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Job description

Link Worker

The role is only open to women, in accordance with the sex-based exemptions of the Equality Act 2010 pursuant to Schedule 9, Part 1support.

Applicants will only be considered if you provide both a CV and Cover Letter

Salary: £26,136

Location: HMP New Hall, Wakefield

Hours: 37 hours

Closing Date: Noon, 15th June 2023

Interview Date: TBC

Together Women is looking for an outstanding Link Worker to be part of our HMP New Hall and wider Community Connections project team.

Join Our Team

• Are you driven and passionate about working within a women-centred support service?
• Are you looking for a dynamic and rewarding role working for an organisation that delivers specialist gender specific support to women and girls?
• Do you believe in our values; to listen and support, to empower and respect, collaborate, innovate and take accountability?

What we can offer you - Employee Benefits:

• 25 days holiday increasing by one day per year to a max of 30 days, plus public holidays
• Pension scheme with 5% employer contribution
• Annual cost of living increase up to 4%
• Enhanced Training and Induction programme covering all areas of Together Women’s work
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme with discount offers and free telephone counselling service
• Access to our online wellbeing platform
• Employee eye-care scheme and free eye tests
• Organisation wide away days
• Career development pathways

About Us:

Together Women is an award-winning charity that supports women and girls across Yorkshire and Humberside. Our aim is to empower women and girls to feel safe, valued and in control of their own life choices.

From our women centres, we provide tailored support across a range of different pathways, including housing, domestic abuse, debt and more. As a charity led by women, for women, we provide trauma informed, holistic support to help break cycles, keep families together, and evoke change.

This role is part of a National project called Creating Community Connections. The ‘Creating Community Connections’ project is led by a partnership of women’s centre providers - Women in Prison, Anawim, Together Women and Nelson Trust. The project aims to connect women in prisons with vital specialist community support services across the country, especially domestic abuse services and women's centres.

Role Summary:

Our Link Worker will support women in custody who have experienced domestic abuse, providing emotional and practical support to minimise the impact of abuse aiding recovery from trauma. You will help women build upon their strengths and work through any barriers that are preventing them from progressing and achieving their potential. This will include co-ordinating the release of women from custody, ensuring women receive support immediately upon release. In turn this role will build a team with detailed knowledge of what women’s centres and domestic abuse organisations do, that will encourage the whole estate to link in to their local support upon release.

Key Accountabilities:

Communication and relationships

• Acting as the single point of contact for the prison for information and promotion of women’s centres and specialist domestic abuse services, informing officers, Governors and resettlement and reducing reoffending teams what these services do and are.
• Building excellent relationships with prison officers and resettlement and reducing reoffending teams, offering them the information needed regarding the support each women’s centre/domestic abuse organisation can offer.
• Working as a team of 7 Link Workers nationally to strengthen relationships between women's centres, specialist domestic abuse services and prisons across the country, enabling women to access the support they need both in prison and on release.

Client care

• Working with other Link Workers and Women’s Centre/Domestic Abuse organisation staff across the country as required, to help the women develop strong and lasting connections with the support they need.
• Once fully operational, providing support to women in HMP New Hall through ad hoc/one-off support and group work, as well as offering in-depth support (such as through-the-gate) to women experiencing current or historical issues relating to domestic abuse.
• Building a team of Women’s Champions in HMP New Hall who have the information on what women’s centres and domestic abuse organisations do and offer so they can share and encourage the whole estate to link in to their local support upon release.
• Facilitate and co-facilitate (with the Women’s Champions) relevant workshops and courses around domestic abuse including the Domestic Abuse Recovery Training.
• Collaborate with other Link Workers to develop a national ‘lived experience’ peer support network of Women’s Champion roles, which will be held by women who are currently serving prison sentences.
• Work with the resettlement team to train the Women’s Champions to be able to prepare women for release, informing them what they need to get ready, how things may have changed if they have served long sentences, how to claim benefits, dangers of internet/social media, housing etc.
• Co-ordinate the release of women, ensuring the local women’s centre/domestic abuse organisation referral process is completed to ensure women receive support immediately upon release.
• Develop professional relationships with the women so that they feel able to voice anxieties, needs and concerns on the telephone, online or face to face.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Keep excellent records and notes, prepare reports for partners and funder.
• Model and share good practice locally and nationally from specialist women’s centre-related projects.
• Contribute toward the evaluation and monitoring of the Creating Community Connections project. Contribute toward data collation and reporting as required.

