Support Officer

About the Organisation
Every day, Life Without Barriers provides support and care to children and young people, as we work collaboratively with families, carers, and communities, to ensure they have the environment they deserve to grow. With a focus on ensuring safety and respect, this is an opportunity to make a positive and meaningful difference in these young lives and help pave a brighter future.

Life Without Barriers is a leading social purpose organisation of 8,000 employees working in more than 500 communities across Australia. We support children, young people and families, people with disability, older people and people with mental illness. We work with people who are homeless and refugees and asylum seekers. Join a community of people dedicated to breaking down barriers.

We want to employ people who reflect the diversity of our clients to ensure we can support each client's individual needs and wants. We encourage people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background and people with disability to apply.

About the role
Reporting to the Safeguarding Incident Lead you will assess and triage client incidents, determine if events meet the threshold of a statutory incident report, to ensure compliance in line with national and state-based legislation as well as LWB policies and procedures.

You will play a key coordination role in statutory incident reporting processes, providing advice and guidance to client services staff, escalate critical incidents, assessment of client and organisational risk, undertake trend analysis and make referrals to the National Investigations Team (NIT).

This is a permanent full time role, location flexible. This role offers the flexibility to work from your preferred location, whether that is your home or our LWB offices. There will be occasions when you will be expected to work from the office.

Key Responsibilities

• Undertake critical assessment of client event risk factors to inform guidance, process steps and escalation pathways
• Undertake assessment of client incidents to provide recommendations to Client Service operational teams to further support the safeguarding of children and young people
• Assess and review the collection of information to determine if the incident is reportable to external statutory and regulatory bodies
• Identify matters that may meet the threshold for reportable incidents and recommend for investigation
• Respond to incoming enquiries and emails in a sensitive, professional, and timely manner
• Facilitate informal educational sessions with LWB staff in relation to statutory incident reporting requirements and risk management
• Develop and maintain local information systems, including statutory incident reporting trackers and registers
• Compiling information from existing systems, client services, and other sources for final incident report notifications
• Provide end-to-end oversight of, and assistance with, coordination of the event
• Use data to identify and report systemic issues that relate to quality and compliance and upline to manager

Skills & Experience

• A qualification in a related discipline or other relevant experience/qualifications
• Working knowledge of relevant safeguarding legislation, framework, policies and procedures
• Demonstrated experience in the use of data systems
• Experience in a similar role that requires a calm, clear and measured approach to handling calls and queries of a highly sensitive nature
• Commitment to process improvement and the care and protection of vulnerable children and young people in our community
• Demonstrated experience writing well-articulated reports and correspondence that involves a high-level of risk assessment and analytical skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to handle sensitive material, demonstrate a high level of confidentiality and operate with integrity and honesty
• Proficient ability in the use of the Microsoft Office suite of programs, specifically Excel

Successful candidates will be required to clear probity checks including National Criminal History Record Check and Working with Children Check (where relevant to the role).

Benefits

• Permanent full time role, location is flexible
• Salary packaging and monthly RDO
• Work with skilled professionals to enhance the lives of the people we support

How to Apply
Include your resume and covering letter in one document, click ‘Apply’ and follow the prompts. For any enquiries including persons with disability that require adjustments, contact ***********@lwb.org.au

Applications close at midnight on Sunday 21st April,2024.

To be considered for and appointed to a position at Life Without Barriers, you must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with a minimum of two (2) doses or hold a valid medical exemption certificate, in accordance with Life Without Barriers Employee COVID-19 Vaccination Policy. You will be required to provide evidence of your vaccination status during the recruitment process.

We are dedicated to playing our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and bring continuity of care and support to our clients. With this in mind, if you are successful, we will discuss with you an alternative to a face-to-face interview.

Life Without Barriers supports the Royal Commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability. We believe people with disability need to be heard and for these experiences to influence how support services like ours are delivered. View our statement here https://bit.ly/2GzZGWA