Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner - Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich

Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner - Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich

• Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich Stadium Road, London SE18 4QH , London, United Kingdom
• Full-time
• Contract type: Full time - permanent
• Department: Redthread
• Service type: Youth Violence Intervention Programme

Company Description

Thank you for considering a Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner role with Redthread. We are a team of compassionate, collaborative and courageous professionals, committed to empowering young people to change their lives. This animation was created with our Youth Ambassadors and these clips, BBC News and 'A day in the life' will give you a taster of what we do every day.

We are looking to recruit a dynamic team member at our Queen Elizabeth Hospital site in Woolwich. You will support young people who are experiencing trauma or tragedy, and their families. You'll work with them in the Emergency Department, on the wards and once they are discharged into the community.

As a Youth Intervention Practitioner working on our Youth Violence Intervention Programme, you will primarily be based in the A&E department of Queen Elizabeth Hospital. You'll be part of a team that is fully embedded in the hospital and that is highly valued by clinicians and community partners alike.

To do this well you need to be a people person; passionate about supporting young people, and excited at the prospect of working in a fast-paced and exceptionally busy environment. You'll need a proven ability to work with high risk, vulnerable young people and an understanding of the impact intense, short term work can have. You must be a strong communicator: as comfortable building a relationship with a young person as you are liaising with our clinical colleagues. You'll be keen to keep learning, seizing training opportunities at Redthread and continuously reflecting upon and improving your practice.

In return, the successful candidate will receive a competitive salary, a supportive and flexible working environment, excellent staff training and development package and access to a range of employee benefits including access to enhanced employee assistance programme services, employer pension scheme contribution, enhanced annual leave and family leave entitlements and more. As this role requires an NHS honorary contract, as well as Redthread benefits, you'll also have unique access to generous NHS discounts and blue light schemes too.

The offer of employment is conditional on satisfactory pre-employment checks which includes meeting any applicable legal vaccination requirements, unless medically exempt, as set by the CQC.

Redthread is not a Home Office-licensed visa sponsor, evidence of the right to work in the UK will need to be provided at Interview stage.

Job Description

What does a Youth Intervention Practitioner do?

Youth Intervention Practitioners use the principles and power of youth work in the setting of a busy emergency department. We meet young people who have experienced injury or trauma while they are in the hospital, and work alongside our clinical colleagues to offer them support at a time when they are feeling very vulnerable. Our first contact with the young person may be to offer them a drink, or to ring their parents, or to check if they understand what's happening to them. When their immediate medical needs have been met, we will talk to them some more and explain how we can support them. We will do a safety plan with them before they leave the hospital.

If a young person chooses to engage with us, we will then work with them for eight to twelve weeks on a plan of action that's tailored to their needs. We work closely with the hospital safeguarding team every day and frequently have to escalate concerns. We contact any other agencies who know the young person so we're not duplicating their work, and often arrange to meet them with the young person. We regularly have to strongly advocate for young people, for example with housing agencies. We look for organisations who can work with them towards their longer-term goals and we do relational referrals, transferring the trust that young people have built with us.

Youth Intervention Practitioners hold a caseload of young people, supported by their team leader, and need to be good at recording their work, and discussing and reflecting on their practice. We provide an intensive induction at the start of the role, ongoing training and CPD throughout your time at Redthread and fortnightly clinical supervision. Our Youth Intervention Practitioners have to be courageous and tenacious, and because ours is a short intervention, we don't always see first-hand the impact of our work. But we know from talking to the young people we work with that we make a huge difference.

Our Youth Intervention Practitioners are resilient, able to work calmly in a challenging environment with young people experiencing trauma, injury or exploitation. They have a good level of self-awareness, the ability to reflect on how the work is impacting them, and a willingness to engage in regular clinical supervision that helps them develop their practice and emotional literacy.

Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner Job Description

Post Title: Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner

Work area: Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programme

Responsible to: Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Team Leader

Location: The post will be based in an A&E department within Queen Elizabeth Hospital site in Woolwich with occasional travel to Redthread's central offices in East London and other projects in the UK as required.

Hours: 37.5 hours per week. The nature of Redthread's work means that regular evening and weekend working is required. You will be required to work shifts to ensure that the team covers from 7:30am to 9pm each day between them.

Salary: £29,767.50 per annum (includes London weighting) + benefits.

Contract type: Permanent

Purpose of the Post

• To be part of the youth work team at Redthread, with a primary focus on the Youth Violence Intervention Programme.
• To assist with Redthread's other activities as required.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Hold a caseload and work with young people in a range of settings, including in A&E and on the wards, in the community, in face-to-face and group contexts, and promote their personal, educational, health and social development through all interactions.
• Assist with the on-going development of the service model to ensure that clients gain the maximum benefit from Redthread's interventions.
• Ensure information resources such as client forms, databases and contact files are kept fully up-to-date and secure, in line with GDPR, the Data Protection Act and our Confidentiality Policy and Consent Policy. Maintain high quality recording of interventions with young people on our database, Lamplight, in line with Redthread's best-practice requirements. (Training for Lamplight will be provided.)
• Collect and record evidence of project outcomes and young people's achievements, to ensure the completion of monitoring forms and project progress reports as required.
• Maintain a good level of knowledge of the issues around youth violence and Child Sexual Exploitation.
• With guidance and support from the Team Leader, and with attendance on appropriate training courses, develop skills to further your work with the young people.
• Under the direction of the Team Leader, develop an imaginative programme of events, activities and other interventions which support Redthread's mission.
• Actively research and network with other organisations working with young people in the area served by the hospital to ensure that the organisation as a whole has a good knowledge of other services and projects that may be of interest to the young people we work with or appropriate for us to refer to.
• Help organise and take part in supervised trips and other activities.
• Contribute to the training programme that Redthread provides for hospital staff, including informal microteachings and more formal presentations.

General responsibilities of all Redthread staff:

• Actively participate in staff meetings, session evaluations, supervision/reviews and planning sessions and in Redthread's overall development, including input on the needs of young people, ideas for new projects, and the on-going development of existing projects.
• Assist where possible with fundraising events and fundraising, including the maintenance and growth of the regular supporter network, and to assist in promoting the organisation's work with young people to the wider community.
• Assist in maintaining good working relations with Redthread's stakeholders, project partners and with other agencies and represent Redthread at external meetings as required.
• Encourage and enable young people to participate in all forms of decision-making and management of Redthread's projects, with the ultimate aim of empowering them to shape the services and activities provided for them. To ensure that all young people have equality of access and that the programme promotes opportunities for all young people.
• Assist the team in ensuring that all Redthread policies and procedures are followed, including Health and Safety, Safeguarding, Data Protection and Equal Opportunities. Report any concerns to an appropriate member of the SMT.
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