Job Description and Personal Specification

Development and Engagement Worker

28hrs per week, £28-30k pro-rata

The HealthWatch lead for engagement and development, accountable to the HealthWatch Manager. The post holder will have responsibility for engagement and will manage all aspects of outreach, publicity and electronic networking. The post holder is also required to undertake projects including HealthWatch development work, user engagement and research into health and social care matters.

General Duties

·  Co-ordinate meetings, including producing agenda, reports, minutes and booking transport in support of the engagement and research role;

·  Attend meetings, conferences and events, representing HealthWatch as required to fulfil duties;

·  Provide monitoring information as required by Wandsworth Borough Council, HealthWatch England or other relevant body, in an accurate and timely fashion.

·  Provide day to day supervision and guidance to temporary staff or volunteers who are assisting in engagement and research duties.

Engagement Role

·  Have and maintain an in-depth understanding of the issues facing the local community, and advise and brief the HealthWatch Manager and Trustees;

·  Undertake outreach, meeting, listening to and recording the views and experiences of local people;

·  Organise events to explore community and user views, for example community/citizen panels, consultation and involvement workshops and focus groups;

·  Actively engage and involve people that need help to be able to contribute to HealthWatch, underpinned by principles of equality and diversity;

·  Actively encourage inclusion of young people, and people from groups and communities that experience exclusion;

·  Establish mechanisms for feeding public views into shaping services;

·  Prepare questionnaires and surveys for the collection of information, feedback and opinions;

·  Analyse, collate and report questionnaire and survey findings back to the HealthWatch Board using appropriate methods; and

·  Ensure that all activities are carried out with due regard to the diversity of race, faith and culture in the Borough and within an Equal Opportunities framework.

·  Work closely with the Healthwatch Information Officer to recruit Healthwatch members

·  Responsible for placing advertising and producing other publicity for HealthWatch events and campaigns;

·  Responsible for liaising with local media to secure coverage for HealthWatch and its activities;

·  Responsible for managing the Facebook and Twitter Accounts for Healthwatch Wandsworth and Healthwatch Wandsworth Youth.

·  Responsible for producing regular Healthwatch e-bulletins

·  Responsible for organising recruitment campaigns for volunteers to participate in HealthWatch activities;

·  Responsible for promoting HealthWatch: encouraging and support community engagement and user involvement.

Research Role

·  Have and maintain a high and up to date knowledge of national and local developments pertaining to health and social care policy;

·  Provide a high quality research function for HealthWatch into health and social care topics;

·  Manage projects from inception to conclusion, working self sufficiently and independently with little supervisory support;

·  Analyse findings, draw realistic evidence based conclusions and write concise reports to a high standard.

Other Duties

·  Support HealthWatch Trustees, Members and volunteers to achieve the Healthwatch priorities;

·  Keep accurate monitoring information to be able to report on progress against targets as required

·  Given that the local Healthwatch is a volunteer, member-led organisation, recognise the importance of and be prepared to undertake work, which must be carried out outside the normal working day.

·  Undertake any other activities as requested by the Healthwatch manager, in order to enable Healthwatch Trustees to fulfil their statutory remit

Development and Engagement Worker - Person Specification

Essential
Education / Educated to degree level or equivalent
Experience/knowledge / Experienced in matters of health and social care
Having a good understanding of the issue of equal-opportunities as it applies to health and social care services
Skills / Able to research from literature studies and from surveys of service users and analyse the findings
Able to communicate directly with diverse groups of service users, patients and carers to identify issues of concern
Able to programme own workload and that of other programmes
Able to work with only a low level of supervision
Self-sufficient in Microsoft Office social media sites such as Twitter & Facebook, with a good understanding of website management.
Proven Project Management skills
Possess a good standard of literacy and numeracy
Values / Commitment to equal access to quality services for all
Commitment to working in partnership with service users, carers, patients and the community
Availability / Available to work in the evening and at the weekend in order to attend key community events
Able to work in various locations around the Borough of Wandsworth and occasionally elsewhere in London
Willingness to work some evenings by arrangement
Networking / Proven ability to work with a cross section of stakeholders including: Managing directors, commissioners, volunteers the public and other senior health and social care managers.
Desirable
Experience/knowledge / Use of MailChimp