Job Description

Job Title: / Community Link Worker
Locality: / Craigmillar, Edinburgh
Responsible to: / Carr Gomm Project Manager
Responsible for: / Working with a GP practice(s) to deliver a Link Worker service in a socially deprived community.
Job Purpose Summary: / The Community Link Worker programme is funded by the Scottish Government and delivered in partnership with GP Practices and the 3rd sector to support people to live well through strengthening connections between community resources and primary care
The Community Link Worker will provide a person-centred service that is responsive to the needs and interests of a GP practice population living in an area affected by socio-economic deprivation. They will support them to identify issues that affect their ability to live well. Taking a person-centred approach, the post holder will support individuals to help them identify personal outcomes and priorities that they would like to address, to overcome any barriers to addressing these and to link them to local and national support services and activities.
The Community Link Worker will support the existing GP practice team to become better equipped to match local and national support services to the needs of individuals attending for health care. They will also build relationships and processes between the GP practice and community resources, statutory organisations, other health services and voluntary organisations.
This job description describes the practical purpose and main elements of the role. It is a guide to the nature and main duties of the job as they exist currently, but is not a wholly comprehensive or permanent schedule, and the balance of these duties may vary over the lifetime of the project.
Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities
Carry out the following duties, working closely with project management, to ensure that the project delivers the agreed tasks and outcomes:
Provide through good conversations, a specialist and professional service to people in contact with a GP practice team, who may be experiencing complex social circumstances and build non dependant relationships and trust with them
Enable people to identify personal outcomes and priorities to improve their health and well-being, to overcome any barriers to addressing these and where appropriate, to link people to relevant local and national support services and activities.
Implement effective pathways for accessing the Community Link Worker service to ensure people face minimal barriers and are offered a 1:1 appointment within an appropriate timescale.
Build excellent working relationships and develop effective pathways to a range of service providers within the statutory/public and 3rd sector to ensure people are able to be supported to negotiate complex pathways.
Develop and maintain knowledge of other local and national service providers, sharing this information with practice staff and other colleagues
Develop excellent working relationships with all staff within the GP practice to become a key member of the practice team ensuring that the service takes account of the individual demographics and circumstances of the GP practice.
Attend regular practice team meetings to discuss
and negotiate caseloads, issues of concern and
gaps in services and/or activities.
Provide appropriate feedback to GP practice, 3rd
sector organisation and other stakeholders on the
challenges and achievements of the service.
Enable and support the GP practice team to build
understanding and implementation of
community orientated approaches to best support
their patients.
Maintain accurate and consistent records on each client through a quality assured case management system and the GP practice system. This will include recording an agreed minimum core data set required for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the national Link Worker programme.
Work closely with monitoring and evaluation colleagues to ensure local data is effectively used for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the national Link Worker programme.
Develop and deliver reports in an agreed timeously manner to enable evaluation and further learning.
Work as a team to record and pass on information about identified gaps in community provision, and when appropriate, work in partnership to address these.
Undertake any other duties as deemed appropriate by line manager. In order to be able to effectively support people facing complex problems, the post holder will be required to demonstrate a high degree of flexibility and commitment to meeting individual needs.

Work with all partners to ensure that people are supported in a person-centred way and in line with Carr Gomm’s values to identify their aims and put them into effect. The values are: Choice, Control, Independence, Respect and Openness & Honesty; and Efficiency, Joint Working and User Involvement.

Promote the service and Carr Gomm’s approach to support within its philosophy and values.

Through discussion with the line manager in Joint Reviews and Appraisal identify and agree your annual objectives, personal training plan and development needs. Plan for these to be achieved within agreed timescales.
Take responsibility for specialist areas of expertise within the service keeping up to date in the area of work and ensuring that the service manager and the team are also updated as required.

