Practice Development Manager

Do you have excellent leadership skills, high level communication skills, and significant experience of working directly with people with learning disabilities and autism?

Do you have a demonstrable track record of ensuring PBS is delivered effectively, impacting positively on quality of life, quality of support and practice and supporting positive risk taking?

We have an exciting opportunity to join Ark as Practice Development Manager. This post comes at a crucial time for Ark as we move into a new phase and look to implement a Positive Behaviour Support strategy across the organisation.

Ark has been successfully supporting people with Learning Disabilities, Autism, Mental Health and Complex Support needs to live good lives and make their home in their communities for 47 years.

We are at the beginning of a new phase in our development as an organisation, having set out a Strategy for our Care & Support services and committing to the development of new properties, many of which will be designed to meet the needs of people with a range of disabilities.

Our Care & Support strategy is focused on continuous improvement and supporting our staff and teams to deliver the best service possible to the people we support. In order to achieve this, we are creating a Practice Development Team that will work across the organisation to implement key strategic objectives and support organisational development.

Ark has a long history of supporting people using Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) approaches and we want to build on this by making a step change in the way we support staffs’ understanding and development, placing PBS at the heart of our service delivery.

Reporting to the Director of Care & Support, the Practice Development Manager will establish, develop and lead a Practice Development team. The team will initially focus on the development and implementation of Ark’s PBS strategy, supporting managers to become Practice Leaders and building knowledge, capacity, and resilience within Care & Support teams.

Longer term, the Practice Development team will support the development of staff practice across a range of areas of practice and the development of competency frameworks.

You will need to establish and maintain effective working relationships with Care & Support colleagues and Learning & Development colleagues as well as representing Ark at relevant external practice forums (e.g. PBS Community or Practice, Restraint Reduction Scotland).

You will be leading on the development and delivery of Arks Positive Behaviour Support Strategy, policy and processes.

The ideal candidate will have:

• The ability to oversee the development and governance of organisational strategy and embed approaches, translating theory and evidence into Policy, Procedure and Practice.
• Significant experience of working directly with people with learning disabilities, autism, and behaviours of concern.
• Demonstrable track record of ensuring PBS is delivered effectively, impacting positively on quality of life, quality of support and practice and supporting positive risk taking.
• Demonstrable knowledge in relation to social care and PBS models, theory and emerging best practise in relation to people with learning disabilities & autism.
• Understanding of the theory and practice of Practice Development and Practice Leadership.

Does this sound like the perfect fit for you ?

Find out more, download the Job Outline and Apply at www.arkha.org.uk/work-with-us .

Why Ark?

• Hybrid Working: Enjoy the flexibility of splitting your work week between working from home, Arks services and our Main Office in Edinburgh.
• Flexible Working Times: Not a 9am - 5pm person. Arks allows you to flex your start & finish time in agreement with your line manager.
• Employee Assistance Program: Arks Employee Assistance program (EAP) gives all employees access to counselling sessions. There is also support available through weekly webinars and the EAP Website & App.
• Employee Discounts: Employee Discounts Portal with 1000s of discounts on your favourite brands including Supermarkets, Cinema Tickets, Gym Membership and Holidays.

In return for your valuable contribution, Ark will also offer you:

• Up to 36 days paid holiday per year pro rata
• 4% Contributory pension scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme

Ark is a major provider of Care and Support to people with long term and enduring conditions such as learning disability, mental health issues, dementia and autism. As a housing organisation, we are one of the smaller providers. Our aim is to ensure that those who use our services get the very best out of Ark to enable them to live a good life and to provide the best quality of housing to our tenants, some of whom we provide support to.

Please apply online or contact the HR team on 0131 447 9027 or at HRteam@arkha.org.uk quoting the job reference.

CVs will not be accepted

Applications close at 4pm Friday 28th June 2024.

Interviews will be held on Tuesday 9th July 2024 & Wednesday 10th July 2024.

Scottish Charity No. SCO15694

Reference: HO21/PDM