Key Worker Practitioner

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Key Worker Practitioners will work with children and young people up to the age of 25 years, exercising a high level of autonomy and initiative. They will work with a range of stakeholders across Herefordshire and Worcestershire building on existing developments, the post holder will work with the Senior Key Worker Practitioner and a team of Keyworkers to deliver the Keyworker project across the ICS.

The Key Worker Practitioner will work with key project stakeholders; Families in Partnership Worcestershire, Parent Carer Voice Herefordshire, SpeakEasy NOW (Experts by Experience), SENDIASS Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Herefordshire & Worcestershire Health & Care NHS Trust, Worcestershire Children First, Herefordshire County Council Children's Services, and the ICS Tackling Health Inequalities Programme Board.

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

In preparation for the key working pilot submission parent/carer forum representatives, young people with autism and relevant professional partners from across Herefordshire & Worcestershire were mobilised to discuss a shared vision for the key worker function. People said they wanted the function to:

Navigation and coordination:

Provide support to access the right help at the right time across complex systems particularly the transition between children and adults services. Build relationships and support coordination across the system. Coordinate provision, care and assessments related to the child or young person, working with other agencies and services to ensure agreed actions are carried out and aligned to the recommendations of the DSR meetings. Follow-up on any actions from CETRs to ensure that progress is being made and to report back into the DSR. Involvement in the young persons life needs to be flexible and based on need. Hold services across the system to account where action plans are in place or actions have been agreed. Produce reports on completed work including recommendations for future service provision and gaps in services. Develop and strengthen effective strategic, multi-agency partnerships. Communicate clearly with the child, young person, and their family to help them understand and navigate the system, for example conveying complex legal and medical information around Tier 4 admissions in a clear, accessible way. Work with services to increase understanding of the child/young person and family including their strengths, ambitions, and support needs.

Support at home and in the community as an alternative to admission:

Coordinate care on behalf of the young person and their family to support community living. Supporting families to access Personal Budgets, to enable greater choice and control over their child/young persons care. Advise services on appropriate adjustments for the young person based on their autism/LD profile. Support discharge from specialist services. Exploring digital ways of support including through the use of apps.

Flexible and person-centred:

Support colleagues across the system to become autism/LD aware and provide autism/LD friendly and person-centred services. Actively listen so as to accurately capture and then convey the lived experience of the child or young person and their family to hold a system to account and ensure appropriate services are engaged. Delivery of flexible, personalised and child-centred support, to ensure the complex and often varying needs of children, young people and their families are met. Ensure that information is accessible, to optimise communication and ensure that reasonable adjustments have been made to enable the child and young person and their families to access services.

Independence and empowerment:

Support young people to develop their own solutions, led by their needs, hopes and aspirations. Encourage young people to develop their own networks of support. Facilitate the provision and implementation of tailored behavioural and emotional support to help a child or young person and their families develop skills for progress and self-management to meet their agreed goals and outcomes. Develop an autism/LD profile that helps a child or young person with a learning disability and/or autism to understand their strengths and areas of support. Provide information, support, and advice to ensure that children and young people with a learning disability and/or autism can access support they want when they need it. Facilitate parents to access appropriate services to assess and implement strategies for managing risks and behaviours. Create and develop a culture which prioritises keeping children and young people within the home and local community. Monitor and review the young persons progress and align with the DSR guidance, addressing any challenges.

Support my voice:

Advocate and challenge on behalf of the young person, including attending Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) and escalating issues where required. Be a trusted person who actively listens and understands the young people and families they are supporting. Represent and champion the young person and their family in discussions around provision of care as required, communicating compassionately with the young person and their family, and communicating confidently with the range of professionals involved in their care. Sharing information across the system to prevent admission and to provide timely discharge. Mediate on behalf of the child, young person and their family where required to ensure the necessary support is put in place to enable them to remain within or be discharged into the community and to promote joined-up, consistent care that meets their needs and rights. This may involve constructively challenging the status quo.

Oversight of children, young people, and their families:

The post holder will: Act always in such a way as to promote and safeguard the wellbeing and interests of children, young people, and their families in accordance with relevant professional regulation. To act always in such a way as to promote and safeguard the wellbeing and interests of patients and clients in accordance with National Occupation Standard. Liaise with adult mental health services and learning disability services via the DSR process. Maintain regular contact with the child in all potential environments, home, school etc. Maintain safe working practices, following the lone working policy. To work in partnership with others, have oversight and provide challenge where appropriate to ensure the children/young persons needs are being met. Ensure care plans have clear measurable goals which have taken into account the views of the child/young person and carers. Coordinate as appropriate, multi-agency delivery of care, feeding in relevant information to support wider service planning.

Key Worker Team training and development:

The post holder will: Participate in and provide peer support to other Key Workers. Contribute to the training of staff. Adhere to Safety Policy for staff working in the community. Participate in Staff Appraisals. Plan and prioritise own workload. Maintain and develop professional knowledge and competence and demonstrate acquired knowledge.

Responsibility for Information:

To contribute to the provision of briefings and reports to senior ICS management and Operational Management Team meetings, as required. To contribute to the team performance and quality, as indicated through KPIs, quality measures, taking corrective action as required to achieve targets. Any other task relevant to the role.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in health care/ social care/education
• Strong, holistic understanding of the education, health, and care system to fulfil the key working function of holding services to account.
• Experience of liaising and communicating effectively with multi-disciplinary professionals and working across agencies.

Qualifications

Essential

• Relevant experience or relevant Professional qualification (i.e. Social Worker, Teacher, LD Nurse, Youth Worker)
• Experience of working with children and young people with a learning disability and/or autism and their families.

Skills, Knowledge & Competencies

Essential

• A proven understanding of the needs, characteristics and challenges experienced by Parents of Children and Young People (CYP) with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and autism.
• A proven understanding of strategies and resources that will support children and young people with a learning disability and/or autism
• A strong understanding of national policy in relation to health services for children and young people.
• Strong understanding of children's mental health, human rights, equal opportunity issues and an awareness of what this involves, e.g. being able to communicate with people from minority groups, people with disabilities.
• Legislative knowledge and awareness of locally available provision, as well as how to apply in practice

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Good interpersonal and conflict resolution skills. Must be able to demonstrate an ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with children, young people and
• Empathy/Understanding - Believes in an approach that requires an understanding of needs from the perspective of the child, young person, and family.
• Respect - Respects the opinions and beliefs of the child, young person and their family and works to ensure they are represented, with a commitment to the principles of child-centred, personalised care.
• Compassionate - To listen and respond to the needs to the child, young person and their family with understanding and compassion.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board

Address

Worcestershire

Worcester

WR3 7NS

Employer's website

https://herefordshireandworcestershire.icb.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)