Relief Shared Lives Development Workers (Carer Recruitment)
Relief (Bank) Shared Lives Development workers (Carer recruitment)
Ref: RSLDW112024
Salary: £13.56 per hour
Hours and Location: These posts are very flexible with lots of opportunities to work relief (bank) hours across our various UK locations. This role can usually be completed remotely from home without travelling across regions. For any tasks you may need or wish to do from an office base or home visits/events you may attend in person there are different options across our various UK locations.
PSS in a nutshell
At PSS, we’ve got an important job to do; and that’s to help people make the most of their lives. Whether you’re working directly with the people who use our services, or behind the scenes in one of our offices, every day you’ll be helping to make other people feel happier, healthier and more supported.
We’re a social enterprise or, as we like to call it – a ‘business with a heart’. This means that all the money we make goes back into finding new ways to help people. Our aim is simple; we want to help people change their lives for the better – no matter what life throws at them. We’ve got offices across Manchester, Merseyside, the Midlands, Wales, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Yorkshire.
What’s Shared Lives all about?
Alex is 29 and from Thetford. He works as a shop assistant in a local DIY shop. He’s a big footy fan, loves going out for a pint on a Friday night and is secretly a Love Island enthusiast – not that he’d tell that to his mates! He lives with his mum and dad at the moment, but wants to get a bit more independence. Alex has a learning disability, which means he needs a little help around the house with things like making his lunch for work, ironing and looking after his finances. He’d love to move somewhere where he knows he’ll still get the help he needs, but can also have his independence.
Sarah is 45 and lives in Wymondham with her 18-year-old son, David, and their dog Bruno. After being on her feet all day working in a care home, she loves nothing more than putting her achy feet up, relaxing on the couch with a glass of wine and some trashy TV (she’s well and truly caught up with the Kardashians!) She likes her job, but wishes she could work for herself and have more freedom. David is off to university soon, and she’s worried she’ll be lonely without him to look after.
Notice anything?
These two are a perfect match, right?!
Shared Lives is a different type of adult arrangement that supports people who need a bit of extra support with daily things like cooking, cleaning, ironing and getting out and about to the shops. Each Shared Lives arrangement is built around the individual person, their hopes and dreams and who’ll be a good fit for them to live with. There’s lots of different types of people using Shared Lives. It could be someone with a learning disability, mental health needs or people moving on from a different type of care. Our big-hearted Shared Lives team work very hard indeed to make sure people are well matched, that both carers and people using the service feel supported and – most of all – that everyone is happy.
Thanks to PSS Shared Lives, Alex now stays with Sarah, in her house, where she supports him to make his ham sandwiches for work and get his uniform ironed and ready for a Monday morning and also have a break from home and do things on his own. Alex loves taking Bruno for a walk, and he’s still close to his mates at Sarah’s. He got his independence and gives Sarah a hand too!
Shared Lives carers are people who, like Sarah, have a spare room in their home and some spare room in their heart too. Sarah gets paid to be Alex’s temporary carer, but he’s become much more than someone she cares for professionally – he’s become part of her family.
What you’ll do
You’ll have an important job to do – to find, assess and recruit carers like Sarah to work as self-employed PSS Shared Lives carers, and to be a Shared Lives ambassador, welcoming people into the service and helping us promote it whenever you can.
To do this job well, you’re going to need:
- Great communication skills
- Passion for finding people safe and happy homes
- An eye for detail in observation skills and critical analysis to accurately assess carers’ suitability
- Report writing skills
- An Enhanced Disclosure
- A big heart, open mind, determination, professionalism and a genuine personality
As one of our relief (bank) Shared Lives Development workers (Carer Rercuitment), you’ll cover absences or recruitment gaps in our regions where there is a need. There are various UK locations spread across our Shared Lives portfolio but it is expected that this role can usually be completed remotely from home. You can find further information in our job details below and we can talk more about what would work best for you when we meet.
Candidates who consider themselves to be disabled will also be given the opportunity to attend an interview if they meet the essential criteria for the role
Your trusty candidate pack will help you get a feel for what it’s like to work with us, find out what we’re looking for, explain the recruitment process and help you decide whether you can see yourself as a part of our amazing team. Each section is crammed with hints and tips to help you make a great application, so please take the time to give it a good read.
Before you apply, we just want to let you know some key information about our selection process.
We have an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Policy which aims to eliminate discrimination in employment and our candidates are selected on merit only, which means they’ll be given equal opportunities irrespective of age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, race, religion or belief.
Once you click to apply, you’ll be taken to our external recruitment platform called ‘Applied’. Applied are the only hiring software with diversity and fairness built into every step of the process and we’re very proud to partner with them to help us deliver a non-bias recruitment experience.
Once you register your details on the site, you’ll be asked for your EDI information such as your age, gender, ethnicity etc. You’ll also be asked questions around whether your parents went to university and whether you had free meals at school which help them to measure socio-economic factors. These questions are set by Applied experts based on extensive research and expertise and you can find out more about this here.
This information is completely anonymised, and we never see answers linked to a candidate’s name, so it doesn’t form any part of our decision-making. We only receive combined data about an applicant pool (and only when there’s enough applicants to ensure that answers can remain anonymous). We report on this data every quarter to helps us identify if there is anything in our process that harms the chances of success for candidates from minority groups and any possible steps to help improve this.
If you still prefer not to answer, that’s no problem at all as there’s also an option to select ‘prefer not to say’.
The only EDI related information that we will see about you is if you tell us that you have any reasonable adjustments needed at any part of our process.
Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions about the above by emailing [email protected] or calling our team on 01517025555.
We also welcome any feedback you might have about our approach so there’ll be plenty of opportunities for you to give this as part of the process.
Closing date: 4th January 2025
View Recruitment of Ex-offenders Statement
⇒Click here to apply⇐
PSS values the importance of Diversity