Community Health and Wellbeing Worker

St Austell Healthcare; St. Austell; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in St. Austell is looking for a Community Health & Wellbeing Worker to enhance local health services. The role involves building relationships with local residents, providing essential support, and advocating for community health needs. Ideal candidates will have strong interpersonal skills and community-based experience. Full or part-time positions available, alongside benefits such as flexible hours and generous leave policies.

Benefits

Flexibility in working hours

6 weeks annual leave + bank holidays (pro-rata)

Study leave

Electric car & bike salary sacrifice schemes

Qualifications

• Experience in community development projects.
• Advocacy and support skills in public settings.
• Knowledge of health promotion.

Responsibilities

• Conduct monthly household visits to build relationships.
• Support households in navigating community services.
• Provide lifestyle advice as necessary.

Skills

Basic IT skills

Community-based experience

Strong interpersonal and communication skills

Relationship building

Knowledge of local community

Job description

As a community health & wellbeing worker (CHWW) you will understand, & be working in, your local community. The outreach work of a CHWW is essential in helping to address the rising inequalities in health & social care & in identifying unmet need in the community.

This requires building long-term trusted relationships with a range of householders (pre-identified), regardless of their age. The role will develop consistent relationships with these households with the aim of improving the health & wellbeing of communities they live in.

The CHWW will provide a bridging role between community, voluntary sector & health & social care.

Main duties of the job

Shortlisted applicants will have a chance to meet the current team & ask questions prior to interview.

As this is a local community-based role our preference is for applicants from the local St Austell area, however consideration will be given to applicants with the right experience from outside of the St Austell area.

Full or part time position available. Fixed term contract.

Benefits include:

• Flexibility in working hours
• 6 weeks annual leave + bank holidays (pro-rata)
• Study leave
• Electric car & bike salary sacrifice schemes

About us

St Austell Healthcare has a strong multidisciplinary team including GPs, ANPs, Nurses, Paramedics, Physiotherapist and Pharmacists and an ethos for innovation and collaboration with health and social care partners.

We are an award winning, happy team and take pride in our work and the care we offer our 38,000 patients.

We are constantly seeking new ways of working to enhance service provision and the patient experience, introducing new technologies and methods of working to meet the expectations of our patient group. We are ambitious and wish to provide the best service we can for our patients.

Job responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Monthly household visits (or more frequent if the household need requires it) within a defined geographical area (defined as a micro area). The visit entails building relationships and providing relevant knowledge to individual householders as identified. This is a proactive and integrated approach.

Relationships

• Develop meaningful relationships within the local community including the Community Hubs
• Getting to know the wider support services eg housing, education and employment at regular training sessions
• Have regular contact with the local social prescribing team and the local GP practices
• Build close relationships with the CHWWs from the other sites across the integrated care area via monthly training sessions

Support

• Empathetic listening ear to each householder
• Adopt a trauma informed approach to supporting each householder (through training)
• Adopt low level health coaching and motivational interviewing approaches including goal setting as necessary (following training)

Navigational

• Support households to navigate the community and statutory services appropriate to their needs
• Signpost and refer into to existing services as necessary including housing, education, employment and financial support
• Identify local community assets and promote a community-based prevention working closely with the local social prescribing team
• Identify and advocate for the needs of individuals and the community by sharing this information with your multi-disciplinary team

Educational

• Provide lifestyle advice such as smoking cessation, alcohol consumption, healthy diet, and physical exercise as necessary (following training)

Health awareness

• As directed by the local GP practice, prompt householders with regards to immunisation, health screening appointments and general appointments
• Complete notes on each household visit on a template (paper and electronic)
• Record activity into the relevant computer database
• Contribute your work and findings to the local multidisciplinary team as necessary.

Additional requirements in keeping with provided mandatory training:

• Professionalism: The post holder must provide high quality interactions irrespective of race, gender, and ethnicity of the community member, whilst honouring the values of choice, inclusion, advocacy, and ethical practice.
• A comprehensive induction and training programme will be provided as well as ongoing, on-the job, professional development through regular meetings
• Skills developed during the role will support career progression in the future
• Debrief and reflective sessions (this will be a combination of the line manager and CHWW project manager)
• A real opportunity to influence this new way of supporting people in their own communities.

Clinical Governance

• Contribute to the development and maintenance of sound clinical governance and risk management.
• Support the development/implementation on any new ways of working/policies that need to be introduced across the SAH.
• Support SAHC in operating a quality assurance but no blame culture that adheres to best practice around incident reporting and whistle blowing.

Engagement with Patients, Internal and External Stakeholders

• Initiate, develop and maintain excellent third party relationships e.g. with CCGs, NHSE Area Teams, sub-contractor providers, patient groups, local community health teams and other stakeholders to grow, maintain and support service and performance delivery.
• To ensure patient surveys are undertaken, analysed and action plans are developed and acted upon

Confidentiality

• In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately.
• In the performance of the duties outlined in this job description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential.
• Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data.

All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential.

Equality and Diversity

The postholder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues to include:

• Acting in a way that recognises the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies and current legislation.
• Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues.
• Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgemental and respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.

Personal/Professional Development

The postholder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part of this employment, such training to include:

• Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development.
• Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work.

Health and Safety

• The postholder will assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the practice health & safety policy, the practice health & safety manual and the practice infection control policy and published procedures.
• The post holder will participate in an annual review of their performance during the previous year and agree objectives to be met in the next year. These will be reviewed at agreed points during the year. The annual appraisal will be undertaken by the JOB TITLE (line manager) and a designated GP Partner may be present.

Communication

The postholder should recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:

• Communicate effectively with other team members
• Communicate effectively with patients and carers
• Recognise peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.

Quality

The postholder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:

• Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk.
• Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision.
• Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the teams performance.
• Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs.
• Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.

Contribution to the implementation of services

The postholder will:

• Apply practice policies, standards and guidance.
• Discuss with other members of the team how the policies, standards and guidelines will affect own work.
• Participate in audit where appropriate

Working hours will be between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday and will involve some weekend working (especially Saturdays) at the agreed standard rate. Thirty minutes unpaid break must be taken at lunchtime.

Social Media and designated other websites cannot be accessed on SAH Computers. Personal mobile phones should not be accessed during working hours.

The details contained in this Job Description are not exhaustive and may change as the post develops.

Person Specification

• Basic IT skills
• Community based experience providing advocacy and support which has included public contact
• Volunteer experience or other community experience working with the public
• Experience in setting up or working within a community development project
• Experience of being adaptable when working with a diverse range of people
• Knowledge of basic health promotion and protection
• Knowledge of the NHS and broader services
• Basic understanding of child development
• Previous work with families, young people and carers

Knowledge, Skills & Qualities

• Understanding of responsibilities around confidentiality (essential)
• Positivity and enthusiasm for improving the local community (essential)
• Relationship building (essential)
• Knowledge of local community demographics and culture (essential)
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills (essential)
• The ability to complete basic data entry and documentation of visits (essential)
• Social perceptiveness and observational skills (essential)
• The ability to work effectively with a wide range of teams in a diverse community (essential)
• Self-awareness and resilience (essential)
• Knowledge of local community agencies, services, and resources (essential)
• Good creative thinking (essential)

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.