Job Description

Join Our Team as a Housing Support Worker
Location: Somerset Additional Housing Service Team, Wells – Somerset
Role available: Part-time – 10 hours per week

Our Keward and Burcott services provide supported housing services for adults aged 18 and over with mental health needs. Keward House provides 19 rooms across four shared suites within a larger building, offering a more structured and communal environment with on-site staff support for individuals with low to medium needs. Burcott Road consists of six self-contained flats with access to a communal garden and parking, designed for individuals with lower-level needs who are able to live more independently, with support delivered through a floating support service.
Both services provide housing-related support to people who may struggle to access or maintain accommodation due to their mental health or previous housing difficulties. The aim is to support residents to build independence and move on to their own homes within a period of up to two years, with signposting to additional services where needed.

How you will make a difference as a Housing Support Worker:
Working with an allocation of tenants, you will provide a robust, intensive housing management service. Supporting vulnerable individuals who experience mental ill health in promoting independence and empowering sustainment of tenancies.
You will be required to assess the needs and risks of tenants and work in a person centred and personalised manner in order to enable individuals to sustain their tenancy. The role involves tenancy sign-ups and property re-lets, processing referrals, day to day running of a service, and health and safety of the schemes we manage.
Duties may include:
• Managing tenancies including lettings, arrears, ASB and tenancy breaches
• Ensuring properties meet health & safety and compliance standards
• Conducting property inspections and coordinating repairs and maintenance
• Supporting tenants to sustain their tenancy and develop independence
• Completing assessments, support plans and risk assessments
• Delivering 1:1 support sessions and promoting daily living skills
• Managing referrals, tenant sign-ups and maintaining accurate records
• Liaising with housing partners, contractors and external agencies
• Safeguarding residents and reporting incidents appropriately
• Contributing to service improvement and monitoring activities

Essential skills and experience required for this role:
• I have experience of providing support to people with a mental illness in a comparable role, preferably in a housing environment.
• I have excellent administration, organisation and planning skills.
• I am competent in the use of IT systems including Microsoft applications, email and internet.
• I have a good understanding of tenancy/housing management practice, lettings procedures, relevant legislation and current issues within the housing sector.
• I have a good understanding of Welfare Benefits, Housing Benefit and Universal Credit.

If you’re passionate about empowering individuals, reducing stigma, and improving mental health outcomes, we’d love to hear from you.

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Why Work With Rethink Mental Illness?
At Rethink Mental Illness, we believe that when you feel supported, you can make the biggest difference. That’s why we offer a range of benefits to help you thrive:
• Inclusive Culture: Join staff networks that champion diversity and inclusion.
• Wellbeing Support: Access our Wellbeing Hub, Employee Assistance Programme, and the Unmind mental health app.
• Recognition & Rewards: Enjoy discounts, cashback offers, and celebrate achievements through our PULSE platform.
• Flexible Working & Generous Leave: Starting at 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays and your birthday off), with options to buy or sell extra days.
• Learning & Development: Grow your career with structured onboarding and training opportunities.
• Financial & Family Support: Contributory pension scheme, enhanced family leave, and travel benefits like season ticket loans and cycle-to-work schemes.
• Referral Bonus: Earn up to £300 for introducing someone to our team.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Diversity is important to us, and we appreciate difference through difference, inclusiveness and belonging. It gives us a deeper understanding of the world, our society and the diverse communities we’re working with. By including everyone, we are able to draw on the unique experiences and expertise of our people to help shape and enrich our workplace and improve our services. One way we are doing is through our valued staff networks which play a critical and highly valued role in keeping us focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and engaged employer.  We recognise and support staff networks and support groups for our ethnically diverse and LGBTQIA+ colleagues. We are also proud to have been awarded Disability Confident Employer status and are a signatory to the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter.
We aim for our workforce to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve; for those who work for us to feel heard, valued and feel they belong; and for our work to help tackle wider mental health inequalities. We therefore actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including applicants with lived experience of mental illness, those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and any other gender identity not expressed here (LGBTQIA+); people who are neurodiverse, have a health condition, or a disability or hidden disability and people from an ethnically diverse background - regardless of your age, religious or spiritual belief, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, political view or socio-economic status.

Becoming a truly anti-racist organisation
We have an ambition of become a truly anti-racist employer, campaigning organisation and service provider - and in our efforts to influence policy and wider societal factors impacting on mental health set out in our anti-racist statement . We have designed a multi-year anti-racist programme of work contained in our Race Equality Action Plan which demonstrates our intention to hold ourselves accountable and be judged on our progress on becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.