Pact - Prison Advice & Care Trust

Family Link Worker (Prison Health)

This job is now closed

Job summary

About the Role:

This is an exciting new opportunity at HMP Huntercombe. As a Family Link Worker you will work closely with healthcare services, the prison and other agencies. The service will be delivered in custody providing family focused casework for prisoners on healthcare pathways and will focus primarily on supporting prisoners in making/maintaining contact with family members in support of their health needs.

This is a fixed-term contract until March 2026, with potential for an additional 2-year extension.

About You:

To be successful in this role you will have demonstrable experience and understanding of working with families and health services in a challenging multi-agency environment, ideally involving prisoners and/or their families. You will have the ability to advocate for families dealing with imprisonment, promoting their human rights, ensuring their needs are considered, and views are heard at all levels. You will have the ability to develop referral pathways for families, prisoners and other professionals to access services, with a specific focus on healthcare.

What Pact Offer:

Pact offer a wide range of employee benefits including free confidential advice and counselling service, cycle to work scheme, Life Assurance, Spec Saver eye care vouchers plus more.

You will undergo a thorough induction process attend training to further develop yourself as a front line services worker and be supported by a friendly and enthusiastic team.

Main duties of the job

To deliver family focused support as part of the innovative pilot in HMP Huntercombe. Adopting a whole family approach, working closely with healthcare services, the prison and other agencies; the service will be delivered in custody providing family focused casework for prisoners on healthcare pathways. The service includes supporting prisoners in making/maintaining contact with family members in support of their health needs, i.e., supporting family inclusion in assessments, advocating on behalf of family members and carrying out structured interventions to maximise health outcomes.

About us

Pact (the Prison Advice & Care Trust) is a pioneering national charity that cares for men, women and young people in custody, those with criminal convictions in the community and their children, family members and carers.

Our vision is of a society in which justice is understood as a process of restoration and healing, in which prisons are used sparingly as places of learning and rehabilitation, and in which the innate dignity and worth of every human being is valued. We use person-centred, trauma-informed, restorative approaches in ways that respects peoples lived experience. We work for the common good of society, taking a public health-based approach working to reduce health inequalities, improve continuity of care and, ultimately, to improve the health and well-being of the people we work with.

Whilst our work is rooted in the criminal justice system, the lives of the people we work with are affected by their access to and interaction with other social systems. For that reason, we work at the intersection between criminal justice (both in custody and in the community), child and family welfare, mental health, and health and social care.

We are a diverse, inclusive, modern, and collaborative charity. We build effective partnerships and sustainable solutions based on our well-established understanding of the systems in which we work, and on our historic values and ethos developed during more than 120 years of successful service delivery.

Date posted

26 April 2024

Pay scheme

Other

Salary

£26,775 a year £26,775 FTE (plus MS of £1,500) £13,387.50 actual earnings

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

653 days

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

B0597-24-0001

Job locations

H M P Huntercombe

Huntercombe Place

Nuffield

Henley-on-thames

Oxfordshire

RG9 5SB

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB DETAILS

Post: Family Link Worker Prison Health

Reports to: Family Engagement Manager

Line manages: Students on placement and volunteers

Location: HMP Huntercombe

Hours of work: 18.75 hours per week, Monday-Friday (occasional weekend and evening work when required)

Salary:£26,775 per annum FTE (plus market supplement of £1,500) £13,387.50 per annum actual earnings

Length of contract: Fixed contract to run to March 2026 with potential for 2-year extension.

Purpose: To deliver family focused support as part of the innovative pilot in HMP Downview. Adopting a whole family approach, working closely with healthcare services, the prison and other agencies; the service will be delivered in custody providing family focused casework for prisoners on healthcare pathways. The service includes supporting prisoners in making/maintaining contact with family members in support of their health needs, i.e., supporting family inclusion in assessments, advocating on behalf of family members and carrying out structured interventions to maximise health outcomes.

Aims: To safeguard and promote the health and wellbeing of prisoners, family members and significant others for prisoners receiving support from the mental health team in custody and through the gate, by:

Advocating for and enabling family members to be an active part of care planning.

