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Co-Production and Community Engagement Worker (part-time)
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Job Summary
Post title: Co-production & Community Engagement Worker (Part-time)
Starting salary: £27,896 pro rata, with actual £13,571 p/a
Hours of work: 18 hours over 3 days a week. Occasional evening and weekend work will be required, with time off in lieu available.
Location: Based in our main office in Leatherhead but with some travelling to our other offices in Surrey (Banstead, Epsom & Ewell and Elmbridge)
Accountable to: Chief Executive Officer
Education and Training: The post holder will be expected to attend and complete a Mary Frances Trust induction programme and undertake on- going training.
This post is subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.
Main purpose of the post
The main purpose of this role is to empower people with lived experience of mental health issues to unitise their expertise to improve the way mental health services are developed, reviewed and delivered through co-production and involvement.
Co-production is where professionals and people with lived experience of mental health conditions work together to plan and deliver support, in partnership. It has been described as “a meeting of minds coming together to find shared solutions.” (Think Local Act Personal)
It’s also about people working together so that we move away from ‘doing to’ people to an approach that is ‘doing with’.
Co-production is distinct from ‘engagement’ or ‘consultation’. The purpose of ‘consultation’ is often to gather the views and experiences of a wide group of people; the focus in consultation is on breadth of knowledge and experience.
‘Co-production’ emphasises depth of knowledge and experience to enable transformational change.
The Think Local Act Personal co-production ladder (see above) is a useful tool for illustrating how co-production shifts the relationship with people with health and care needs from ‘doing for’ to ‘doing with’. Derived from: Ladder of participation, Arnstein, 1969
At Mary Frances Trust we have a long history of ‘working with’ people who use our services on an individual level.
We would like to however, take another step up and, recognising there is a room for improvement, focus and commit to full co-production also on service and strategic level – through our Advisory Group.
We recognise that, especially on the strategic level, people may want to only engage on temporary basis and only some people may be willing to commit their time and knowledge.
It will be for the Co-production & Community Engagement Worker to work with the Advisory Group to increase the members’ skills and knowledge so that they could meaningfully contribute to the strategic development of the Mary Frances Trust.
To do this, the Co-Production worker will need to understand the needs of the people using the service, while also having an awareness of the operational requirements of the Charity. This will enable better communication and understanding, so that Mary Frances Trust can be truly Co-Produced.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
1. Actively promote, coordinate and facilitate the work of Mary Frances Trust’s Advisory Group.
2. Outreach and community engagement to increase membership of the Advisory Group, across all areas of mental health and social care (secondary and primary, statutory and non-statutory) this includes but is not exhaustive of:
- Targeting minority groups and utilising creativity to engage people in ways that are meaningful for them.
- Regularly travelling to and engaging with people that use our services and service providers across the borough within their service settings; GP surgeries, recovery mental health teams, resource centres, supported housing, faith groups etc.
- Produce and distribute promotional materials.
- Participate in Mary Frances Trust steering groups to e.g. participate in the co-designing of projects.
3. Facilitate a safe online platform for service users to engage with the Advisory Group, each other and providers, including webpage, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
4. Arrange forums, promote and support people who access our services to attend.
5. Offer support and personal development opportunities on an individual and group basis.
6. Regularly communicate with the Advisory Group providing relevant updates and external opportunities for co-production.
7. Co-produce pages for Mary Frances Trust “Communiqué” newsletter with people who use our services.
8. Embrace and facilitate creative ways for people to share their experience and get involved; e.g. photography, poetry, visual arts.
9. Support people who use services and external stakeholders to work collaboratively and in-line with co-production guiding principles.
10. Coordinate a pool of people who use our services who participate in staff recruitment internally and with external stakeholder organisations as and when required.
11. Create and maintain good networking with other relevant groups and organisations.
12. Maintain records and data and to provide reports as required.
13. Work within the policies and procedures of Mary Frances Trust and to attend meetings and training as required.
Person Specification
To achieve the objectives of this role, the post-holder must have the people accessing Mary Frances Trust’s services needs at the fore at all times and use the agreed set of values and skills to underpin their day to day work.
All the below is essential to this role:
QUALIFICATIONS
Commitment to undertake continuing professional development.
EXPERIENCE
- Direct personal experience of mental health services.
- An awareness of the day to day requirements of service delivery.
VALUES
The post-holder must at all times work to the values and principles of Mary Frances Trust including demonstrating their commitment to the Recovery model through their working practice and follow the policies and procedures of the organisation.
SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE
- Knowledge and understanding of the needs and aspirations of people who use mental health services.
- Commitment to the empowerment of people who use mental health services.
- Ability to develop and maintain positive working relationships with people who use our services and staff working at different levels in a range of organisations.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Strong organisation and administrative skills including ICT skills.
- The drive to motivate self and others and achieve positive outcomes for the service, both independently and as a team.
- An ability to achieve meaningful results.
- Ability to enable people who use our services to promote their views and opinions without injecting their own views or those of Mary Frances Trust.
- Flexibility in overall approach to work.
- Ability to recognise and work within the boundaries of the role, including confidentiality, and the working protocols between agencies.
- Knowledge of statutory and voluntary sector service provision and the roles and relationships between commissioners and providers.
- Strong sense of self and ability to set and maintain boundaries.
- An ability to reflect and review working situations and interactions objectively.
How to apply
To apply for one of these roles, click on the Apply Now link below and fill in our Online Application Form by Monday 31 August 2020. Thank you!
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