Urgent Care Youth Workers

Job description

Job responsibilities

The post holder will:

Provide a service for young people who present at Emergency Departments with injuries from violent incidents or who present with violent behaviour to navigate them into relevant support.

Engage and support young people, adopting strength-based approaches and the principles of co-production and social inclusion.

Work as part of a Multidisciplinary Team to support risk assessment and deliver a high standard of support with positive outcomes.

Provide advice to young people, carers, families and professionals across the whole system; this may involve signposting and liaison.

Promote positive partnerships, collaborative working and establish and maintain close and effective relationships with all stakeholders.

Maintain close links with other services to facilitate appropriate interventions and escalation.

Build a relationship of trust with young people and understand the importance of empowering them.

Identify barriers to support of the young person and gaps in services.

Work in partnership with the Here for You Manager and Complex Needs Team Manager and to access support each week to manage personal wellbeing.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Develop and maintain positive and professional relationships with young people, staff, and other youth support agencies.
2. Provide emotional and practical support and advice to enable young people to improve their quality of life, develop understanding of how to improve their health, address educational and social development needs and make decisions about their future.
3. Have good awareness of and identify services available in the statutory and third sector and utilise as needed to support young people in their recovery.
4. Undertake initial needs and risk assessment, safety planning and baseline outcome measures with the young person.
5. Encourage and motivate young people to engage with staff and other agencies and in meaningful activities to meet individual goals.
6. Provide 1-1 support, advice and advocacy to young people and their families to meet the needs of young victims of violence.
7. Respond and liaise appropriately to safeguard the wellbeing of all young people and staff in line with children and adult safeguarding and Touchstone and MYTT policies and protocols.
8. Maintain accurate records of work undertaken with young people around their support and any other records including statistical information/data as required.
9. Use accurate note taking to record presentation, activity and forward planning on the NHS data management system in accordance with required timescales.
10. Attend and participate in team meetings as required.
11. Manage own caseload to engage and connect young people to relevant support services within appropriate time frames.
12. Communicate sensitively, accurately, and effectively with all parties. Access additional services where required e.g. translation services, communication aids, visual aids.
13. Work in the context of an equal opportunities framework and promote equality in all areas of work.
14. Adhere to confidentiality in line with Touchstone and MYTT - GDPR and confidentiality procedures.
15. Assist with the ongoing development and promotion of the service to ensure young people gain the maximum benefit from interventions.
16. Agree exit strategies with the young person and support agencies to ensure long term outcomes are met.

GENERAL

1. Attend a full induction programme and to be inducted, supervised, performance managed and appraised in line with the organisations performance management policies and procedures. Attend and participate in regular clinical supervision within the team.
2. Be responsible for personal learning and development and undertake appropriate training, both mandatory and optional to increase knowledge, skills and awareness.
3. Visit relevant external agencies who work with people in mental health crisis.
4. Attend regular support sessions, reflective practice, supervision and performance reviews with the Here for You Manager and Complex Needs Team Manager in line with performance management policies and procedures.
5. Work at all times as part of a team. This includes working with other staff, attending team and staff meetings and developing a teamwork approach to all aspects of the organisations work.
6. Be flexible in the approach to hours of work including evening, nights, weekends and bank holiday work as required by the service.
7. Be aware of and employ the general practices of MYTT/Touchstone regarding safeguarding and security, health and safety policies and ensure these are adhered to, at all times.
8. Operate within the aims, policies, and practices of MYTT /Touchstone at all times and be committed to and promote the organisations equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory policies.
9. Implement the Organisations policies, procedures and practices, comply with the aims of Touchstone at all times; be committed to and implement Touchstones Equal Opportunities Policy and promote this with staff.
10. Ensure information is dealt with in accordance with MYTT and Touchstones policies around Confidentiality, Communications, Internet, Email and Telecommunications and steps are taken to ensure that confidential information is secure e.g. service user data.
11. Keep the Here For You Manager and Complex Needs Team Manager informed regarding any serious and untoward incidents, safeguarding, health and safety, and/or financial issues.
12. Adhere to Data Protection/GDPR, Complaints Handling and Corporate Governance Policies and requirements
13. Support the service in gaining service user and carer feedback which will help inform service change and development.
14. Participate in evaluating the effectiveness of the Youth Worker role including consultation, joint working and training.
15. Undertake any other duties as directed by the Here For You Manager and Complex Needs Team Manager that may reasonably fall within the scope of the post.

