Employee Benefits
At Ark, we offer more than just a job – we provide an environment where your career can grow and succeed. Explore the benefits of being part of our team of Support Practitioners!
Training & Development
- Fully funded SVQ 2: Our in house SVQ team will support you to get your Qualification in Health & Social Care.
Employee Support & Wellbeing
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Access confidential counselling sessions, weekly webinars, and an EAP website/app for ongoing support.
- Gym Discounts: Save up to 25% on membership at thousands of gyms, leisure centres, yoga studios, bootcamps and more
- Cycle to Work Scheme
Flexibility & Work Life Balance
- Up to 36 days of Annual Leave depending on Length of Service
- Plus an Annual Leave Buy & Sell Scheme which allows you to buy or sell up to 5 days (1 week for part-time) of leave each year.
Financial Benefits
- Enhanced Overtime: Earn an enhanced rate for any overtime worked over your full-time contracted hours.*
- Employee Discounts: Enjoy 1000s of discounts on your favourite brands, including supermarkets, cinema tickets, and holidays.
- Refer a Friend Scheme
Other Benefits
ID Requirements
As part of your pre-employment checks you will be asked to bring the following ID with you to the interview:
- 3 Original ID Documents one from each section of the Candidate ID Checklist shown in the image on the right
- Right to Work Documentation – Further guidance on how to prove your right to work can be found on the Government website https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-work
FAQs
Got a question? Check out our FAQs below.
If you have any other questions, please phone 0131 447 9027 (& choose recruitment) or email PSTeam@arkha.org.uk
Application
We require your personal details, current and second most current employment information, employment history and reference details.
There is also personal statements that are required in support of your application.
Yes, if successful we require contact details for your two references.
- We require two references, one needs to be from your current/most recent employer and the other from your second most recent.
- Needs to be from a professional email address
- Cannot be from family, friends or colleagues.
- We cannot accept two references from the same employment period.
Due to the high number of applications, we are unable to provide individual feedback at the application stage.
Once the application has been submitted, this will be sent to the Hiring Manager to review. Please rest assured that we will be in contact throughout the process! If you have any questions, please phone 0131 447 9027 (& choose recruitment) or email PSTeam@arkha.org.uk
If you have any other questions, please phone 0131 447 9027 (& choose recruitment) or email PSTeam@arkha.org.uk
Other Questions
Ark is not a Visa Sponsor, and we are unable to offer sponsorship.
- We do accept overseas applications. You will need to be eligible to work in the UK to apply for any of our vacancies.
- If successful you will be asked to provide evidence of this. All successful applicants are required to hold current valid Right to Work prior to starting with Ark.
- Our interviews take place in person so you will need to be in the UK at the time of interviewing.
We do not have an age restriction for our roles but you must be aged at least 16 years old. If you are invited to attend an interview, the hiring manager will provide more information.
A sleepover shift consists of working during the day, a rest period sleeping over in the service between 11pm – 7am and then working again the next day. Sleepover shifts are typically 3pm – 3pm or 10am – 10am. The sleepover period is over and above the contracted hours and gets paid as an additional payment.
You can find more information at: Careers Toolkit | Scottish Social Services Council https://www.careersincare.scot/sccot/
Yes, all our Support Practitioner roles involve a level of personal care.
You can fin out more by viewing the Support Practitioner job outline: https://www.arkha.org.uk/media/yoselaf1/sw-job-outline-new-1.pdf
You can also here from our Support Practitioner team at Southhouse below.
What's it like working for Ark?
Find out by reading the interview with our Southhouse Autism team below.
Spotlight on Southhouse Autism Unit
We caught up with some of our amazing Support Workers at Southhouse Autism Unit to find out more.
No two days are the same. We tend to have a slow start to the day. Before 10am we make sure the supported people are up, prepare breakfast and making sure household tasks are completed like getting the washing on. We make sure that the supported person is showered, has breakfast and is dressed ready for the day then sit down to plan the day’s activities. Then we head of out for the day and it is full on activities until it’s time to get back to make dinner, settle the Supported Person in for the night and get them ready for bed.
Our Supported People are very active enjoying a wide variety of different activities. One day you can be jumping on the trampoline with them and the next supporting them with baking a cake. They enjoy going to the cinema, arcades, kicking the ball around outside in the summer and colouring. We organise picnics when the weather is nice which gives the supported people a great chance to socialise and gives the service a great community vibe.
Getting to work with an amazing group of highly intelligent supported people. It’s great to know that you are working to support them to live as independently as possible and advocating for what they want to do. We have a great team at Southhouse Autism Unit which really helps as we work together and support each other. There is great camaraderie within the team and we have a lot of fun.
The day can be quite long if you don’t get out and about so you need to build in small goals on those day with the supported person e.g. a small walk to the local shop to pick up a bottle of juice.
It can be mentally exhausting but also fun.
It does, although at Southhouse Autism Unit we really encourage independence so we do try to encourage the supported people to do as much as possible for themselves we do still have to do some personal care. To be honest I wouldn’t have applied if I had known the job involved personal care but now it doesn’t bother me at all.
You need to be patient and have the ability to support and encourage our supported people. You need to be willing to learn about the supported persons culture and interests as well as working with the family of the supported person.
It helps to be confident and outgoing so e.g. if a supported person wants to get up and dance in the cinema have the confidence to join in.
You need to have the ability to build trust and rapport with the supported people
Go for it! It’s so rewarding working with our supported people.
