a day in the life of; a house support worker

A role we are currently recruiting for at asphaleia is House Support Worker, based in Worthing and Brighton & Hove. House Support Workers are essential to the provision of our 16+ supported accommodation services that are staffed 24/7.

So you can learn more about the role, we asked one of the House Support Workers in our brilliant team to share about their day-to-day working with the young people in our properties.

a day in the life of a House Support Worker

Being a House Support Worker first begins in the heart, you have to love and enjoy helping others achieve their goals and improve their lives. The role involves a lot of tasks, including; checking the needs and progress of the young people, providing them with 1-1 advice or group support sessions, teaching them daily living skills like budgeting, shopping, claiming benefits, and helping them to become independent and to deal with problems.

All this is done through engaging with young people in key work sessions. These can take place at the dining table in the house, or through going for a walk or doing an activity. We take every opportunitity to teach them valuable living skills and this requires sensitivity, understanding and the ability to work with others. You also have to be patient, remain calm in stressful situations, and pay attention to detail. 

My typical shift is not so typical! I do a whole range of different shifts in three of our homes. Some are long days with a sleep shift at the end and some begin at 5pm to 9am the next day.

A shift will start with me arriving on time so that I can be given a proper handover. I then go through the emails to see if there is anything that needs urgent attention and also have a look in the diary for any events or activities for the day. I then go through the notes to see how the young people have been, after that I will write down the plan for the day and also let the young people know of any key work to be done on the day so that they can prepare in time.

I will also be recording on the young people's diaries all the events of the day, completing any duties for the day, and sitting down with young people and interacting with them. At night I will make sure everyone is in the building before I start my sleep shift then report missing any young people who are not home after their curfew.

What I enjoy the most about being a House Support Worker is that it is a rewarding job. I take pride in seeing young people achieve their goals or learn life skills. This helps them to feel confident about life, they are not afraid to walk out the door but feel as though they can achieve whatever great things they want in life.

Life can be challenging for young people and in particular, I’ve noticed that young people are facing pressure from social media and wanting to look cool on social media, which ends up in them being involved in compromising situations.