Personal and Project Development

• Work collaboratively and productively with the manager of the project employed by Women in Prison, attending line management and supervision as provided.
• Attend training and development sessions as relevant and as provided and develop your own practice by maintaining and improving knowledge of relevant work practices.
• Attend all relevant meetings as and when directed or identified, which will include attendance at multiagency meetings.
• Perform any other duties as may be reasonably expected from you as directed by line management

Role Requirements

Essential Criteria:

Essential

• Understanding and knowledge of working within the criminal justice sector.
• Previous experience of working with women with complex needs (including domestic abuse), which demonstrates a flexible approach and the ability to offer tailored support which fits individual need.
• Experience of and a commitment to working positively in partnership with a range of statutory and voluntary agencies.
• Knowledge of a range of relevant local services and women's entitlements.
• Caseload management skills and the ability to deliver support as per the requirements of both the service contract and the internal quality audit framework requirements.
• Ability to advocate for the needs of vulnerable women.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage high levels of distress.
• Good inter-personal skills which enable you to build and maintain effective working relationships with clients, colleagues and stakeholders, within an organisation, a team and with external partners.
• Ability to adapt your approach when working with different groups, e.g. clients, colleagues, partner agencies and stakeholders.
• Ability to prioritise, evaluate and work reflectively.
• Good risk assessment and risk management skills.
• Ability to undertake data recording, evaluation and report-writing.
• Computer literate with good administrative, recording and reporting skills

Desirable

• Experience of working with mothers and families
• A good knowledge of child protection and safeguarding issues, with a proven track record of raising concerns.
• Experience of working in the voluntary sector.

Our competency framework: qualities we are looking for in candidates:

Client focus

Service Provision

• Demonstrates commitment and enthusiasm for working with our customer group
• Demonstrates empathy with customer group, and an understanding of gender-specific, trauma and personalised approaches.
• Ensures that the needs, wishes and aspirations of women are the main driver for casework interventions, providing encouragement and support to enable her to make choices about her future, and advocating on her behalf when necessary.
• Has/ is working towards core skills which ensure that the women receive support that is personalised, strengths-based and trauma-informed.

Recording & monitoring

• Maintains case files and administrative/monitoring systems effectively.
• Understands the importance and can describe the benefits of good record keeping, and contract monitoring/ reporting.
• Manages caseload and delivers support as per the requirements of the service contract and the internal quality audit framework requirements.

Interpersonal Skills

Working with others:

• Builds and maintains effective working relationships with customers and stakeholders, both within the organisation and external to it.
• Ensures that clear professional and emotional boundaries are established and maintained, while balancing this with a person-centred, trauma-informed approach.
• Demonstrates the ability to adapt approach or communication style when engaging with different groups (e.g. customers, partner agencies, stakeholders and colleagues).

Communication

• Presents spoken and written information clearly and appropriately and to a high standard.
• Ensures that women feel informed and are involved in decisions about them.

Diversity

• Builds trust and demonstrates respect for others, showing an awareness of the impact of own behaviour on others.
• Treats everyone fairly and consistently.
• Demonstrates an open and non-judgemental approach, seeking to understand others’ experiences and perspectives.
• Demonstrates efforts to provide inclusive environments, culturally specific support, and promotes a feeling of psychological safety for all women.

Personal effectiveness

Risk management

• Works safely, in line with policy and procedure, knowing when to escalate or share concerns.
• Applies and promotes risk management for customers, staff, stakeholders and self.
• Aware of the need for confidentiality in dealing with certain information; an understanding of the circumstances in which confidentiality should be preserved and the circumstances in which it is right to reveal confidential information, and to whom.

Approach to work

• Willing to learn and develop.
• Plans, organises and implements work, on own initiative with minimum direct supervision.
• Flexible and creative approach at work; able to adapt to the changing needs of the programme.
• Ability to manage time, prioritise and meet deadlines.
• Organised approach, with keen admin skills and attention to detail.
• Makes clear decisions and deals calmly and positively with challenges.

We actively encourage applications from women from a variety of backgrounds, and with a range of skills and experiences. We are particularly interested to hear from Black, Asian and minority ethnic women and women who have personal experience of the criminal justice system. This post is open to female applicants only as being female is deemed to be a genuine occupational requirement under Schedule 9, Paragraph 1 of the Equality Act 2010.

The post holder is expected to work within policies and procedures of Together Women and be committed to its ethos and values. This includes promoting and demonstrating the principles of equal opportunity (including encouraging diversity and tackling discrimination) and sensitivity to the environment.

Please note this post is exempt under section 7 (2) (e) and (f) of The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and therefore open to female applicants only. The successful applicant will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: £26,136.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension

Schedule:

• Day shift
• Monday to Friday
• No weekends

Work Location: In person

Application deadline: 15/06/2023