Delivering family focused casework sensitively and effectively as part of the mental health team

Supporting prisoners and families to maintain strong, resilient and effective relationships where there is mutual and lasting benefit in so doing in support of improved health outcomes

Ensuring that children, families and prisoners are treated with dignity and respect, and their voices are heard as a key stakeholder in health care services

Delivering Family Link service objectives and intended outcomes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Working with Safer Custody/prison officers and other providers to assess any immediate and urgent concerns relating to family, children, personal relationships and other issues which may present high levels of anxiety and/or a risk of self-harm or suicide to support prisoner and provide reassurance to family members.

2. To take part in case reviews of all prisoners receiving support via healthcare team to identify priority prisoners where family is a protective factor in relation to their health needs to maximise their involvement in health assessment and care planning.

3. As part of prisoner/family care plan; to follow up with tried and tested interventions and support mechanisms with a view to building, maintaining and strengthening relationships between the prisoner, family members and significant others in support of their wider health needs.

4. In support of the above, to complete Pacts family-focused assessments: gathering relevant information; assessing risks and needs; and planning appropriate support and interventions based on the full and active involvement of the prisoner, family member and/or significant others (as relevant).

5. To conduct regular caseload review meetings as part of the team with prisoners and families in relation to the family/health interventions and support mechanisms that are being deployed, and to adjust as necessary.

6. To mentor and motivate prisoners, family members and significant others to enhance their understanding of whats involved in planned interventions and programmes and the benefits of taking part.

To advocate on behalf of families and significant others in line with assessments and casework reviews so that they know and understand that a prisoner is safe and well, and that information they provide about a prisoners health and well-being is channelled effectively within the prison (and wider prison system as relevant), and acted upon appropriately and in a timely way to prevent/reduce harm and preserve the prisoners health and well-being.

To work collaboratively and effectively in partnership with other Pact teams/workers, prison staff and healthcare professionals employed by partner organisations within the prison to ensure that family-focused assessments, casework reviews, plans, and interventions and support mechanisms are viable, realistic and appropriate within the context of the prisoners sentence, rehabilitation and healthcare plans.

To provide reports as requested to support other processes within the prison including e.g. home detention curfew, release on temporary licence, MAPPA and parole, and to attend case review boards as appropriate.

To work collaboratively and effectively with social workers, probation officers, healthcare professionals and third sector colleagues (whether employed by Pact or other organisations) in the community in line with family-focused assessments, plans and casework reviews.

11. To maintain timely, accurate and appropriate case records, and to ensure they are kept, stored and managed in line with Pacts case records policy.

12. To assist the line manager in monitoring, reviewing, evaluating and improving the performance, effectiveness and impact of interventions and programmes, including that relating to your own practice, by providing timely, accurate and relevant statistics and caseload information.

13. To support and supervise volunteers, students on placement and peer workers, contributing to their recruitment, selection, induction, training and development.

14. To participate actively, fully and constructively in supervision and appraisal processes, team and wider partnership meetings, as well as in training and other continuing professional development activities.

Pact is a developing organisation and this role is likely to develop over time. Consequently, this job description may not be comprehensive, and some specific duties may change in accordance with organisational needs.

TEAMWORK

Whilst the above list of key responsibilities relates to this specific role, Pacts impact and effectiveness relies on a huge team effort. Teamwork lies at the heart of everything we do and so whilst you will be working day to day within your local team of co-workers, you will also be working with those from the wider Pact team be that in a specific region/across central office functions or across Pact as well as colleagues from other organisations.

Whatever the role and wherever it is located, all our staff need to be able to work effectively in teams:

Be flexible in your approach recognising the need to support between services both within your own team and across Pact

Listening actively, trusting others, taking responsibility for mistakes, and sharing the credit when things go well

Being open to other people's ideas and points of view, willing to act on feedback and confident to give feedback to others, as well as challenging where appropriate for the good of the team

Being aware of what others are working on and offering help and support where possible

Actively sharing knowledge, experience, time and talents

Being clear on actions that are agreed, committed to taking those actions forward as agreed, and prepared to hold others to account for their actions.