Activity Coordinator - Kingfisher Ward
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.
We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.
We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.
We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Good luck and we hope to hear from you.
Job overview
We are recruiting for an Activity Coordinator to join our Kingfisher Ward Team, based at Littlemore Mental Health Centre to deliver a wide range of therapeutic, wellbeing, and social activities for service users.
Kingfisher is a 16 bedded low secure unit for females with a diagnosis of mental illness and/or personality disorder based at Thames House. Many of our service users have had experience of the criminal justice system in the past.
You'll organise and facilitate group and individual activities tailored to service users’ needs, helping to build confidence, develop skills, and encourage social interaction. You'll also collaborate with the wider multi-disciplinary team to ensure activities are inclusive, meaningful, and support each patient’s recovery journey.Strong communication and organisational skills are essential, as well as the ability to adapt activities to suit different needs. We have established very effective ways of working with the patients to help them identify and reach their goals whilst keeping them safe and supporting them onwards to a new life in the community.
If you have experience in activity coordination, a creative mindset, and a commitment to supporting individuals in their recovery, we would love to hear from you!
This role includes an RSU allowance of £1,446 per annum on top of your salary
Please note, this role involves some weekend work outside core hours (Monday-Friday 9-5pm)
Main duties of the job
In this role, you will work collaboratively in the planning, development and provision of a range of therapeutic, wellbeing and social activities for the services users on the inpatient forensic wards as appropriate to service user need and within the established service guidelines.You will be supported by the nursing, medical, psychology and occupational therapy team members.
Main duties include:
- Engage service users in physical and recreational activity appropriate to their individual needs and abilities
- Plan and co-ordinate an innovative and adaptive programme of activity under the supervision and direction of members of the multi disciplinary team
- Organise and plan service user events in collaboration with MDT colleagues to promote inclusivity.
- Develop and use practical and technical skills with service users, either through your own identification of need or as suggested by members of the multi-disciplinary team
- Work with service users to improve their mental health, physical health and wellbeing.
- Assist in identifying service user’s strengths and needs in order to plan and implement suitable activities for groups and individual service users.
- Be involved in evaluating the effectiveness of activity with service users, carers and the multi-disciplinary team
- Complete PEACE Teamwork and other mandatory training directly related to the job
Please refer to the job description attached for a comprehensive list of duties
Working for our organisation
Oxford Health is a great place to work and to be able to showcase the best of yourself when making an application please read the “candidate guide to making an application” and ensure your supporting statement is tailored to the role you are applying for and addresses any essential criteria.
As a Trust we provide physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and Northeast Somerset. Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible.Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive: “Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”
Our values are: “Caring, safe and excellent”
At Oxford Health we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing.
These include:- Excellent opportunities for career progression
- Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
- 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
- NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
- Competitive pension scheme
- Lease car scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Mental Health First Aiders
- Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists may apply)
- Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The Littlemore Mental Health Centre was opened in the early 2000s and sits in the pretty Village of Sandford-on-Thames on the outskirts of Oxford. The site sits within commuter distance of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Hertfordshire and London City.Due to our central location, we boast a hugely inclusive and diverse staff group and consider ourselves lucky to have such diversity within our team.
We are committed to the ongoing development of our staffing group and actively encourage the continued professional development of our employees. Oxford Health has an ever-growing Learning and Development department that can work with your line manager in supporting your ongoing growth.
We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.
Person specification
Skills & Knowledge
Essential criteria- Active interest in & willingness to participate in delivering a wide range of therapeutic activities
- Good communication skills – verbal & written
- Prior skill & experience in a relevant area of work e.g. creative arts, crafts, physical fitness
- Working with people with mental health needs
Experience
Essential criteria- Care certificate or willingness to work towards one
- Good literacy and numeracy skills
- Experience of working with people in forensic services or criminal justice system
- Ability to participate in PEACE training.
Other Work Related Requirements:
Essential criteria- Positive attitude to people with mental health issues
- Ability to work flexibly and to be adaptive as required by the service.
- Demonstrate an interest in patient and staff well being
- All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
- Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
- We’re advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
- Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
- We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
- We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
- We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
- Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing