Work Health and Employment Coach Worcester City PCN

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Summary

This is an exciting opportunity to work in a brand new role within Worcester City PCN. The role will give you a unique chance to work as a member of the Worcester City PCN team, whilst also building links with a range of other local services and be part of a county wide Work and Health coach network. We will particularly welcome applicants with lived experience and those with strong connections to Worcester City.

The successful candidate will be part of the Workwell programme and will work with people from a range of backgrounds to help them return to work. They will work closely with participants within the local community to assess the barriers they experience in returning to work and provide support and coaching along with health and employment advice to overcome these barriers and return to work.

This role would suit someone with previous experience of coaching and mentoring, clinical experience is not required and training will be provided for the successful candidate.

Workwell is a prevention and early intervention service to support people to overcome health conditions that affect their ability to start, stay and succeed in work. The post holder will be one of about 15 coaches that works in Primary Care, either in a PCN or a GP Federation. They will conduct assessments to identify the key health barriers to employment and provide health and employment advice to overcome those barriers. They will manage a caseload of people whose barriers to employment may be because of physical health, mental health and/or social situations. Using the WorkWell pathway work plan, the post holder will provide 1 to 1 coaching and prescribe either multi-disciplinary in-house support or signpost and refer to external services.

The post holder will facilitate access to the service quickly to the following groups of individuals:

People who are currently working but struggling to remain active in their role because of their health condition. They may be experiencing periodic episodes of sickness which they or their employer feels is getting worse.

People who are employed but currently off sick and would benefit from support to return to work.

People who have recently fallen out of employment and are looking to return to the workplace in a different role as soon as possible.

Post holders will not be required to work with people who have experienced long-term economic inactivity, there are other services available for these people.

Job Context

This is a WorkWell employment support project for eligible adults in Herefordshire and Worcestershire delivered via the Vale of Evesham Primary Care Network.

Broad scope of service:

Participants home address OR address of their GP/local Jobcentre Plus must fall within Herefordshire or Worcestershire.

Participants must be over 16.

Participants must have the right to work in the UK.

Participants have a health-related barrier to work.

The service will assist participants to progress their journey towards employment who are experiencing barriers into employment, support participants to remain in work who are on long term sick leave or struggling in the workplace due to a health condition.

The service will use a coaching based approach and use light-touch holistic therapy or triage to provide early-intervention work and a health assessment service. The service will provide advice and training to potential employers on reasonable adjustments and retention of employees where necessary. This service will reduce health inequalities as employment is evidenced as a way of maintaining good health and well-being.

Flexibility and adaptability are required due to the unpredictability of the environment and resource availability under which work will need to be carried out.

Staff will work to Vertis Healths lone worker policy and ensure that they have a mobile phone in working order so that communications can be achieved at all times.

Key Working Relationships

a) Internal: Patients, Carers, GPs and Primary Care Teams, Community Care, HR, Clinical Governance, Safeguarding.

b) External: Local Authorities, Department of Work and Pensions / Job Centre Plus, employment support providers from statutory, voluntary and independent sector, employers, Council for Voluntary Services (CVS), voluntary sector partners, and other WorkWell partner organisations.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

The core purpose of the role is to support participants to Start, Stay and Succeed in work. The post holder will be expected to work flexibly, using their judgement, training and professional experience to achieve this goal. This may include the following non-exhaustive list of activities:

1. Receive and process referrals directly from Primary Care colleagues with the PCN the post holder is based in

2. Receive referrals from Job Centre Plus and Employers

3. Validate participants eligibility prior to offering support.

4. Manage a caseload of participants who have common mental, physical and social health problems or long-term conditions.

5. Carry out assessments to identify barriers and develop action plans in agreement with the individual to overcome those barriers

6. Provide coaching and other light-touch holistic support on a 1:1 basis to support the delivery of the participants plan,

7. Onward referral to other services where additional support beyond the 1:1 support is required. This may include a wide range of health and employment related support as needed to address the participants needs.

8. Work with external organisations as needed to support the participants journey through the Workwell pathway.

9. Deliver group sessions for participants where cohorts exist and enable a more efficient way of working.

10. To maintain detailed and accurate case notes, action plans and WorkWell participant paperwork and upload these on to the management information system within the allocated timeframe.

11. To collect and record specified management information, as determined by the line manager, and respond to requests for management information from service commissioners and DWP.

12. Provide mutual aid to other PCNs or WHCs when other areas require support, subject to capacity of the post holder (as assessed by their line manager).

13. Support training with colleagues from external organisations to help raise awareness and improve their knowledge about this pilot and the WorkWell model, as well as supporting them to understand the common barriers and LTCs.

14. To travel across a reasonable area (as determined by the line manager) to deliver services to participants who are unable to access the service at the normal base.

Along with your main duties, you will also be expected to carry out any other duties that are reasonably asked of you.

Although your role will be based at one of the Practices within the PCN, it will require some travel amongst PCN member practices and business meeting locations within the PCN area.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Has experience of working in a health or employment coaching role, social prescriber or other similar role

Desirable

• Has experience of working in, or closely with, Primary Care

Skills, Knowledge and Competencies

Essential

• Has an understanding of the drivers and impacts of health inequalities.
• Experience of partnership working, negotiation and liaison work with other agencies to facilitate progression into work or to retain it
• Knowledge of the barriers faced by individuals who may be socially excluded and furthest from the labour market.
• Experience of working on own initiative as well as being an effective team member

Desirable

• Experience of supporting people into work
• Good knowledge of the Equality Act
• Working knowledge, understanding and experience of motivating individuals and developing their skills in line with their individual action plans

Qualifications

Desirable

• Has an appropriate Health or Employment Coaching qualification

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Advanced interpersonal skills
• Commitment to confidentiality
• Commitment to on-going personal development and training and that of the team
• Demonstrate and promote social inclusion.
• Commitment to empowering the individual to make informed choices.
• Commitment to meeting diverse needs.
• Willingness to work flexibly.
• Ability to travel effectively between multiple locations during the working day.

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

SW Healthcare

Address

St. Johns House Medical Centre

299 Bromyard Road

Worcester

WR2 5FB

Employer's website

http://www.swhealthcare.org.uk (Opens in a new tab)