*This role is only open to women, in accordance with the sex-based exemptions of the Equality Act 2010 pursuant to Schedule 9, Part 1.
**Applications will only be considered if you provide both a CV and Covering letter.
Mentoring and Advocacy (MAS) Key Worker
Salary: £29,114 (pro rata, per annum)
Location: Leeds based, with West Yorkshire outreach
Hours: 37 hours per week (full-time)
Closing Date: We are recruiting on a rolling basis, with interviews scheduled as applications are received. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview shortly after applying.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if a suitable candidate is appointed before the closing date.
Interview Date: Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview as soon as possible with interviews planned on a rolling basis.
Together Women is looking for an outstanding Key Worker that is creative, proactive, passionate and committed to the needs of women, and will make good use of reflective practice through supervision and support.
As a MAS keyworker you will support women who are screened onto the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway in West Yorkshire covering Ripon House Approved Premises in Leeds and HMP Askham Gange in York. You will be required to mentor and advocate for women’s needs and develop positive relationships with the women you support as well as professionals and supporting agencies.
Join Our Team
- Are you driven and passionate about working within a women-centred support service?
- Can you use your skills to engage with women affected by multiple disadvantages and complex trauma?
- Do you believe in our values; to listen and support, to empower and respect, collaborate, innovate and take accountability?
If so, we would love to hear from you!
What we can offer you
Employee Benefits:
- 25 days holiday pro rata 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 meditation and other online wellbeing support on our 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, with particular focus on women who are involved in or at risk of entering the criminal justice system. Our vision is for 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 unemployment. As a charity led by women, for women, we provide trauma informed, holistic support to help break cycles of trauma, abuse and re-offending, and evoke systems change.
Our Mentoring and Advocacy Service is a provider within the NHS/HMPPS Women’s Offender Personality Disorder pathway, employing a gender-specific approach to support women offenders with personality difficulties, working with women for up to 2 years.
Role Summary
The role will provide a mentoring and advocacy service to women affected by the criminal justice system who are experiencing personality difficulties.
The role will include supporting women on a 1:1 in the community. You will actively engage and support a caseload of up to 25 women, which will include women who are transitioning from custody into the community and women in Approved Premises.
The role will also include proactively building a network of partners who can offer specialist support to the women, developing a knowledge of relevant service provision to enable women to access the services they need. You will work collaboratively with external agencies including probation, clinical teams and other voluntary services and build professional working relationships.
The post holder will be based at our Together Women Centre in Leeds and support women from across West Yorkshire in the community as part of outreach work.
Together Women’s core working hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. However, we expect some flexibility in this as we respond to the needs of our customer group.
Key Accountabilities
Responsible for a caseload of women to whom you will provide high quality customer support via the following:
- Promoting, receiving and processing referrals in line with current practice guidelines.
- Identifying and assessing individuals’ support needs including risk assessment and informed by relevant background information.
- Building effective relationships with women; to encourage them to identify and respond to their needs, interests and personal development; and to provide guidance and support to enable them to deal with a wide range of issues affecting their lives.
- Working within and alongside an integrated model of care involving Health, Criminal Justice System and Social Care professionals.
- Providing continuous and consistent support to women, with a particular emphasis on: motivation and engagement; practical issues (including family); relationships (with family, staff and peers); navigating and accessing services (including education and employment); and self-esteem and empowerment.
- Encouraging women who use the service to provide honest and open feedback in order to promote quality assurance.
- Encourage women to access support and treatment, where needed.
- Contribute to measuring and monitoring systems as required.
- Ensure all necessary records are properly maintained in line with policies on client files, finance and administration.
- Work collaboratively with other providers of the Offender Personality Disorder pathway to enable decision making and problem resolution.
- Use evaluation, learning and feedback to support service development.
- Participate in regular one to one supervision and group reflective practice.
General Responsibilities
- Represent and be an ambassador for TW.
- Support and embody the mission, ethos and values of TW.
- Be flexible and carry out other associated duties as may arise, develop or be assigned in line with the broad remit of the position.
- Maintain and improve competencies through continuous professional development.
- Abide by all organisational policies, codes of conduct and practices.
- Support and promote inclusion, diversity and equality of opportunity in the workplace.
- Treat with confidentiality any personal, private or sensitive information about clients, other organisations, staff and projects.
Role Requirements
Essential
- Experience of the delivery of frontline services
- Knowledge and understanding of the issues faced by women with personality disorders
- Knowledge and understanding of the issues faced by women affected by CJS
- Experience of working with women in a support role
- Experience of case management and recording
- Experience of building positive partnerships with other agencies
- Strong IT skills (PC literate and competent in using MS Office)
- GCSE (or equivalent) in Maths & English - Grade C or above
- Satisfactory DBS check
Desirable
- Relevant NVQ or equivalent at Level 3 or 4
- Experience of working with women affected by CJS
- Experience of working with women with personality disorder
- Experience & competence in report writing
- An understanding of the particular problems faced by women affected by CJS with dependants
- Experience of outreach work
- Knowledge of child protection issues
- Experience of running training sessions and workshops
To apply please submit a CV and a detailed covering letter expressing how you meet the role requirements and any relevant experience of the key accountabilities to [email protected].
For further information about our organisation, please see our website: https://togetherwomen.org
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: £29,114.00 per year
Benefits:
Application question(s):
- The role is only open to women, in accordance with the sex-based exemptions of the Equality Act 2010 pursuant to Schedule 9, Part 1.
- Please ensure you have included a two-page covering letter expressing how you meet the role requirements and any relevant experience of the key accountabilities.
Applications that do not include a cover letter will not be considered.
Work Location: In person
