Job overview
We are recruiting for a Youth Worker for Children, Young People and Families who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.
The role is full time, predominantly Monday to Friday with some occasional weekend, evening, and community working. We are looking for someone with youth work experience in the NHS, voluntary sector, or community services.
You will support young people with short term health needs as well as long-term health conditions such as diabetes, and epilepsy and those with diagnoses such as ADHD and autism. The focus of the work will be on the child’s and young person's social and emotional needs within Children’s Services, Adult services, and the Community.
You will be offering holistic advice and care to Children and Young People (CYP) that are within Children’s Services and those who are being prepared for the move from children's to adult healthcare services. The Youth Worker will deliver this work through one to one, group work, peer support, and youth work sessions. You should be self-motivated, be able to use their own initiative and be responsive to the needs of young people in a healthy setting.
At the heart of everything we do are our core values: Include, Respect, and Improve. We encourage you to embrace these values throughout the recruitment process and in your role with us.
Main duties of the job
Communicate effectively with CYP and their families/carers. Use a compassionate, individual, and inclusive approach to communication with children and young people who may have social and communication difficulties, / special educational and learning needs, learning disability and autism.
To provide holistic support for the young person to meet their individual needs. Acting as an advocate to CYP between multiple agencies and services, internal and external to ENHTT including both physical and mental health services and education and social services. This requires good communication skills, active listening skills and to be empathetic towards the CYP’s needs.
Assess the needs of CYP to correctly plan and deliver targeted programmes for example for health-related conditions, fitness, smoking, drugs, gangs, violence, relationships and bullying etc.
Work in partnership with families and other key people in the CYP’s life, as well as with professionals from other organisations involved with CYP such as social care, physical and mental health, police, education, youth offending teams and local authorities, in order to build a strong support network
Establish boundaries and challenge inappropriate behaviour.
Working for our organisation
At East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.
We run the following hospitals:
* The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
* New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
* Hertford County, Hertford
* Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood
We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.
We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.
Person specification
Qualifications / Training
Essential criteria
* Professional qualifications – JNC registered – Youth Worker Qualification
* General training qualifications
* On-going evidence of CPD
Desirable criteria
* Health Care or psychology related courses
Previous Experience
Essential criteria
* Work experience
* Technical experience
* Previous level of responsibility
* Care in Health, Social, Education or Voluntary setting with Children and young people.
* Experience of working with patients with long term conditions
Desirable criteria
* Experience of working with people with emotional difficulties and learning difficulties (paid or voluntary)
* Experience of youth work
Skills
Essential criteria
* Specific skills required, e.g. Leadership, Organisational, Communication, Other
* Ability to create and maintain good relationships with children and famil
* Ability to recognise own limitations, use own initiative and recognize when to escalate to senior staff
* Good Team worker
* Ability to work in a non-judgmental manner
* Ability to reflect on practice
* Self-aware and committed to continue personal development. Able to accept and respond positively to feedback from clinical supervision
Other Requirements
Essential criteria
* Awareness of child protection issues. Awareness of confidentiality
* An awareness of the Best Practice Tariff for children and Young People (up to 19th birthday) with diabetes
* Flexible to meet needs of service
* Ability to travel and work across sites if required
* Motivated
* Ability to travel independently in accordance with Trust policies and service need.
Desirable criteria
* Basic understanding of how health conditions can affect the family
* An understanding of the application of the principles of youth work to health care.