Specialist Support Worker

CNWL; London; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 35,000; Part time

Job summary

CNWL seeks a Specialist Support Worker in London to assist refugees and asylum seekers with practical needs. Join a dedicated team offering comprehensive support and therapy for clients facing complex challenges, ensuring they can effectively engage in their recovery process.

Benefits

Generous relocation package

Flexible working options

Commitment to staff training and development

Qualifications

• Minimum 1 year working with mental health service users.
• Experience providing practical support to service users.
• Good understanding of UK benefits and social housing systems.

Responsibilities

• Support refugee and asylum seekers in housing and benefits.
• Connect clients to local services like ESOL and community groups.
• Maintain accurate records of clients and support requests.

Skills

Organisational skills

Communication

Empathy

Education

NVQ Level 3 in Health & Social Care

Job description

Search here to find a new job, a new career, an opportunity
to up skill or to simply change your career direction.

Become part of our team.
We care for you as much as you care for others.

There’s a place for you at CNWL.

We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people.
We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career.

With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you're at, there's always a place for you at CNWL.

To help your onboarding go smoothly, it’s essential that internal applicants:

Use their NHS.net email address in their TRAC profile

Ensure your application is marked to show thatyou are a current CNWL staff member

Applications using personal email addresses (e.g. Gmail or Yahoo) will not be recognised, and the process simply won’t work.There is also a charge to change new starter personal email addresses to their nhs.net email address.

Before you apply:

Log into TRAC and update your email to your NHS.net address

Check your application details and make sure you are identified as an internal applicant

This small step helps avoid major problems later.

This post is only open to internal applicants.

Specialist Support Worker

NHS AfC: Band 4

Main area Refugee / Asylum seeker support worker Grade NHS AfC: Band 4 Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 30 hours per week (Monday-Thursday) Job ref 333-J-KC-0871

Site 7a Woodfield Road Town London Salary £31,944 - £34,937 pa inc HCAS pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 22/06/2025 23:59

Job overview

Woodfield Trauma Service is seeking to recruit a committed and highly motivated support worker to join our dynamic, multi-disciplinary team. WTS offers practical support and psychological therapy for adult refugees and asylum seekers with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We are looking for someone with both the skill set and the passion to serve our patient population, many of whom have unique and complex practical support needs. The purpose of the support worker is to assist patients to stabilize their practical needs, and so enable them to engage more fully with the psychological work on offer.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a candidate with Level 3 Health and Social Care training and equivalent previous working experience working in a community mental health setting in a support work role.

Your role will be to support the practical needs of our patients – this will involve helping them navigate the housing, benefits and immigration systems as well as signposting and connecting them to local services such as ESOL, community groups, etc. You will also be tasked with building new links between our service and community services and stay abreast of new developments or changes in statutory provision that impacts our patients. The successful candidate will be committed to working creatively and compassionately to provide a responsive service that is integrated with the rest of the team.

Working for our organisation

The team is based in North Westminster (Harrow Road W9) and serves a culturally diverse community. It is a psychology-led service; you will be joining an experienced and very friendly multi-disciplinary team made up of clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists, an occupational therapist and psychology trainees. We offer a supportive and flexible working environment where supervision is prioritised and where there is a strong commitment to staff training and development.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Woodfield Trauma Service (WTS) is a small but busy team who work with refugees, asylum seekers and other forced migrants who have experienced trauma and who suffer with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. While it is primarily a psychology service, the service also supports the numerous practical needs that our patients have and the support worker role is a crucial post in the team, offering advice, signposting and practical support to all patients for a large range of issues. By helping patients stabilize their practical needs, they are enabled to engage more fully with the psychological work on offer.

· Provide practical advice and support to refugees and asylum seekers on issues such as housing, welfare benefits, immigration, education.

· Ensure that the clients are linked to other relevant services both in the community and within statutory services.

· Have a good understanding of the legislation and issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers. An ability to speak more than one language would be an asset.

Main Responsibilities:

Work as a member of the core team of the Woodfield Trauma Service.

Carry and maintain a caseload of clients with practical and social care needs.

Take part in regular supervision and case discussions.

Assist in all necessary aspects of the development of the service, including making links with third sector agencies that can support our clients.

Participate in multidisciplinary team meetings and maintain close working relationships with team members.

Carry out assessments of social needs and discussions with the service on ways to meet those needs.

Take part in joint work with staff from local refugee groups, CMHTs, and other organisations working with our patient group.

Work with interpreters as and when required.

Maintain accurate and legible records of clients which will help to facilitate the review and evaluation of the service.

Keep up to date with the changes in legislation and practice as they affect refugees and asylum seekers and disseminate these to the team.

Respect clients’ ethnic, cultural, religious and any other related needs and expectations.

Assist in administrative tasks, answering telephones, making and re-scheduling appointments as required.

Person specification

• NVQ Level 3 in Health & Social Care or equivalent experience
• One year minimum experience of working with service users suffering form mental health problems
• One year minimum experience providing practical support and advice to service users
• Good working knowledge of UK benefits and social housing systems
• Experience of working with forced migrants
• Knowledge of services in the community for refugees and asylum seekers.
• Awareness of the difficulties facing refugees and asylum seekers and of the possible after effects of torture, persecution and exile
• Demonstrate effective organisational ability over a wide range of tasks.
• Ability to communicate clearly both orally and in writing.
• Any training & courses relating to the patient population and their needs.
• Experience of working with agencies working with refugees and asylum seekers.
• Working knowledge of the UK asylum process
• • Experience liaising with a variety of relevant organisations on behalf of service users.

CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run.

Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference. We’re proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

We are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ only the best people, and our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries.

We offer a generous relocation package (subject to eligibility assessment) and flexible working options, including bank assignments for most roles. For more information on these and other benefits of working for us, see our Benefits, Reward and Wellbeing page

Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others.

CNWL NHS Foundation Trust are committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.

Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.

If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

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