development specialists who

work with the Roma community from our vibrant office within the Govanhill

neighbourhood.

The key skills and tasks required in this role are to work with members of the Roma

community to assist them to take control of their own lives, to build their capacity

and resilience, to help them to better understand health systems and how to access

these. To assist Roma community members into employment, volunteering, training

and/or education; this includes helping those in low paid, insecure work into better

paid secure employment and to plan with Roma community members activities and

events relevant to their culture, needs and raise aspirations.

Within this role it is important that you can build strong trusting relationships with

the client group, therefore it is a key requirement that you can communicate in a

language which is relevant to the Roma community living within our neighbourhood,

for example Slovak, Romanian, Romanes.

There will be key performance indicators relevant to this post, this will include

maximising participation of Roma community members, to assist with caseloads of

clients that are working towards employment/training/education/volunteering and

health goals. To assist with registered clients and assisting colleagues. Part of the

role will include facilitating group sessions, outreach work and 1:1 work with clients.

The Roma community members experience some of the very highest levels of

deprivation anywhere in Scotland. They face high unemployment rates and

challenges in accessing employment often due to factors such as language barriers,

discrimination and a lack of access to education and training. A high per of Roma

people have multiple life limiting health conditions, children have significantly

worse educational outcomes, with many not completing formal education. Yet, after

several years of focussed community development activities, there are some shoots

of hope, with a growing number of community groups and regular community events

have been created.

OBJECTIVES

Transformational case management (approx. 35% of your time)

Objectives:

• Use active, compassionate listening as your main methodology.
• Collaborate with colleagues through formal and informal case conferencing
• to better support each client.
• Work with colleagues to help clients be closer to the workforce and entering
• employment, training or further education.
• Understand and build on clients’ strengths, avoiding crisis support or a deficit
• based “fix-it” model in almost all interactions.
• Carefully manage a caseload to ensure that there is a constant movement of
• clients joining your caseload and moving on to less intensive support. Ensure
• movement of clients around case workers in the team is done carefully.
• Use the [Employer hidden] Holistic Assessment methodology with
• almost every client, seeking transformational results to break the cycle of
• persistent poverty and inequity rather than incremental change in their lives.
• Work alongside people for as long as it takes, but at all times avoid creating
• a dependency relationship. While it is a long-term relationship it cannot be
• sustained as intensive support (for example, almost no client would be
• expected to be seen as many as 12 times per year, but that might include
• three times in one week).
• Use curiosity to identify with the client creative ways to improve their life.
• Then ensure that the client is leading the change in their lives – most of the
• actions to be completed between sessions should be theirs to complete
• (normally with some support/guidance).
• Connect clients to the support they need using careful introductions (rather
• than signposting). Use the representation below in which you are the centre
• of coordinating a client to benefit from wider support from across the system
• towards their whole-person transformation.

Community Engagement (approx. 35% of your time)

Objectives:

• Conduct effective and systematic Listening Conversations following the
• [Employer hidden]’s proven methodology resulting.
• Support the coordination and delivery of community events with the aim of
• engaging new clients and meeting other strategic aims.
• Support, under the coordination of the Neighbourhood Manager, development
• of community groups/activities or community-led social action.
• Take joint and several responsibility in keeping the office welcoming and
• inclusive for community members, volunteers and staff at all times.
• Ensure that community members who do not need/want formal case
• management (i.e. through the Holistic Assessment) can be briefly supported
• with information.
• Use these above community engagement objectives to systematically engage
• new clients onto the team’s caseload who can benefit most from
• transformational case management.

Specialist support (approx. 10% of your time)

Objectives:

• Provide intensive support for people to build emotional resilience and self-
• care to support their mental health needs or a chronic condition. This support
• should be in group or one to one settings.
• OR
• Support people specifically around employment through our employability
• contract (including registration and evidence process). This includes
• supporting CV, job search and work to engage employers (including but not
• limited to coordinating job fairs).

Reporting and monitoring (approx. 10% of your time)

Objectives:

• Use the team’s paperwork and databases (no technical expertise needed) this
• must include basic monitoring data.
• Proactively and effectively collect feedback (including complaints) to support
• our congoing quality improvement across the organisation.
• Proactively write up and share internally case studies demonstrating learning
• from both successes and failures.

Communications and Relationship Development (approx. 10% of your time)

Objectives:

• Use care in liaison with local partners to ensure trusting relationships are
• formed and maintained with clients able to be introduced to known workers
• at other agencies.
• Development, under the coordination of the Director, strong and trusted
• relationships with local third sector and public sector partners with delivery
• in neighbourhoods in which we deliver integrated services.
• Develop and maintain a strong working relationship with the Marketing and
• Communications Manager, following their lead on branding, external
• communications, marketing and internal communications.
• Engage effectively and proactively in team meetings and organisational
• activities to share insights/learning and build connections.

Other requirements

Objectives:

• Complete objectives set in Performance Review, Probation Reports, our
• Competency Framework and/or Appraisal Reports.
• At all times conform to organisational policies and practices around data
• management, H&S, safeguarding, lone working, equalities, environmental
• management, and business continuity.
• Deliver agreed for which you are responsible which were agreed in our
• internal regular Quality & Learning meetings (or similar).
• Carry out other duties as reasonably requested.

Personal and Professional Development

Demonstrating a track record of continuous learning and personal/professional

development is a requirement of this role and evidencing that this is being actively

progressed must be evidenced at every appraisal. The post holder has responsibility

to actively participate in sessions organised by the organisation including training in

compliance/regulatory processes and meetings in which learning and improvement

is discussed for the purposes of quality management. The post holder is responsible

for collecting feedback from people they support both to demonstrate their own

strengths and to understand how to improve what they do. This evidence of both

types of feedback about their work is required for every appraisal.

Key professional development of particular relevance to this role includes:

leadership skills; coaching skills; understanding of benefits/housing advice;

understanding of employment advice and employer engagement; skills to building

resilience and self-management.

ROLE REQUIREMENTS/PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential • Evidence of at least some experience in providing one-to-one support

Expertise in a relevant role.

• Evidence of understanding around compassionately listen to people and

build on their strengths (rather than trying to “fix it” for them)

• Evidence of understanding about people’s lives in deprived

communities such as Govanhill.

Desirable • Evidence of expertise providing one-to-one support in multiple

expertise professional or volunteering positions of particular relevant (e.g.

coaching)

• Evidence of expertise around mental health, self-care and building

resilience.

• Evidence of employability, securing people better jobs and/or

employer engagement.

• Evidence of expertise in compassionate listening and forming a

therapeutic relationship with a client.

• Evidence of expertise in community development or related disciplines

• Evidence of expertise in person-centred asset-based support which

builds on people’s strengths

• Evidence of expertise in collecting, recording and analysing data,

monitoring information and feedback.

• Evidence of experience working in deprived neighbourhoods similar to

Bingham, Magdalene and The Hays.

• Evidence of experience working in a third sector environment.

• in collecting, recording and analysing data, monitoring information and

feedback

• Evidence of experience working with relevant partner agencies (e.g.

money advice, mental health charities, community groups etc).

Essential • None (but competent literacy and computer literacy will be essential)

Qualifications

Desirable • Coaching or similar training/qualifications

Qualifications • Community development or similar training/qualifications