Independence at Home Duty Officer

Salary

£32,061 - £33,699

Contractual hours

Basis

Fixed Hours

Package

We are pleased to offer a wide range of benefits to support you and your wellbeing. You can read about them on our Why work for us pages.

Job category/type

Adult Social Care

Date posted

21/05/2026

Job reference

REQ0000976

We are seeking a Duty Officer (31 hrs per week) to join our team of four Duty Officers. You will be central to the running of our Duty Office which operates from 7.00am to 8.00pm daily. The post is office-based. This is a fixed-term contact for 9 months covering maternity leave.

Independence at Home provides a personal approach to helping individuals who find themselves unable to manage day-to-day tasks at home. We support people for up to six weeks to learn to do things in a different way to increase independence and confidence. This includes support with daily living tasks including manual handling. Our service is integrated with Health, so we work closely with Nurses, OT and Physiotherapists. The service is part of the hospital discharge pathway, so we are very busy and we have high turn-over of service users.

Our last CQC inspection rated the service as “good” in all aspects of the care and support provided, as well as for leadership.

Fixed term: 9 Months

Interviews to be held: Week-begining 13 July (tbc)

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Julian Seaborne (Operations Manager) on 01273 295762 or email ***email_hidden***

About the role

The Duty Officer's role is crucial to the smooth and safe running of the service. The successful candidate will need to work well under pressure with the ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels such as staff, other professionals, service users and families. Much of the communication with service users and front-line staff will be over the phone. Good attention to detail, taking responsibility and making decisions are essential abilities. We use an electronic monitoring and recording system and the Duty Officer must have excellent IT skills to ensure that this is operated efficiently.

The role involves shift work on a six-week rota, and a requirement to work one weekend and a half in three and some bank holidays. Some flexi shifts are used to cover Duty as required (i.e. either an early or late shift depending on need). Flexi shifts are also used for other types of service support too. There are enhancements for weekend working.

About you

We will provide you with in-depth induction to the role, where you will be well supported by your managers and colleagues. You will also have access to training and continuous professional development appropriate to the role. However, you will need:

• a relevant qualification in Social Care or Care Management (at least NVQ3, or equivalent relevant experience)
• knowledge of the Care Quality Commission’s fundamental standards of care
• experience and understanding of working with vulnerable people with a variety of needs
• knowledge of Medication policies & procedures
• knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act
• the ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing with service users and professional colleagues
• the ability to support and motivate staff on a daily basis to ensure the smooth running of the service
• excellent customer service skills

Our operations are heavily based on phones and computers. We will train you to use our specific and corporate systems during your induction, but you will need to bring good IT skills and confidence to learn new systems.

Working for us

The service is 7-day and operates throughout the year. The role includes working on a rota that includes early mornings, evenings, weekends, bank holidays, Christmas and New Year.

The role is office-based at our office in Craven Vale Resource Centre (BN2 0FE). We are co-located with the residential centre.

We can offer you

• a competitive salary
• time and a half for working at weekends, double time for working on a bank holiday
• a career average pension scheme
• generous holiday
• regular supervision meetings
• a range of other staff benefits
• free uniform and personal protective equipment

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?

As a council, we want to:

• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply

Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates

We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Enhanced DBS Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.