Visiting Advocate / Independent Mental Health Advocates – Kylo Secure Children’s Home (Morpeth) 12 hrs per week and Newcastle Hospital (Ferndene) 8 hrs per week
Job Description
Responsible to: Advocacy Co-ordinator
Salary: £23,708.00 per annum pro rata
Hours: 20 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
Successful candidates will be required to complete the mental health module of the National Advocacy Qualification within 12 months if not already complete.
All Coram Voice staff is expected to work in line with our brand, values and management principles, in particular by:
· Building and maintaining meaningful, supportive, mutually empowering relationships with and between colleagues, partners, and children and young people.
· Creating and supporting a friendly and trusting working environment, working flexibly and supporting each other in times of high workload or when life gets difficult.
· Accepting personal responsibility for our work and being accountable for delivering results against those responsibilities.
· Recognising that we all have a role to play in all aspects of Coram Voice’s success, in particular in supporting fundraising, storytelling, and involving children and young people in shaping the future of Coram Voice.
Main Focus for the post
Provide advocacy to children and young people living in Mental Health settings through acting as an Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) under the Mental Health Act and undertaking regular visiting advocacy.
Key responsibilities
Provide individual casework to children and young people:
· To visit children and young people in residential/secure/psychiatric establishments on a regular basis as required by contract and in line with Coram Voice’s practice guidelines
· To establish rapport with the young people and be available to listen to the residents about their concerns.
· To enable the views of young people to be taken into account in the development of policies and the planning and delivery of services.
· Report to your Advocacy Co-ordinator following each visit.
· Participate in the production of an quarterly report of the service and to attend contract review meetings
· To introduce the advocacy service to new members of staff in the units and to take part in staff and management meetings as required.
· To attend service user community meetings as required by the young people and/or establishment
· To attend meetings young people may have with other professionals and to support them in these relationships in order for their views, wishes and feelings to be fully represented within the decision making process.
Specific Tasks for Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHA)
· To pro-actively engage young people as qualifying patients/residents to ensure they understand their right to Independent Mental Health Advocacy under the Mental Health Act, the role of an IMHA and the support available from the service.
· To ensure young people who instruct the IMHA service are aware of their rights and of the rights and responsibilities of others towards them under the Mental Health Act.
· To advocate for young people within meetings relating to their care and treatment under the Mental Health Act, including Multi-Disciplinary Team Meetings (MDT), Care Programme Approach (CPA) meetings, mental health assessments, Hospital/Unit Managers Meetings, Mental Health Tribunals, appointments with legal representatives and other meetings in order to fully support young people to get their views heard in matters relating to their mental health.
Other Responsibilities
· Take responsibility for maintaining sound records on our data base in line with Coram Voice’s recording guidelines which can be used in supervision.
· Complete financial records for recharging agencies for Coram Voice services.
· Undertake specific tasks related to the development of the advocacy service and consistent with the role of a Coram Voice advocate.
· To contribute to your personal supervision with your manager and take shared responsibility for your personal development and learning.
· Using your casework experience, take responsibility for highlighting key case studies and examples of poor or positive social work service provision and practice, and supporting Coram Voice’s wider storytelling, fundraising and policy work.
· To promote the advocacy service and Coram Voice to other professionals.
· To assist with the data collection and reporting for contracts and projects where you have undertaken advocacy work.
· Develop a work plan to be agreed and reviewed regularly with your supervisor.
· Undertake any other reasonable tasks requested by the Service Manager, or other designated manager.
The responsibilities contained within this job description are subject to annual review and may need to be adjusted in line with service developments.
October 2017