Health Promotion Specialist - Youth Focused (Mid Essex) in Chelmsford

Essex Sexual Health Service (ESHS) is the sexual health provider in Essex, led by Provide Community and commissioned by Essex County Council. The post holder will work as part of the outreach and education team, with a focus on the delivery of relationship, sex and health education. This includes the delivery of education directly to young people through one to one tailored support and small group work as well as training to upskill educational staff and other professionals supporting young people. ESHS encourage applications from those with backgrounds in teaching, youth work, or working with people from seldom heard from communities.

Main duties

• Support in the design and delivery of effective health promotion (HP) and behaviour change communication (BCC) interventions appropriate to the needs of young people and other groups at increased risk of poor sexual health outcomes.
• Work closely with educational establishments to directly deliver RSHE, parent sessions, and educator training in both primary and secondary settings.
• Delivery will involve community engagement approaches that tackle health inequalities including HIV related stigma and discrimination.
• Deliver targeted interventions that increase knowledge and awareness of sexual health issues including sexual health testing, consent, confidentiality, LGBTQ+ inclusivity, and increasing access to eC-Card and access to care/treatment and uptake of broader sexual health services across Essex.
• Assist with campaigns and events such as World AIDS Day, National HIV Testing Week, Sexual Health Week, LGBT+ History Month, Pride, Black History Month and other promotions and events.
• Work in partnership with educational establishments, parent sessions, and other professionals that work with young people in the delivery of RSHE.
• Coordinate the eC-Card scheme (free condoms and lube for people aged 16-24), ensuring awareness and access, and supporting professionals to become eC-Card assessors and distributors.
• Deliver HP/BCC interventions virtually and face to face with target populations and partner agencies.
• Develop, maintain and use systems to monitor and record HP/BCC interventions, ensuring high quality data entry on clinical and client service databases and contribute data for reporting as requested for service monitoring.
• Establish and maintain professional relationships with partner agencies and represent ESHS with target populations and partner agencies in meetings and interventions, adhering to THT values and policies.
• Increase awareness of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), distribute self-testing kits for STIs where possible, and provide pregnancy options & support.
• Support in developing networks with alternative education settings to give more vulnerable young people access to RSHE.
• Manage resource availability and suitability to ensure HP/BCC interventions can be delivered across the team.
• Work with the co-production and user involvement team to ensure young people’s views are heard and used to shape service delivery.
• Identify and undertake continuing professional development (CPD) to meet the needs of target populations and partner agencies.
• Assist with campaigns and events and maintain workload, calendars, timesheets, annual leave records, and notify line manager of changes.
• Work flexibly to meet the service needs across Essex, including evenings and weekends as required.

Person specification

• Skills – Clean driving licence & access to a car with the ability to travel across the county, working flexibly including evenings and weekends when required.

Qualifications

• Desirable – A relevant teaching qualification or accredited RSHE qualification.

Experience

• Essential – Experience of delivering education/training packages to professionals and/or community groups; understanding of challenges that young people may face and ability to talk to young people in an age-appropriate way.
• Desirable – Experience of delivering and evaluating health promotion interventions to communities that experience health inequalities, including working with young people 1:1.

Knowledge

• Essential – Understanding and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Desirable – Knowledgeable about HIV prevention, sexual health, contraception and health needs of at-risk communities; good understanding of local sexual health and HIV issues.

Additional information

• All correspondence will be by email or text messaging. Applicants should register for text messages on their TRAC account and check email regularly. Only shortlisted external applicants will be contacted. Internal applicants can seek feedback from the recruiting manager.
• For questions, email provide.recruitment1@nhs.net. Details for the Recruiting Manager are within the advert.
• Provide reserves the right to close this vacancy at any time or bring forward the closing date. Early applications are encouraged.
• Provide CIC encourages vaccination, including booster, for staff safety.
• If you have a disability and need assistance or more time to complete your application or attend interview, please contact HR Services.
• We are committed to equal opportunities, flexible working practices and the National Living Wage.