Senior Employment Advisor

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About the Trust

We are proud to provide high quality mental health and learning disability services, both inpatient and in the community across five boroughs of Greater Manchester - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Tameside and Glossop.

Our vision is for a happier and more hopeful life for everyone in our communities and our staff work hard to deliver the very best care for the people who use our services. We're really proud of our #PennineCarePeople and do everything we can to make sure we're a great place to work.

Our ambition is to maximise people's potential and we aim to promote an inclusive environment and improve the diversity of our workforce so our people truly represent the communities we serve.

All individuals regardless of race, age, disability, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnership are encouraged to apply for this post. We would also encourage applications from individuals with a lived experience of mental illness, either individually or as a carer.

If you come and work for us we will offer a range of benefits and opportunities, including:

1. Generous annual leave entitlement for Agenda for Change and Medical and Dental staff.
2. Flexible working opportunities to support your work/life balance
3. Access to Continued Professional Development
4. Involvement in improvement and research activities
5. Health and Wellbeing activities and access to an excellent staff wellbeing service
6. Access to staff discounts across retail, leisure and travel

If you are Kind, Fair, Ingenious and Determined then we want you to come and join our #PennineCarePeople

https://www.penninecare.nhs.uk/values

Job overview

The post holder will be part of the Greater Manchester Talking Therapies (previously IAPT) service which supports people with common mental health problems by providing psychological therapies. This role will manage and support a team of EA's who are employed to provide employment support to people to help them gain, return to, or stay in work.
The role will work with people that are unemployed and/or have challenges with their current employment. To encourage them to recognise the importance of productive work to good mental health and to help them plan a route into meaningful activity and employment. To identify support mechanisms with Employers, Education and Training services, Employment Support Services and Third Sector Organisations for people with a mental health problem who are seeking employment. Promote the service through work with employment and training agencies and assist with the collection of data and service KPI's.
To support Employment Advisors to demonstrate the value of the service through positively promoting the role and the collection and collation of data in line with reporting requirements.

Main duties of the job
• To support people with common mental health problems to gain, return to or retain employment. The role will involve working directly with Jobcentre Plus, employers, trade unions and employment agencies to keep people in employment and secure employment opportunities.
• The post holder will be responsible for managing a team of EA's
• To prepare training materials, facilitate training sessions and lead training sessions involving clinical and non-clinical staff
• Implements policies and propose changes to practices for own area and to update procedures
• To be an active member of the Talking Therapies Senior Team
• To build and develop strong relationships and enable effective links between employers and other agencies to support delivery of a personalised client focused service
• To provide a service which is non-discriminatory in terms of age, gender,
sexuality, ethnicity, neurodiversity, and disability
• To support the Talking Therapies Clinical Team and primary care colleagues in making appropriate referrals through meaningful employment conversations before any referral is considered.
• To develop a 'knowledge' of the locality and its services and facilities,
• Liaise as appropriate with primary care and secondary care mental health services and social care departments
• Working closely with clinical and non-clinical staff, to support efficient
operational practice contributing to the achievement of key performance
indicator, activity, and compliance targets

Working for our organisation

To undertake any other reasonable duty, when requested to do so by an appropriate Trust manager.
To understand and comply with all Trust policies, procedures, protocols, and guidelines.
To understand the Trusts Strategic Goals and how you can support them.
To understand the need to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and adhere to all principles in effective safeguarding.
To carry out all duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with Equal Opportunities, Equality and Diversity and dignity in care/work policies and principles.
To avoid unlawful discriminatory behaviour and actions when dealing with the colleagues, services user, members of the public and all stakeholders.
To access only information, where paper, electronic, or, in another media, which is authorised to you as part of the duties of your role.
Confidentiality is of prime importance. In the normal course of duties, the
post holder will have access to confidential documents and information
relating to patients, service users, staff and contractors, as well as information of a commercially sensitive nature. Such information should not be communicated to anyone outside or inside the NHS unless done in the normal course of carrying out the duties of the post. Disciplinary action will be considered where a breach of confidence has been established.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will be part of the Greater Manchester Talking Therapies (previously IAPT) service which supports people with common mental health problems by providing psychological therapies. This role will manage and support a team of EA's who are employed to provide employment support to people to help them gain, return to, or stay in work.
The role will work with people that are unemployed and/or have challenges with their current employment. To encourage them to recognise the importance of productive work to good mental health and to help them plan a route into meaningful activity and employment. To identify support mechanisms with Employers, Education and Training services, Employment Support Services and Third Sector Organisations for people with a mental health problem who are seeking employment. Promote the service through work with employment and training agencies and assist with the collection of data and service KPI's.
To support Employment Advisors to demonstrate the value of the service through positively promoting the role and the collection and collation of data in line with reporting requirements