Note:

Every job description in the organisation will be subject to a review either:

·  as a result of a change in strategic direction, or

·  as a result of a team/ operational requirements


Person Specification – Specialist Link Worker

Competency / Essential / Desirable
Experience
Extensive experience of working within Community Learning and Development, Social Work, health or related field / √
Knowledge and experience of working with people who are experiencing complex social and emotional circumstances / √
Experience in carrying out regular monitoring and evaluation to monitor outcomes and review practice in light of evaluation / √
Experience of working in partnership with other local and statutory organisations. / √
Experience of working within primary care / √
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Extensive effective interpersonal skills in working with people on a 1:1 basis and with organisations, including the ability and sensitivity to work with vulnerable people to build trust which allows the sharing of personal information. / √
Ability to listen, motivate and support individuals and stakeholders. / √
Ability to develop a non-dependent relationship with awareness of personal and professional boundaries, whilst being supportive and respectful of others and non-judgmental / √
Demonstrable strong understanding of changes faced by those living in areas of deprivation and interest in health inequalities, health improvement and well-being. / √
Verbal Communication skills:
Able to facilitate discussions with people referred and colleagues across the range of topics that can arise in a complex working environment / √
Written Communication skills:
Ability to write clearly to record file notes, support agreements, risk assessments and other records relating to support in a way that can be understood by internal colleagues and external agencies. / √
Written Communication skills
Ability to work with someone supported to prepare a clear concise and person centred action plan which others can follow to enable support to be provided. / √
Autonomous Decision Making – able to facilitate complex and sensitive discussions about support provided to individuals in a person centred way. / √
Ability to work autonomously on own to plan workloads, meet deadlines and also work as part of a team / √
Ability to promote organisational values in others and to establish relationships based on mutual respect. / √
Understand the need to support people in a way which does not discriminate in any way and the ability to organise support to achieve this. / √
Strong understanding and sensitivity to the needs of people who may be isolated, have long term health conditions, experiencing poor mental health or living in deprivation. / √
Skills in presenting information clearly and concisely to a variety of audiences. / √
Positive outlook, self-motivated and flexible. / √
Understanding of Health and Safety as it applies to support work including Risk Assessment. Ability to assess risk and prepare a clearly understood plan for others to follow.
To be able to put understanding of health and safety into practice on during day to day work / √
Substantial knowledge and experience of the use of IT, in particular word processing, email and client record management systems
Interest in learning new computer software applications and a demonstrated ability to learn / √
Educational Requirements
At least SVQ3 or equivalent qualification and/or other relevant learning or experience / √
Educated in degree level or equivalent within a relevant field e.g. community learning and development; social work or health. / √
Relevant qualification in topics such as health behaviour change; motivational interviewing / √
Personal
Ability to demonstrate resilience in dealing with emotions and distress.
/ √
Flexibility approach to work and ability to work in environments with a different range of worker activity as required. / √
Reliability / √
Good understanding of the importance of confidentiality and appropriate information sharing and the ability to respect this in practice in relation to people supported and colleagues
/ √
Understanding and acceptance of Carr values, the ability to demonstrate these in day to day working and ensure that team members are also following these / √
Car Driver / √

Conditions of Service Summary

Title / Community Link Worker

Employer

/ Carr Gomm, a company limited by guarantee, a Scottish charity and not-for-profit.
Hours / 37.5 hours per week: normally worked to a pattern, but with the potential for alterations to the pattern to take account of particular requirements of the pilot project.
Holidays / 25 days a year plus 10 extra days to cover public holidays which are treated as normal working days – pro rate for 6 months.
Pension / Optional membership of an employers’ pension scheme, administered by The Pensions Trust, offering an excellent pension scheme.
Travel
On-call
Sleep-over
TOIL / There is an allowance for agreed use of a car (40p a mile) and other agreed travel costs are reimbursed.
Not a post requirement.
Not a post requirement
There is a TOIL System for hours worked over the basic 37.5/week.
Smoking / No smoking for staff and in Carr Gomm premises, but staff may have to support people who smoke.
Salary / Community Link Worker: £20,9780 pa (points 22) pro rata for 37.5 hours. Salaries are based on the SJC scales.
Location / Staff are recruited to work for Carr Gomm in a specific locality, whilst initially staff will be assigned to a particular service they can be required to work at other services in the locality. This locality is-
·  Edinburgh
Criminal Record / In accordance with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) order 1975 All applicants are required to declare any convictions – spent or not or outstanding charges – because of the nature of the work. A criminal record does not disbar applicants from working with Carr Gomm. All applicants complete a PVG Scheme Membership application form.
Prevention of Illegal Working Immigration, Asylum & Nationality Act 2006 / All employers require to ensure that all applicants have the right to work in the UK before they begin to work which is a requirement of the Asylum & Nationality Act 2006. All applicants invited to attend an interview will therefore be asked to bring their passports or other relevant documentation with them for checking.