Social Care Assistant

Overview

We have fantastic opportunities for individuals to join us as Social Care Assistants working within our Adults Day Services. We are looking for a dedicated individuals who can provide high quality direct care and support to residents within our day centres, focusing on personal wellbeing outcomes and individual wishes, to achieve strength-based support. In addition to the advertised salary, you will receive a ‘Golden Hello’ one-off lump-sum payment of £1000 upon successful completion of your probationary period.

We have currently have two 12 month secondment/fixed term contract opportunities:

• Full time 37 hours position at Burnham Short Breaks Service. Monday to Friday – 8.30-4.30pm with 30 minutes for lunch
• Part time 22 hours position at Spring Valley High Wycombe Short Breaks Service. Monday to Thursday 9:00-3:00pm. Please note the salary advertised will be pro-rata for part time.

If you'd like to hear from some of our current adult social care employees, take a look at our Bucks Careers pages Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram

About us

Despite the challenges that Adult Social Care has faced within the last 12 months, our approach in Buckinghamshire has not been to take shelter and wait for the storm to pass. Instead, we have chosen to transform and restructure Adult Social Care so we can respond to a crisis as well as build for the future.

We have day centres across Burnham, Aylesbury, Chesham, Beaconsfield and Buckingham with each centre offering short break day services to vulnerable adults and supporting them to live independent, full lives.

Our day centres offer a number of services, some being more specialised, but the core function of all of our centres is to provide support and care to clients and their families so they can learn new skills, meet new people and develop their independence through a variety of activities.

Here's what Stephanie had to say'Every single day that I go to work I make a positive difference in someone’s life. My work has true meaning, and even if I've had a challenging day, I know that I've made a positive contribution’.

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally. 

About the role

As a Social Care Assistant working within our day centre, you will be supporting adults with learning disabilities and elderly clients to provide them with personal care, feeding, employment support, domestic skills and activities such as arts and crafts, music and drama, and much more!

No two days will be the same as you meet a variety of people and support their individual needs. Some of the work tasks you will carry out include:

• Providing personal care for individuals, this may include but is not limited to dressing, toileting, washing and general housekeeping.
• Providing people with information and advice in relation to care and support and assistance in accessing care and support through various means.
• Ensuring an agreed plan meets individual’s care and support outcomes needs and to empower the individual to access early intervention and preventative services.
• Informing senior colleagues and adhere to safeguarding procedure of any concerns which arise in relation to the safety of vulnerable adults.
• Working in partnership with individuals, carers, service providers, voluntary sector and other professionals.

Fixed

As a ‘fixed’ worker, you’ll spend most of your time in the same location, which will likely be a fixed office or location where your role is performed. Typically, you’ll be based in the same location as the rest of your team, because you provide a particular service from that fixed location or need access to information there.

About you

Naturally, you will be a great people person, able to deliver practical care and support to an agreed plan using your own initiative to problem solve and utilising remote management oversight, where required.

This may involve undertaking a specialist role that requires specific training (e.g. autism services) or undertaking and administering personal care and/or medication.

On occasion you may be required to work at our other day centres so the ability to be flexible along with being able to travel is an essential requirement.

Please see the job summary attached for full details.

Other information

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Working in partnership with our health colleagues, housing and regulatory services, community boards and voluntary networks, our aim is to ensure that residents of Buckinghamshire are given the right support at the right time. We want adults at risk to be safe and in control, and to help them make choices about how they want to live. We also want to support the wellbeing of their families and carers. 

Our work enables residents to have choice and control over the services they receive and can maximise their wellbeing and independence within their local community. We have a range of diverse roles in our Adults and Health directorate and are looking for people who want to make positive changes to our communities. After all, our residents are at the heart of everything we do.

The majority of Buckinghamshire residents will have contact with our services at some point in their lives. Whether it’s for information and advice, access to a dedicated service or through the work of our trading standards or environmental health teams, we aim to deliver to the highest standard possible.

This is a very exciting time to join our Adult Services and Health directorate, as we join together adult social care, public health, housing and regulatory services for the first time in Council history. Our Better Lives Strategy sets out our ambition to enable people to live independently for longer and reduce dependency on services - something we are keen to focus on over the next year. This new directorate gives us the opportunity to develop an integrated approach to services that will better support our residents. After all, our residents are at the heart of everything we do.

Buckinghamshire Council is an ambitious unitary authority committed to establishing one of the best councils in the country. This is a very exciting time to join our new Adults and Health directorate as we build for the future, offering multi-agency support to our communities.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/