The Role

Our fantastic Resident Experience & Student Support team currently have an exciting opportunity for a Regional Student Support Manager to join us. Regional Student Support Managers provide specialist advice and guidance to colleagues across the business on student support related matters, and direct support to city teams in managing the breadth of student wellbeing cases. This role provides strategic management for the South region and is supported operationally by a Regional Student Support Officer, for whom the post-holder will provide line management.

The Regional Student Support Managers are the primary authority on maintaining Student Support best practice across the breadth of the business, ensuring legal compliance (including Safeguarding) and consistency of approach throughout their region and nationally, through collaboration with other Regional Student Support Managers and HE sector partners. The service aim is to provide a consistent proactive and reactive response to student wellbeing matters, maximise student belonging and success and to facilitate student access to appropriate support in partnership with their university and other relevant services.

What You`ll Be Doing

• Work collaboratively and strategically with the wider Resident Experience Team and other stakeholders, including our Resident Ambassador Programme, to develop and implement proactive student support interventions, initiatives and campaigns with a focus on inclusion, belonging, student success and positive outcomes.
• Line Management of the Regional Student Support Officer(s) and maintaining the balance of strategic and operational delivery of the service across both roles
• Be alert to sector trends, including OfS and UUK demands on HEIs and how this relates to Unite Students and our role in helping to influence, shape or lead on student wellbeing topics in a PBSA context
• Be an authority voice on best practice for student support matters within the business and ensure practices are aligned nationally
• Deliver student support in line with the business`s agreed aims and framework and the Student Support Strategy, working at `arm`s length` for student case management i.e. acting as a point of escalation for Support Officers, an objective case reviewer, a key contact for University Support to Study arrangements (aligning with `Support to Stay`) and regional subject matter expert, engaging with teams as required (this may involve some in-person presence, particularly in the event of a critical incident)
• Equip those working more closely with students, with the skills, knowledge and confidence to support students - identifying training needs/solutions within the region and across the business, working with The Academy to deliver these
• Ensure a high professional standard of incident reporting and case management across the region to ensure that meaningful intelligence is recorded and responded to, and addressing any concerns where this approach is not consistently applied
• Work collaboratively with other Student Support Managers, and the Resident Experience Programmes Manager, to review regional and national data, responding to trends and matters of concern in a creative, collaborative and holistic manner
• Encourage a high-performance team culture, focussed on best-practice sharing
• Ensure that all student-facing employees are able to escalate student wellbeing concerns appropriately and have a thorough understanding of appropriate referral pathways
• Establish and maintain excellent working relationships with student services professionals in universities and relevant community organisations, including participation in multi-stakeholder committees (e.g. student safety committees)
• Support the Head of Resident Experience and wider Operations to build greater awareness of student wellbeing issues across the region, and its relevance to the national picture, including sharing data and learnings, updating on new policy and cascading training as required
• Support the Head of Resident Experience in developing a national best practice approach and contributing to the development of policies and initiatives to support the Resident Experience strategy.
• A committed and strategic approach to balancing safeguarding responsibilities and reasonable duty of care, within the limitations associated with being an accommodation provider - operating as a Designated Safeguarding Officer for the region
• Promote and comply with Unite Students policies and procedures in the delivery of services and treatment of others
• With a post of this nature, some out of hours working and flexibility will be required, some reasonable level of contact may be required beyond normal working hours (e.g. in the event of an incident)
• Whilst this is a predominantly home-working position, some in person presence and availability across a region is expected, both to respond and support in complex cases or critical incidents where in person presence is deemed beneficial, but also in order to maintain a connection to the core business and its customers and establish/maintain relationships with city teams and HEIs - investing time and presence where it is most needed.

What We`re Looking for in You

• A good working knowledge of the issues facing students and the impact these on their experience and studies
• A good working knowledge of University, NHS and community services related to mental health and wellbeing
• Experience of managing, or working independently within, a service for young people (18-25) involving complex or high-risk cases
• Relevant subject expertise and confidence in delivering engaging training and content relating to student wellbeing (MHFA Trainer qualification, or similar, would be advantageous)
• Strong communication, engagement and influencing skills including active listening and excellent written communication
• A clear commitment to personal development
• A passion for excellence, and a demonstratable commitment to achieving high standards
• Experience of working, and managing others, within a geographically dispersed organisation
• Flexibility to work unsociable or extended hours due to business needs, or in response to incidents as required
• Able to manage challenging conversations and provide developmental support to ensure the team meets the expected standard of performance across all activities, and managing underperformance where necessary
• Able to drive a culture of high-performance and lifelong learning, taking responsibility to develop own areas of growth and supporting the team through regular 1-to-1 conversations

What You`ll Get in Return

• An annual bonus so you can share in the company`s success
• 25 days` paid holiday
• Pension - based on how much you save, we`ll contribute 1% more
• Flexible working opportunities
• Shared Parental Leave - 18 weeks full pay
• Other benefits include, ShareSave, Bike to Work, Charity Match, amazing discounts and more!

About Unite Students

Founded in 1991, Unite Students is a FTSE 100 business and the UK`s leading provider of purpose-built student accommodation. You can find us in 25 leading university towns and cities, with over 70,000 students calling US home! We are driven by our values, culture, and a commitment to develop diverse and inclusive teams, filled with positive energy and new ideas.

Instinctive inclusion. We know that to create and maintain a happy healthy organisation, we have to work hard to ensure inclusion isn`t just what we do but who we are.

People make Unite Students. Employees, students, and neighbours all contribute to building environments where we can all thrive.

Room for Everyone

We`re proud to be an employer that embraces individuality, and we`re passionate about building inclusive teams. We focus on creating a collaborative culture where you can be you, where your voice is heard, and where you can truly belong. We take great pride in being rated Gold Investors in People and are constantly striving to provide the highest standard of learning and development opportunities and professional pathways for our people. Building a home for success, for both our employees and students, requires exceptional people with a passion for creating room for everyone, doing what`s right, keeping US safe, and raising the bar. Join us as we build better experiences for students that live with us.

We are US.