This vacancy has now closed

Lead Practitioner - Housing First Consortium

  • Full time
  • £20,753 – £23,267
  • Glasgow
  • Closing 25th September 2021


  • Advertised from 10th September 2021
  • 1904

Role

About TPS

TPS works with adults who are experiencing a range of support needs. This includes housing and homelessness, learning disability, autism, acquired brain injury, fluctuating mental health, physical disabilities, problematic alcohol and/or other drug use and involvement in the criminal justice system. We believe that people matter. We believe they are the experts on their support needs. It is for us to work creatively with them and with partners to ensure we meet those needs.

Every day we work with well over 4,000 people and every year around 8,700. We help them to address issues they are experiencing and recognise their own skills and interests.

We embed our approach to support in a framework of Citizenship. Using this we deliver a holistic approach promoting the recovery, self-determination and inclusion of people experiencing challenges in their life. And we do this through focusing on their strengths and the valuable contributions they can make to their communities.

We define Citizenship as a measure of the strength of an individual’s connection to the 5 R’s of rights, responsibilities, roles, resources, and relationships that society makes available to its members.

Homelessness work within TPS

TPS is the biggest provider of services to people experiencing or at risk of Homelessness across Scotland. We deliver support to over 2800 individuals on any given day, and over 5,100 each year. This number increases when taking into account our services accessed through Justice or Alcohol and Other Drugs funding streams.

We believe that in many cases, Homelessness is entirely preventable. It is failures in the siloed and complex systems that we have designed to protect people that stops us from achieving this. Where Homelessness is not or cannot be, prevented the experience should be short lived, and we should meet that with a psychologically informed response. A menu of options should be available to individuals to prevent, or support someone to move on from Homelessness. This ensures we use a ‘no wrong door’ approach to accessing services.

We deliver a range of service models. These include Outreach Housing Support; Outreach Housing First; Outreach Crisis Support; Supported Accommodation. In line with our Citizenship approach we have a specific focus on key areas. These are; Building on people’s strengths, skills and interests as well as meeting their needs; Connecting people to communities, people and / or places; Harm reduction and / or Recovery; and providing a Psychologically informed / Trauma informed approach.

We also deliver a range of additional services across the country. Examples include Peer Mentoring services, Community Connectors, TPS Moving Service and TPS Connects amongst many other initiatives.

We recognise the importance of animals in people’s lives and helping individuals move on from the trauma they have experienced. We are currently developing our policies and frameworks to engage with stakeholders and develop our policy and procedures to make our services as pet friendly as possible.

We are also active members of the European Federation of National Organisations with the Homeless (FEANTSA).

Service Model - Outreach Housing First

In 2010 TPS invested in the UK’s first Housing First pilot project. This was in response to the clear evidence that there was a small population who were experiencing multiple and enduring support needs and were being failed – and worse, increasingly traumatised – by the homelessness system that is supposed to help them. Since then we have grown our services across multiple local authorities including Consortium partnerships with other agencies. We believe that a home is a human right and that an individual is best placed to deal with the issues that often made them homeless in the first place, in a place they can call home. We believe that Housing First should be the default model for people who are experiencing homelessness and have multiple and enduring support needs. We believe strongly on delivering Housing First with high fidelity to the 7 principles and working towards ensuring we deliver Systems Fidelity within the wider systems that Housing First effects or is effected by. We deliver the Housing First Academy focussed on the Communities of Practice Hub, Training Hub and Housing First Europe Hub. We are also active co-founding members of the Housing First Europe Hub

About the Service

The consortium is a Housing First service within Glasgow. Housing First has been recognised by the Scottish Government as an effective way to deal with those who have been long term homeless with multiple and complex needs. Turning Point Scotland is the lead partner in the consortium and work in partnership with Glasgow City Council HSCP (health and social care partnership), Simon Community Scotland, Wheatley Care and The Salvation Army.

The premise of Housing First is that housing is a basic human right and is an integral part of a holistic support package offered to individuals.

Housing First is designed for individuals over 18 years of age who are statutory homeless with multiple and complex needs; however they still want to have a tenancy of their own. The individual will be striving to gain independent living, but requires housing support. Support staff will provide support on the maintenance of a tenancy, addiction, mental health, social inclusion, life skills and employability. This support is non time limited. The service will act on the seven principles identified for a Housing First service.

The service is based in Kintyre House 209 Govan Road and support is available on a 24/7 basis, with the office being staffed from 9am to 7.30pm. After hours service users are able to receive support from our “On Call” service which is for advice and information in emergencies.

The service is person centred with the individual choosing their own priorities in their recovery and flexibility in support.

Main duties and responsibilities

Support to people who use services - To:

  • provide support and assistance to people who we support in accordance with their support plans and service aims.
  • be responsible for undertaking initial and on-going assessments of people who we support.
  • advise people who we support in accordance with guidance from senior colleagues or in accordance with the service aims.
  • be a key worker for a person or people who have complex or multiple needs.
  • maintain professional confidentiality and boundaries at all times.
  • support and assist people who we support in crisis situations, and/or manage physical risk or behaviour likely to cause incidents, in accordance with the support plan or service protocol.
  • travel within the service area you are contracted for and supporting the travel and transportation of people who we support in accordance with their support plan (mobility, own car, service vehicles, public transport etc).
  • have an good understanding of the causes and effects of social exclusion as is relevant to the service and area in which you work.

Application notes