As the world opens back up and more of our customers are returning to our hubs or looking to go out into the community more, we at Leading Lives are recruiting to ensure they get the support they need.

Many people equate being a support worker with 24 hour care, and although this is one aspect of support work, it is not the only one. There are many different and rewarding roles in for support workers and in this article we’re going to look at what it means to be a support worker in one of our Community Hubs.

Our ethos is to help people live the life they choose. This means that we put our customers needs right at the centre of the support we provide for them and we listen to what they tell us.  We have a wide range of activities for customers to choose from to develop social, sensory and learning skills – as well as having fun! We would tell you what a typical day in one of our hubs is like – but there is no such thing as a typical day!

You could be supporting somebody to attend a specific course that will develop their computing skills or hosting one of our fun Night Hubs for younger members complete with arts and crafts projects, quizzes or outings into the local community such as our Rushmere Night Hub’s recent trip to the local bowling alley! Working at one of our Community Hubs does mean your hours are mostly between 9am-5pm (unless you’re working a Night Hub which is open from 6pm-8pm one night a week) so you can also prioritise your life outside of work knowing you won’t suddenly be asked to do a late shift or night shift.

We have two Community Hubs in Ipswich, one in central Ipswich and one in Rushmere, then we have hubs across the county in   Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill, Mildenhall, Saxmundham, Lowestoft and Sudbury.

They have a range of facilities to support our customers including:

  • Fully adapted kitchens where you can help them learn cooking and baking skills
  • Life skills rooms to enable people to develop skills to enable independent living.
  • Fully loaded art/craft rooms to cater for all art projects
  • Well equipped computer/gaming rooms
  • Beautiful gardens for growing produce and relaxing
  • Out-door areas for adapted bikes – great fun!
  • Sports equipment and sports sessions on offer
  • Large activity rooms – great for chair based exercise, Zumba, yoga, dancing and karaoke
  • Sensory Rooms
  • Comfortable and flexible day rooms, lounges and dining areas
  • Fully accessible bathrooms

Unlike some other social care organisations, we aim to recruit people who love what they do. So if you have a genuine desire to work in social care, even if you’ve don’t have experience, we want to hear from you. 

We value our employees at Leading Lives, in fact, as we’re one of the top 50 employee-owned social enterprises in the country, it’s our employees who value each other!

This is one of the things that makes us a special place to work, once you’ve passed your probationary period you can buy into the company for just £1 and you could be our next leader of the Board! Having a board run by employees means we invest in each other and provide a friendly, happy, and positive working environment with an inclusive  culture where people can draw on their own talents and enthusiasm.

Working for Leading Lives offers you:

  • A varied job role – every day is different and rewarding!
  • The opportunity to learn new skills and qualifications – every employee takes part in a comprehensive, fully-funded training programme to give them the skills to deliver a high quality and personalised service, developing positive relationships with the people they support and their families.
  • Flexible working and the opportunity to gain experience across many different aspects of social care across all our services.
  • The opportunity to become a shareholder member of our employee owned social enterprise

As well as:

  • Competitive company pension scheme, matching up to 8%
  • Holiday entitlement that increases with service and the opportunity to purchase additional holiday
  • Comprehensive paid induction and training. Social care staff will achieve The Care Certificate (nationally recognised qualification)
  • Career Pathway Scheme – promoting the opportunity for all staff to develop personally and professionally
  • Occupational Sick Pay
  • Free DBS
  • Business Mileage at 45p per mile
  • Co-operative flexible benefits – cycle to work and staff discount schemes

If you think a role in one of our hubs could be right for you, check out our Current Vacancies