Band 6 Assessor/Keyworker - Bristol

Job description

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for a Band 6 Assessor/Keyworker in the Bristol Early Intervention for Psychosis Service. This is a fixed term contract for 6 months.

The Early Intervention for Psychosis Service will provide help and support to young people over 14 years and under 35 years of age for 3 years following a first episode psychosis or for a limited period where there may be a possible psychosis.

The team is multidisciplinary, consisting of Peer Support Worker, Physical Health Worker, Mental Health Support Workers, Individual Placement Support Workers, Care coordinators with Occupational Therapy, Nursing or Social work registrations, Administrators, Consultant Psychiatrist, Team Manager, Senior Practitioners, Non Medical Prescribers, Psychologists, Cognitive Behaviour Therapists in Psychosis and many of the team are trained in Family Intervention for Psychosis.

The team act as a resource to the adult mental health community, CAMHS and inpatient services, by raising awareness of the needs of this client group, providing information and consultation about psychosis.

The successful candidate with be able to bring relevant skills and experience to the role, and also be able to develop further due to the opportunities for in house learning and a wide range of supervisions that the team offer. The successful candidate will be able to manage a complex caseload of 20 people.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate needs to have a current registration with NMC, Social Care England or HCPC.

The role includes Keyworking to provide support to our Service Users and their friends and families. Linking in with the MDT, ensuring support, treatment and interventions are offered within good time, and build relationships with the teams and organisations the EI service works closely with, E.G, Crisis teams, Partnership organisations, Hospital inpatient units etc. In addition there will be opportunities to co-facilitate the service's wellbeing, social and therapy groups.

In addition the successful candidate will take part and lead on the assessments of people referred to our service using the Comprehensive Assessment of an At Risk Mental State, an assessment tool widely used in Early Intervention Teams in the UK.

The Early Intervention Service is part of the Bristol Mental Health Partnership which includes the organisations of Second Step, Off The Record, Missing Link, SARI and Richmond Fellowship in addition to Rethink Mental Health.

BMH is part of Avon and Wiltshire Partnership NHS trust who are committed to the wellbeing and support of their staff and provide opportunities for career development and training.

Working for our organisation

We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the full job description and person specification which is included with this advert.

This post is open to newly qualified social workers. In line with trust policy, all newly qualified social workers will be recruited initially at Band 5 level, regardless of advertised role banding. All NQSWs are expected to successfully complete their ASYE within 2 years of employment, unless there are exceptional circumstances in which case it may be agreed to extend this for a further 2 years.

On successful completion of the ASYE, for which you will be given full support of an experienced Social Worker as well as Divisional Social Work Lead, and peer support from other ASYE candidates, you will then be eligible to progress to a Band 6 position.

If you have been appointed to an advertised Band 6 role this will be an automatic progression, following confirmation of your successful completion. If you have been appointed to a Band 5 you will then be eligible to apply for a subsequent Band 6 vacancy.

Right to Work in the UK This position is not eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants must already hold the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application, as the organisation is unable to support sponsorship for this post.

Person specification

Essential and desirable

Essential criteria

• Current registration with NMC, HCPC or Social Work Body
• Broad based post qualification MH experience including working with people with psychosis and severe mental illness.
• Appropriate CPD qualifications for psychosocial interventions
• Experience of working within an MDT
• Experience of mentoring students/providing supervision.
• Understanding of the access and waiting time standards for early intervention services.

Desirable criteria

• Trained in the comprehensive assessment of an at risk mental state (CAARMS)
• Experience of community care coordination/keyworking

We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with 'lived-experience' of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,- we are a 'Disability Confident Employer' offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

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