Person specification

Education / Qualifications

Essential criteria

• A degree in a relevant area or equivalent experience in employment advice and or mental health.
• Training in coaching, careers advice and job retention.
• A qualification or substantial experience in providing professional supervision, preferably within a health setting.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Demonstratable experience of supporting individuals to gain or retain employment.
• Experience of managing or supervising staff at a senior level
• Experience of working in a service where agreed targets and key performance indicators are in place.
• Experience of preparing training materials, facilitating training sessions, and leading training sessions.
• Authorised signatory for small or large payments in relation to a project.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working with people suffering from common mental health problems

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Understanding of common mental health problems and the potential workplace implications of these conditions.
• Working knowledge of community resources including employment and disability related benefits

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of employment law and the Equality Act 2020
• Knowledge of evidence-based interventions to support people with common mental health problems to gain, return to or retain employment.

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work well under pressure and effectively plan and prioritise own workload.
• Ability to assess individual strengths in relation to employment and adapt activities to be appropriate for the needs of individuals.
• Ability to collect and report data to support service performance and evaluation.
• Ability to negotiate with employers on behalf of service users.
• Ability to concentrate on a wide range of issues and prioritise accordingly.
• Able to deal with conflicting demands in an unpredictable work pattern.
• Able to deal directly with distressing or emotional circumstances when they arise
• Commitment to team working and ability to work successfully in a team.
• Punctual and flexible across hours of work when required.
• Ability to travel across sites in good time.
• To be able to use basic computer skills to collect, collate and report on client's progress daily.
• Keyboard use

Desirable criteria

• Lived experience of mental health issues

A hints and tips document is attached below for guidance on completing your application form.

Disclosure Barring Certificate check

All of our new starters, who are appointed to a post which requires a Disclosure Barring Certificate check (DBS), will be recharged for the full cost of the check (DBS checks for volunteers are free of charge).

An enhanced DBS check costs £38 and a standard check costs £18 (plus an administration charge of £3.50). If you are a substantive member of staff, the full amount will be taken from your first month's salary.

If you are a member of staff on our bank, you will need to repay the full amount from your first salary.

We encourage you to register with the DBS update service at an annual cost of £13 (this is mandatory for bank staff).

Other important information

• We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and recognise the importance of ensuring our diverse service user population is reflected within our workforce. Unfortunately, we know that, at present, there is underrepresentation of our communities in our workforce. We welcome applications from people from diverse communities to help us grow, learn, be better and consider brilliant innovation diverse people bring.
• Priority will be given to applications from existing NHS employees who have an at risk status
• This post is on our terms and conditions (T&Cs). If you are an existing employee currently on transferred terms and conditions (i.e. you transferred from another employer and retained their T&Cs) and you are voluntarily applying for this post; if you are successful, you will be employed on our T&Cs
• You will be informed about the progress of your application following shortlisting. Only applicants who clearly demonstrate the criteria listed in the person specification will be shortlisted for interview
• We will notify you by email if you have been shortlisted or not. Computer access is available at your local job centre or library. Please make sure you check your spam filter/junk folder. If any mail goes to your junk folder please mark it as safe
• If you would like to be considered under the disability confident scheme, you will be guaranteed an interview if you meet the essential criteria on the person specification for the post
• If you require reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process please phone us on 0161 716 3181 at the earliest opportunity. We will support you to complete your application
• We reserve the right to close a vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date if a sufficient number of applications have been received
• Unfortunately we are not able to guarantee the transfer of lease cars, or cover the costs of early termination charges. We have a strict policy on unsolicited contact from recruitment agencies. Please do not contact our recruiting managers directly.

Vaccination

COVID-19 vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the virus when working in our healthcare settings. Whilst COVID-19 vaccination is not a condition of employment at this time, we do encourage our staff to get vaccinated. We will be checking the vaccination status of all new starters so that we can manage individual and environmental risks, and so that we can support those who may be undecided about vaccination. If you are unvaccinated there is helpful advice and information at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ where you can also find out more about how to access vaccination. There is a current Government consultation underway which will determine whether some new starters may need to be vaccinated.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

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.

Documents to download

• Job Description (PDF, 115.9KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 96.4KB)
• Policy Statement on Recruitment of Ex-Offenders (PDF, 117.0KB)
• Applicant Information pack (PDF, 505.6KB)
• Hints and tips for your application (PDF, 128.7KB)