Care Co-ordinator

We are recruiting for an amazingly person-centered organiser to help an unique individual reach their full potential. The core of the role is the co-ordination of care and support amongst a range of different organisations, including Equal Care. You will be managing a range of carers, services, collaborators, and supporters to help a kind, intelligent, and articulate diagnosed autistic with ADHD man in a reliable, solution-focused, and resilient manner.

Summary

Equal Care is a different type of care organisation - we put power in the hands of those who matter most - the people who give and receive care and support.

The Care Coordinator role is three days a week, spread Monday to Friday, with some ad hoc weekend days always agreed well in advance with the individual. You will identify and manage the needs of an intelligent and eloquent person, who lives with autism and an ADHD diagnosis. This will involve co-ordinating and bringing together a range of people within different organisations as well as independent individuals to collaborate to solve and support his multiple needs.

You will need to be resilient, persistent, able to navigate bureaucracy, be an advocate, mentor, and coach, and skilled at prioritising multiple threads of the person’s life to deliver clear and actionable solutions.

Employed or Self-Employed?	This role can be either.
Salary	£21.50 per hour (self-employed) £25,000 - £27,000 (employed, pro rata)
Full-time or part-time?	Part-time, three days a week spread over five days - we offer flexible working and you will be needed occasionally on weekend days. Hours would be flexible depending on need, but being highly reactive to needs is important!
Where is it?	We offer hybrid working, a mixture of remote, with the person and at our office in Hebden Bridge.
Circle Roles	You may be nominated into these as part of your work.
What is the holiday allowance?	If you are employed it would be 30 days paid holidays, calculated pro-rata on your part-time work. This includes bank holidays, however, if you want to work these days you can decide to take holiday on alternate days instead.
Any other benefits?	For an employed role: We offer interest free loans of up to £1,500 that could be used for anything (eligible after 6 month probation). 4.5% employer contribution into your pension. Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle Scheme.

What you'll be doing

Co-ordination

Key to the success of this role is co-ordinating and implementing an “integrated care and support plan” for the person you’re supporting. The integrated plan is being created by a broad range of health and social care professionals. We need someone to help bring all these people together in the support of this person. His needs are complex so you will be untangling the threads to develop a cohesive plan of action that will summarise and simplify needs so that they can be acted upon, and importantly, seen through to a satisfying conclusion.

Your daily work will require short-term flexibility, positive reaction and active support (including emotional support), but you will also need to think longer term, strategically, to foresee issues and solve them before they become a problem.

Through liaising and organising with specialist agencies, social and health services, charities, companies, and individuals involved in the person’s life and care, you will develop a deep understanding of his needs and personality, enabling you to nimbly navigate the bureaucracy of everyday life that can overwhelm those with ADHD and autistic diagnoses, delivering a better quality of life.

You will:

Lead on the co-ordination, maintenance and development of an integrated health and care plan which brings together multiple services to create a consistent support plan for this person.
Upwardly manage to hold the various agencies and services to account for what has been agreed in the plan, particularly regards engaging with NHS services and the different clinical professionals involved in the person’s care.
Source and schedule support, acting as a personalised brokering service, you will join the dots to improve his quality of life.
Become the champion of the person, acting as his informal advocate making his voice louder, helping him to meet the challenges of his life, especially in addressing issues with services and support staff.
Support in managing finances, including his Direct Payments and applications for funding for services and staff to work with him, as well as for activities and his living needs.

This individual wants to fulfill his dreams, so mentoring and coaching around employment will form a key pillar of your work.

Support

As well as administration and co-ordination, if existing care and support workers are not available at short notice you will need to step in to support the individual, which could include:

Home management
Organising and attending visits
Driving to appointments
Support to attend social events
Supporting accessibility and sensory needs
Handling mental health crises calmly and positively

This element of your role is by exception only and is there for when gaps appear in the person’s support.

Co-creating your own role

We expect your role and responsibilities to evolve and change as the co-operative grows. We will work together to shape your role into something that works best for you, your colleagues, and Equal Care. Similarly, we need your active participation in shaping the tools and processes of your day-to-day work for the better.

Your qualities and experience

You need to be experienced with autism and ADHD, remaining resilient and kind in the face of expressions of distress or anger at the health and care system, and prepared to understand how this affects his life.
Experience with, and passion for, social care, particularly for those with complex needs. A strong sense of social justice.
Adept at handling multiple stakeholders, able to prioritise need and remain flexible.
Exceptionally reliable as consistent support and communication is key to success.
You are good at getting people ‘on side’, with a persuasive and persistent approach to getting results.
You are not a “one-size-fits-all” person - you bring your individuality, interests and experience to the way you support people and encourage others to do the same - this is what makes support relationships so special.
You have experience in solving problems that have a people-based focus.
You collaborate with others and aren’t afraid to act on your own initiative. If you can see something that needs fixing, you won’t walk on by, you’ll fix it!
You hold yourself accountable for your words and actions. Everyone makes mistakes. You’re good at saying sorry and moving on. You’re good at kindly and mindfully holding others to account.
You can say no (or ask for help to say it!). You can identify and hold your own boundaries. You can encourage, hear and respect the boundaries of others.
You're good at working on computers, keeping on top of administrative tasks, and writing stuff down. You can express yourself well both verbally and in writing.
You are willing to learn about and are open to cooperative ways of working and Equal Care’s model of support, which is different to normal agencies.
You care about your own well-being and can bring and uphold Equal Care’s value of Mutual Care for one another.
You will need to have your own car and a full driving license.

Requirements

You can demonstrate all the required competencies for the role.
You hold a full driving license and have a car.
You can provide excellent references: two from your previous/current employer(s) and one from somebody you have supported directly (but who is not your family member).

Training will be provided to support you in any areas needed to fully cover the competencies needed for the role.

Equal Care = Equal Opportunities

Equal Care is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and

inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic.

This policy applies to all employment practices within Equal Care.

How to apply

Please apply with your CV and a covering letter describing clearly how your experience matches with the job description and how your approach works well with our ethos.

There is no official deadline for applications. However, we are holding rolling interviews and will recruit as soon as we find someone brilliant, so apply soon if you want to go for it!

Our approach is for candidates to pass two interviews - there will be people with direct experience of receiving and giving support on the panel. We always provide sample questions before the interviews and a task before the second. Interviews will be held face to face or via video conferencing if preferable.

Apply here