Person Specification

Equal Opportunities

Essential

• Must be able to recognise discrimination in its many forms and be willing to put into practice Touchstone/NHS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policies.
• Must be sensitive to the needs of disadvantaged groups in the planning and delivery of services.
• A commitment to provide high quality services to the diverse communities of Wakefield & District.
• A commitment to supporting the needs and views of people from all disadvantaged groups including and not limited to people from people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ and BME communities.
• Must be able to communicate effectively with a broad range of diverse service users, management and staff, from both organisations and the community.

Qualifications

Essential

• GCSE grade A to C or equivalent in English and Maths

Desirable

• Qualification in Youth & Community work

Experience

Essential

• Successfully working with young people experiencing trauma, violence, sexual assault, Child Criminal (CCE) or Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and complex multiple needs including mental health and challenging behaviour.
• Positively working with young people at risk of harm.
• Effectively working as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• Experience of working one to one, or community based with client group with positive outcomes.
• Effectively assessing risk and implementing safety plans for complex or at-risk children and young people.
• Liaising and developing links with other agencies.
• Effectively supporting young people into meaningful progressions.
• Successfully developing strong joint/partnership working to secure effective outcomes.
• Facilitating coproduction to improve service delivery with positive outcomes.
• Effectively working with statutory and voluntary sector agencies including the police, social services.

Desirable

• Experience of mental ill-health
• Experience of the issues addressed by the service
• Experience of working with minoritised communities, people from LGBTQ+ and disadvantaged communities.

Skills

Essential

• Excellent case management and record keeping skills and complete within time scales.
• Effectively assess the needs of young people in crisis and/or who are at significant risk of harm including risk assessment and support planning.
• Providing non-judgmental emotional and practical support.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written.
• Effectively prioritise own workload, including agreeing and meeting targets/priorities.
• Effectively work under pressure, on own initiative without direct supervision.
• Successfully maintain clear professional boundaries.
• Good IT packages e.g. databases, spreadsheets, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, PowerPoint).
• Undertake work with high degree of accuracy and strong attention to detail.

Attitudes and Disposition

Essential

• Commitment to Touchstone aims and values.
• Commitment to respecting diversity, anti-discriminatory/anti-oppressive practices and equal opportunities.
• Commitment to personal development, learning and reflective practice.
• Demonstrate a commitment and enthusiasm for working with our service user group including people from LGBTQ+ and BME back grounds.
• Commitment to the principles of coproduction and supporting others to deliver according to these principles.
• Positive approach to building and maintaining relationships and maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
• Demonstrate a willingness to participate in shaping the future of the organisation by taking on responsibilities and projects in addition to core workload.
• Demonstrate sensitivity to the needs of disadvantaged groups, including LGBTQ+ and BME communities in the planning and delivery of services and interventions.
• Commitment to Personal Responsibility and promoting this with other people.
• Open to change in line with the needs of the service/organisation.
• A commitment to working in partnership with service users, peers and volunteers.
• Willingness to be managed and supervised.
• Work flexibly according to needs of the service across different sites where required including evenings, weekends, bank holidays and day shifts on a rota.
• Maintain confidences (within the policy of the organisation).
• Commitment to ensuring that the client group remains the primary focus of our work.
• Solution focused approach to work.
• Resilience.

Knowledge and Understanding

Essential

• Principles and practical application of the Person-Centred approach.
• Issues facing this client group such as offending, knife crime, social exclusion and isolation, child criminal and sexual exploitation, adverse childhood experiences and trauma, mental health, and neurodiversity.
• Child protection and safeguarding issues and current best practice.
• Discrimination and its impact on individual wellbeing including in relation to disadvantaged groups such as people from LGBTQ+ and BME communities or people with disabilities.
• Trauma informed practice.

Desirable

• Experience of working with young people in a hospital, health, and wellbeing setting.
• Knowledge of local support services for young people.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Touchstone

Address

Pinderfields Hospital

Aberford Road

Wakefield

West Yorkshire

WF1 4DG

Employer's website

https://touchstonesupport.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)