Specialist Intervention Worker - Domestic Abuse

We are Hestia. We make a difference.

At Hestia, we are guided by our core values and are dedicated to fostering an equitable, diverse, and inclusive organisation. Our mission is to empower individuals to rebuild their lives and achieve independence. Right now, we are looking for a Specialist Intervention Worker to play a pivotal role in our Domestic Abuse Services across London

Sounds great, what will I be doing?

This role provides specialist interventions to women living in refuge with multiple needs who have experienced domestic abuse and/or sexual violence. Holding a caseload across a number of refuges providing emotional and practical support and advocacy to the women accessing the refuge.

Within the role you will be responsible for working alongside the refuge team as well as a wider support network. With a sound understanding and experience of working within the domestic abuse sector and with those with multiple needs you will be providing support and recovery planning to ensure women are linked into wider support network including and not limited to housing, drug and alcohol service, mental health treatment and social services.

• Provide a welcoming, supportive and safe environment for women immediately fleeing domestic abuse.
• Promote a trauma informed, empowering, anti-racist and intersectional feminist culture ensuring that women with multiple support needs are at the forefront of service delivery.
• Work in line with Hestia's values Respectful, Genuine, Dedicated, Collaborative, Courageous.
• Work peripatetically across a number of refuge sites, coordinating cases and providing bespoke interventions to those with multiple support needs.

Casework

• Understand and comply with Children and Adult safeguarding legislation
• Case coordinate across multiple refuge sites a caseload of women with multiple support needs.
• Provide domestic abuse support and risk management including DASH, referral and attendance at MARAC.
• Provide domestic abuse support and risk management including DASH, referral and attendance at MARAC.
• Provide high quality assessments in line with ‘The Hestia Approach', a psychologically informed framework that is trauma informed and puts recovery first, focusing on the individuals' strengths alongside their care and support needs.
• Work with women in co-producing a ‘Safety Plan' and ‘Strengths and Aspirations Plan', with a focus on the individuals' strengths to meet their chosen goals.
• Support women to access therapeutic support to facilitate their recovery.
• Ensure that women have access to emergency supplies including basics of clothing and toiletries and apply for all appropriate grants.
• Support women to maximise their income.
• Recognising and manage challenging behaviours with a resilient approach ensuring it is swiftly and safely deescalated and support the wider refuge staff team to gain the skills and confidence in managing these behaviours.
• Work pan London providing crisis interventions to those that are most at need within Hestia's refuges.

Work alongside refuge staff, providing additional support and upskilling on working with women with multiple support needs

Partnership work

• Develop strong links with a range of agencies including drug and alcohol services, mental health teams, DWP, police, local authority housing teams, social services and voluntary agencies in order to both safeguard and promote the welfare and/or opportunities of our service users.
• Hold relationships with local mental health and drug and alcohol services and ensuring that regular multi-discplenary case conferences are held and chairing where needed.
• Work with GP's and other health professionals to look at treatment routes including social prescribing routes.
• Support women to access these appointments attending with them where appropriate.

 Working Together

• Lead on an activities programme across a number of Refuges focused on fun and joy to support with Women's wellbeing and supporting Hestia's goals of bringing Hope and Purpose.
• Facilitate regular community meetings bringing all the staff and women together including, house meetings, domestic abuse safety event and the ‘Be You' empowerment programme.
• Work with the Volunteer team to bring in volunteer opportunities within the Refuge.
• Support women to access community services attending with them where appropriate.

 Move on Support

• Provide high quality assessments in line with ‘The Hestia Approach', a psychologically informed framework that is trauma informed and puts recovery first, focusing on the individuals' strengths alongside their care and support needs.
• Work with women in co-producing a ‘Safety Plan' and ‘Strengths and Aspirations Plan', with a focus on the individuals' strengths to meet their chosen goals.
• Support women to access therapeutic support to facilitate their recovery.
• Ensure that women have access to emergency supplies including basics of clothing and toiletries and apply for all appropriate grants.
• Support women to maximise their income.Recognising and manage challenging behaviours with a resilient approach ensuring it is swiftly and safely deescalated and support the wider refuge staff team to gain the skills and confidence in managing these behaviours.
• Work pan London providing crisis interventions to those that are most at need within Hestia's refuges.Work alongside refuge staff, providing additional support and upskilling on working with women with multiple support needs.
• Have a sound understanding of current housing legislation, welfare benefits and entitlements.
• Create bespoke move on goals as part of the strengths and aspiration assessment. Ensuring that the housing rights and responsibilities are clearly explained from the beginning of the stay in refuge.
• Accurately record all information on Hestia's case management system INFORM in real time ensuring information is factual and SMART.
• Understanding the importance of confidentially and complying with organisational policies around GDPR and data protection.
• Keep accurate records of all petty cash and refuge spends including where needed credit card spends.

What do I need to bring with me?

You'll need to be able to demonstrate the core skills this role requires as well as match our values and mission. You don't have to tick all the boxes right away; the important thing is that you're willing to learn. We also value lived experience of the areas we support, so if you feel comfortable, please do mention this on your application.

Here's what the team will be looking for:

• Good standard of general education or equivalent experience.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Willingness to actively engage in undertaking relevant personal development and training.
• Experience of delivering high quality support to people with a range of needs and risks.
• Experience of identifying and managing risk for victim/survivors of domestic abuse.
• Good knowledge of welfare benefits, housing options and legislation related to statutory duty including the rights for survivors of domestic abuse in regard to housing in line with the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
• Knowledge of health and safety relevant within a refuge setting.
• Knowledge and understanding of safeguarding issues and ability to address them appropriately.
• An ability to undertake person centered key working, support planning and risk assessments to maximise service users' independence.
• An understanding of needs of women from diverse communities and the barriers to accessing support.
• Commitment to equal opportunities and to promoting service users' rights, privacy, dignity, choice and control.
• Ability to liaise with external professionals to inform and develop service users' support package.
• Ability to travel across London and further afield when needed.

Interview Steps

We keep our interview process simple, so you know exactly what to expect.

• Shortlisting call: We have a team of dedicated recruitment specialists who will speak to you about your experience, motivations and values. They will also tell you about all the great work we do!
• Face to face interview: Now you will have face to face interview with the hiring manager. Our interviews are value and competency based.

Don't be alarmed if there are other stages in the process, it's all part of the plan for some of our roles.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Our services users come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes us stronger. We are committed to creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive workforce and value the skills, abilities, talent and experiences, different people and communities bring to our organisation.

We are a disability confident employer

Hestia is proud to be a disability confident employer, dedicated to the employment and career development of individuals with disabilities. We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for all applicants with disabilities who meet the minimum criteria for the role they have applied for. We also provide reasonable adjustments during the selection and interview process, and throughout your employment with us.

Safeguarding Statement

Hestia is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults, children and young people who are potentially at risk, and we therefore expect all staff and volunteers to do the same. We require all staff to undertake internal and external safeguarding training throughout their employment with Hestia.