Senior Mental Health Youth Worker. Job in London Education & Training Jobs

Catch22 exists to help build a society where everyone has a good place to live, good people around them, and a fulfilling purpose. We call these our '3Ps'. Our Young People & Families (YP&F) Operational Hub delivers a wide range of integrated support services designed to help resolve complex difficulties experienced by young people and their families/carers. Support is provided to people who find themselves in a range of circumstances; they may be missing from home or have emotional, housing or substance misuse issues. We also support families where parents/carers are experiencing domestic abuse, substance misuse, emotional issues, homelessness or unemployment. Whatever the situation, we work alongside young people and their carers to find a way of stabilising their lives.

Redthread is a hospital based youth work service, working alongside NHS staff and other professionals in emergency departments. Our experienced, specialist youth workers engage with and support young people, aiming to support them with their needs in hospital and post-discharge. We often meet young people at a moment of change and work with them to find a positive way forward. We provide long-term, holistic support. We consider every aspect of a young person's life and build support around them.

About the Mental Health Youth Work Service Pilot: The prevalence of reported mental health challenges in children and young people living in England has been increasing. This pilot aims to strengthen the offer of support to young people aged 11-18 in A&E, and also consider the wider social and emotional wellbeing needs of those individuals whilst in that environment and following discharge by ensuring there is follow up support for a variety of services. The Mental Health Youth Work Service model has been informed by young people with experience of hospital attendances after self-harming, and their feedback has been used to shape the care we aim to deliver. The service runs across two hospital sites in London: King’s College Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital. There will be a team consisting of one Senior Youth Worker and a Youth Worker embedded in each site.

Where you fit in: This is an exciting new service working in partnership with Queen Elizabeth Hospital Accident and Emergency Department. The project is a pilot that aims to provide specialist Youth Work support for young people presenting to a hospital because of their mental health, and specifically where they attend because of self-harm.

The Senior Youth Worker will lead on the Mental Health Youth Work service embedded within the A&E department. This will involve line management responsibilities for the Mental Health Youth Worker, partnership working to build relationships both internally within the hospital and externally in the local community, and with both statutory and non-statutory partners.

The Senior Youth worker will be expected to support and build trusting relationships with young people who present with acute needs and are often in a crisis. They will manage a caseload of their own, with contact taking place both in the hospital and post-discharge in the community. The Senior Youth Worker will ensure the integration of the service at their respective hospital A&E department, and work alongside the Team Leader in reporting, monitoring and evaluation requirements.

Main Duties & Accountabilities:

• Lead the delivery of the Mental Health Youth Work service for young people aged 11-18 who attend the A&E department.
• Line manage the Mental Health Youth Worker, providing guidance and direction through regular contact and meetings, case allocation, caseload oversight and one-to-one supervision.
• In collaboration with the other Senior Youth Worker, provide overall support to the team to develop and improve skills, including assessment and recording.
• Promote high levels of wellbeing for staff members who are working with young people who have experienced acute and chronic mental health challenges.
• Hold a caseload and work with young people with often complex needs, in a range of settings, including in A&E, in the community, face-to-face and virtually where required, and promote their personal, educational, health and social development through all interactions.
• Assist with the ongoing development of the service model to ensure that young people and other stakeholders gain the maximum benefit from Redthread’s interventions.
• Along with the team, tailor and design youth work resources that are specific to the young people we are working with.
• Contribute to the training programme that Redthread provides for hospital staff, including informal microteaching and more formal presentations.
• With support from the Team Leader, maintain strong working relationships within the Hospital, and NHS staff ensuring that Redthread youth workers are fully embedded in the health setting and are working with clinical staff to deliver a service that meets the needs of young people, including promoting the service within the hospital and attending appropriate internal meetings.
• Assist in building and maintaining strong working relationships with Redthread stakeholders, project partners and with other agencies working with young people and to represent Redthread at external meetings as required.
• Ensure that as a team, you are proactive in researching and networking with other organisations working with young people in the area served by the hospital to ensure that the Youth Workers have a good knowledge of other services and projects that may be of interest to the young people we work with or appropriate for us to refer to.
• Attend multi-disciplinary team meetings in hospital, working with ED staff and CAMHS teams to support and safeguard young people.
• Maintain a good level of professional knowledge of the issues affecting young people, particularly related to their mental health needs and self-harm.
• In all areas of the work, apply an in-depth understanding of safeguarding responsibilities when working with children and young people, and provide guidance to your team members that adheres to Redthread’s Safeguarding policy and procedures and safeguarding policies of respective NHS Trusts.
• Ensure information resources such as client forms, databases and contact files are kept fully up-to-date and secure, in line with GDPR, the Data Protection Act and our Confidentiality Policy and Consent Policy. Maintain high-quality recording of interventions with young people on our database, Salesforce, in line with Redthread’s best-practice requirements. (Training will be provided.)
• Collect and record evidence of project outcomes and young people’s achievements, to ensure the completion of monitoring forms and project progress reports as required.
• Work as part of a team to continue to develop the programme’s monitoring and evaluation in order to facilitate internal reflection and learning, and to demonstrate its effectiveness and impact to external stakeholders.
• To ensure that the Youth Worker accurately captures and records data on the CRM system. To ensure that it can be used to identify trends and provide insights. To use these insights and trends to shape service delivery and share information with partners.
• With support from the Team Leader and oversight from the Service Manager, produce monthly and quarterly reports as required by funders and to inform leaders of the operational performance of the organisation.

Qualifications

Essential: Relevant level 3 or 4 qualification in health & wellbeing, youth provision or similar or demonstrable equivalent experience.

Desirable: A degree-level qualification in social work, youth work, social science, education or another relevant field. Qualifications in counselling and/or mental health first aid for young people.

Knowledge

Essential knowledge of working with young people in a hospital setting and experience with self-harm and mental health emergencies.