Rehabilitation Officer, Worker Visual Impairment
North Yorkshire Council
Northallerton, DL7 8AE
Salary
£39,481 to £44,253
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Not specified
Closing date
10 September 2026
8 days left
Job description
Make a Difference Every Day Are you passionate about empowering people to live independently and achieve their goals? We are looking for a motivated a...
About the
Role
You will work
directly with individuals who have visual impairments, providing person-centred
rehabilitation programmes tailored to their needs and desired outcomes.
Your
Responsibilities will include
- Assessing needs
and developing rehabilitation programmes that promote independence.
- Teaching
orientation and mobility skills to enable safe and confident travel.
- Supporting
individuals to develop and maintain communication and daily living skills.
- Recommending
and providing specialist equipment and adaptations.
- Working with
carers to ensure they have the advice and support they need.
- Undertaking
reviews and monitoring progress against agreed outcomes.
- Promoting
awareness and understanding of sight loss among colleagues, partner
organisations and local communities.
- Being part of
and actively supporting awareness training to partner agencies
- Promoting and
holding drop-in sessions in the community with visually impaired people and colleagues
- Working
collaboratively with health professionals, voluntary organisations and
community services to maximise opportunities and resources for people.
- Contributing to
safeguarding activity and promoting the wellbeing of vulnerable adults.
Job context
This post is part of a specialist
countywide Sensory Services Team offer for North Yorkshire. The team consists
of Sensory Social Workers, Rehabilitation Officers Visual Impairment and
Communicator Guides.
The core focus of this role is
preventing, reducing and delaying the needs of adults with care and support
needs and carers by promoting independence and recovery through the provision rehabilitation
support, training and equipment, ensuring people make best use of community facilities
as appropriate to promote independence.
You will be expected to work
collaboratively with North Yorkshire Council staff and other professionals
working with people with sensory needs and also to promote awareness and understanding
of sight loss and the impact on individuals to the wider community.
An enhanced DBS clearance is required.
This role involves spoken communications, so a confident use of English
language is required.
Job Purpose
The core focus of this job is to
maximise the independence and safety of people of all ages with vision needs in
North Yorkshire who have eligible social care needs.
Operational Management
- Support vulnerable people of all ages
with visual impairment who have been assessed as being in need by planning,
implementing and reviewing rehabilitation programmes to meet the persons or
carers preferred outcomes within specified resources or by enabling people to access universal community resources.
- Provide support, advice and training
To people and carers, including
- Enabling visually impaired people to
maintain, acquire communication skills.
- Training visually impaired people in
the use of orientation and mobility techniques and skills. How their needs
could be partly or wholly met by access to universal and other non-care
services.
- Promote awareness and understanding of
vision loss and techniques to support individuals through training and
equipment to meet individual needs.
- Undertake reviews of the
rehabilitation programmes as required by the Team Manager.
- Assist with
Safeguarding Adults Investigations, as delegated by the designated Safeguarding
Manager and in line with procedures.
- Ensure value for money and maximise
opportunities to generate income for adults with care and support needs.
- Involve
advocacy services when appropriate.
- Maintain
regular contact with adults and carers to monitor and respond to changes in
their situations.
- Represent the Directorate in court
proceedings and with other agencies as required.
- Assist in proactively working towards
the increased uptake of direct payments and other service development
initiatives including (but not limited to) reablement, personalisation,
individual budgets, self-assessment and self-directed care.
Communications
- Contribute to the development of
communities to enable the empowerment of vulnerable people with vision needs. Liaising
with local, universal and other services to promote vulnerable peoples access
to them.
- Share best practice and learning with
North Yorkshire Council staff and other professionals working with people with
vision loss to promote awareness and understanding of vision loss and the
impact on individuals.
- Communicate with adults with care and
support needs and carers in an appropriate manner to enable effective written
and oral communication in line with Directorate policies and procedures.
- Engage with a range of other agencies
to maximise choice and resources.
- Facilitate 1:1 and group sessions with
North Yorkshire Council staff and other professionals working with people with
vision loss to promote awareness and understanding of vision loss and the
impact on individuals.
Resource Management
- Support the adult with care and
support needs and carers to meet their assessed needs within the indicative
budget and in a way which maximises resources, where this is not the case you
will seek advice from the Team Manager.
Systems and Information
- Maintain clear, concise and timely
case records in line with the Directorate's policies.
- Assist in the collection of
performance data using the appropriate IT systems.
What We
Offer
In return, we
Offer
- A rewarding
role where you can make a genuine difference to people's lives.
- Opportunities
for professional development and learning.
- Flexible and
supportive working arrangements.
- Membership of
the Local Government Pension Scheme.
- Access to a
range of employee wellbeing and benefits programmes.
- The opportunity
to work within an experienced and highly valued specialist service.
Additional
Information
This post
requires an Enhanced DBS check.
As this role
involves direct communication with service users, applicants must be able to demonstrate
a confident use of the English language.
Occupational Skills
Essential
- Person centred approach to work with adults and carers.
- Asset and strength-based approaches with adults.
- Development and provision of rehabilitation programmes and training including orientation and mobility techniques, daily living skills and communication skills.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills written, verbal, braille etc.
- The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post.
- Ability to use persuasion, influencing and or negotiation techniques to influence others.
- Resilience skills.
- Works productively in a pressurised environment and supports others to do so.
- Ability to act calmly during difficult circumstances and recovers quickly from setbacks.
- Effective time management and planning skills, meets deadlines.
- Effective written communication skills communicate effectively in writing to produce documents in a range of formats and styles to suit a range of audiences. Excellent case recording and report writing skills.
- Decision making skills can make decisions within own area of responsibility which may involve considering risks.
- Ability to monitor quality and service standards.
- Good IT skills including use of email, intranet, internet, word, excel and inputting date into the Councils assessment system.
- Flexibility and adaptability.
- Problem solving skills uses creativity and innovation to generate solutions to problems.
Qualifications
Essential
- Diploma HE Rehabilitation Studies or predecessors.
Desirable
- NVQ Level 3 Health and Social Care, QCF Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care or there is a requirement that you will be expected to complete this award within 12 months.
Experience
Essential
- Working knowledge of the causes and effect of different types of vision loss and the variety of impacts of visual impairment on people in society.
- Knowledge of the range of equipment available to support people with vision needs.
- Knowledge and understanding of vision need, rehabilitation policy developments and good practice at a local and national level.
- Good working knowledge, understanding and application of community care legislation and regulations.
- Knowledge of statutory requirements, including requirements in respect of carers, equality and anti-discrimination legislation, maintaining a safe working environment, data protection and confidentiality.
- Knowledge of the Care Act and its application.
- Knowledge and understanding of how Equality and Diversity, Dignity and Respect and Human Rights will apply to this role.
- Experience of working creatively and innovatively with adults with care and support needs or carers to develop an agreed rehabilitation programme to achieve the identified outcomes including daily living skills both inside and outside of the home to maximise independence.
- Experience of working with people with vision needs in their own homes in the community.
- Experience of working positively in a changing environment.
How to apply
Applications are handled entirely by the employer on the original advert. We do not collect CVs, supporting statements or application data.
Provenance
Source
NHS Jobs
First seen
1 September 2026
Last checked
2 September 2026
Salary, closing date and description are taken from the employer's advert. The original advert always takes precedence.
About the employer
NHS organisation
This listing was structured from NHS Jobs. Vacancy details and the application process remain the responsibility of the original source.
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