King's College London

About us:

King’s Residence is looking for a Residences Wellbeing Manager to join the team.

About the role:

The main purpose of the role is to lead, develop and oversee a holistic wellbeing service that is both proactive and reactive across the King’s Residence portfolio. The aim is to create an environment in each Residence where every student living with King’s Residences has access to the highest level of care and support available. This includes recruiting, training, and managing the Residence Welfare Lead volunteer team as well as the direct management of the 3 dedicated staff responsible for the core strands of wellbeing – Safeguarding – specifically of the under 18 cohort in Residences, Welfare and Conduct. This role is also responsible for providing Mental Health training for staff in Residences and across the KCBS network and is also the key contact and liaison for all Welfare, Safeguarding and Conduct related matters that involve central Student Support and Wellbeing services at King’s.

 

Wellbeing Specific

• Triaging on a variety of presenting issues, including wellbeing & welfare concerns, mental health support, fitness to study as appropriate, student of concern, safeguarding, harassment and bullying, and sexual assault, referring to specialist services when required.
• To oversee and take responsibility for all Welfare and Conduct student cases in Residences.
• To act as the safeguarding lead for Residences, monitoring and reporting cases directly to the DSO as needed.
• Oversee and support a small caseload of student wellbeing cases, as needed. Creating agreed support plans, linking with other services, and coordinating a range of interventions and engagement opportunities to support the student.
• To oversee the keeping of accurate confidential records to facilitate appropriate cross team information sharing and support collaborative interventions and provide regular reports as requested.
• To collect and use student data to analyse and evaluate student wellbeing in Residences. Use this data to inform on wellbeing strategy to improve the experience of student residents.
• Report weekly and yearly data on student welfare and conduct cases in Residences.
• Work flexibly to respond and support students in crisis, taking a lead role in co-ordinating response across Residences.
• To develop and maintain effective internal and external relationships and networks for student referral and signposting.
• To be an active member of the Student of Concern group at the University, attending weekly SOC review meetings and contributing to case conferences, Fitness to Study meetings and Misconduct meetings as needed, in line with university policies and procedures, providing an informed opinion where needed.
• Act as the designated point-of-contact for Residences in very serious cases or incidents such as the death of a student.
• To participate in relevant University steering and oversight groups, focus groups and Policy review groups related to student wellbeing and support to give unique resident experience perspective.
• Support the Counselling and Mental Health service with the delivery of MHFA England trainings where workload allows.
• Team Management and Training
• To manage a multi-skilled team, in providing professional, confidential support, triage and assisted self-help to students with wellbeing issues including those in crisis.
• Ensure direct reports have meaningfully aligned PDRs to ensure their continuous professional development.
• Engage in regular 1-2-1s and team meetings with all direct reports to ensure regular support, clarity on roles and responsibilities and guidance is always in place.
• Engage in regular 1-2-1s and performance reviews with the Senior Welfare Lead team.
• Demonstrate strong but supportive leadership to RWL team – inclusive of overseeing the volunteer recruitment campaign, thorough onboarding, and induction training of RWL volunteers as well as regular team communication, meetings, trainings and development review throughout the academic year.
• Take an active role in professional and volunteer staff development activities to build an effective, multi-disciplinary team.
• To participate in team monthly reflective practice.
• Provide training opportunities for staff and students across KCBS and wider frontline Estates and Facilities teams to engage in appropriate wellbeing trainings such as Mental Health First Aid.
• To participate and promote Staff Wellbeing initiatives by acting as a Wellbeing Champion in Residences and engage with other Wellbeing Champions in KCBS

Core Requirements / General Requirement

• Adhere to and promote the University’s policies on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.
• The ability to self-regulate and self-reflect to maintain robust emotional resilience and personal wellbeing.
• Strong sense of appropriate workplace and welfare boundaries.
• Engage in regular CPD to ensure knowledge and skill set are up to date and relevant to respond to the needs of students in HE.
• Stay abreast of issues and challenges facing students by regularly attending HEI conferences.
• Ability to remain calm in crisis scenarios and to support others with staying calm and working well under pressure.
• Ensure compliance with Health & Safety and Data Protection Legislation.
• Engage in regular training and self-development opportunities, and to stay abreast of current news and changes to the Higher Education landscape in relation to mental health and student wellbeing.
• Support a culture of compassion, integrity, empathy, and inclusivity amongst the Residences Wellbeing team.
• Seek regular feedback on delivery of resident wellbeing services from students, team members and colleagues in Residences.
• Additional Requirements
• A willingness to provide out-of-hours and emergency support for students in crisis, as required.
• To visit students in residential accommodation, or elsewhere, as required.
• A willingness to travel to or work from any of the university’s sites as necessary.
• Participate in the On-Call Managers rota for escalated emergency incidents on site.
• Enhanced DBS Disclosure.

NB: Overtime may be necessary and expected where there may be a requirement of traveling to training courses, team meetings and trainings, covering holidays and sickness to ensure continuity of service to the Residence.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite  contract

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1.      Educated to degree level in related disciplines and/or have professional qualifications or significant relevant work experience relating to the fields of student support, social work, youth work or similar 

2.      3 years (minimum) of experience working within a HEI residence or similar. 

3.      Experience of managing work confidentially, effectively, and sensitively and ability to maintain professional boundaries. 

4.      Management and leadership experience in directly overseeing a team of support staff/workers, understanding the delicate nature of the work and the enhanced care required to ensure team safety and wellbeing. Previous experience of managing change 

5.      Demonstrable understanding of the current national situation in relation to concerns around student welfare and wellbeing. 

6.      Experience in holding Designated Safeguarding Officer role/responsibilities or have previous training/certificates in Safeguarding related activities. 

7.      Ability to interpret data and feedback, to ensure a robust wellbeing strategy is developed and implemented in a residential/HEI setting. 

8.      Confident in developing and delivering wellbeing-related training to staff and volunteers across the organisation.

Desirable criteria

1.      Ability to practice cultural competency within a diverse student community. 

2.      IT literacy with Microsoft 365, student records systems 

3.      Work experience with individuals with learning needs and/or disabilities. 

4.      Knowledge and experience of good practice when it comes to HR activities such as recruitment and performance management. 

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.