Community Support Worker
About Us
EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. Also:
- We are among the largest employers in the in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites.
- We run the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex.
EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT). A new leadership team was established at the Trust in 2020.
Our vision and values
Our Vision
“To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care”.
Our Purpose
“We care for people every day. What we do together, matters”.
Our Values- We Care
- We Learn
- We Empower
- We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
- We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
- We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
- We will help our communities to thrive.
- Mental Health Services
- Community Health Services
- Learning Disabilities Services
- Social Care
Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory.
Job overview
We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic Community Support Worker to join the Mid Essex First Episode Psychosis Team, based at The Gables in Braintree. Come and join our dynamic multidisciplinary NCAP Level 4 Early Intervention in Psychosis Team offering a wide range of biopsychosocial interventions in a Specialist Team.
This role will require the post holder to work across the geographical locality of Mid Essex. The team uses a Multi-disciplinary approach to provide care, promote recovery and social inclusion to people from the age of 14-65 years who are experiencing, or are at risk of experiencing, a First Episode Psychosis.
This is an excellent opportunity to develop skills of working with this group of service users in the community.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all of our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately your application form be rejected from the process.
Please note this vacancy requires a face to face interview with the Recruiting Manager. Applicants that are unable to attend a face to face interview need not apply.
Main duties of the job
As a community support worker you will both support qualified practitioners to support people experiencing a first episode of psychosis or will work independently on service users goals towards recovery. This requires extensive independent travel across Mid Essex, which is a semi-rural area.
Community support workers contribute to people's recovery by supporting with access to the community as well as supporting with more practical aspects of life to promote independence and recovery.
The role also includes carrying out physical health checks within the community including taking bloods and doing ECG's as well as routine observations.
Working for our organisation
EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;- Season Ticket Loans
- NHS discounts for staff
- Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
- Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
- The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
- Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
- Day One Flexible Employer
The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment
Join our Staff bank
What is Staff Bank?
Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.
All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.
If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities- Supporting the qualified clinicians with developing and implementing care plans and co-working complex clients with a first episode of psychosis
- Support with the running physical health check clinics and promoting a healthy lifestyle clinics
- Develop and facilitate community based groups that support the agenda of physical health and mental wellbeing
- Encourage and support service users to engage with their local community
- Assist Senior Clinicians in the risk assessment and management of complex cases
- Identify any possible safeguarding concerns and escalate to your supervisors
- Support the promotion of carer and service user involvement within the service and participate in training associated with this
- Completing carer’s assessments and facilitating carers groups
- Attend team meetings i.e. referral/zoning/MDT/business meetings as appropriate
- Support service users to identify strengths, personal interests and achievements and work towards meaningful recovery goals.
One such example of this collaborative work is the launch of our HCA Academy, an ICS initiative between Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) to support the incoming Health Care assistant (HCA) workforce.
The academy models a ‘one workforce’ cross system approach to the onboarding, induction, education and experience of Healthcare Assistants.
To support this ‘one workforce model’ the successful candidate for this post will be required to attend our 5 day (Monday to Friday) face to face Induction Programme at our MSE ICS Education Hub at Brentwood Community Hospital. Your start date will therefore fall on one of two of the HCA Academy induction dates across the month, which will be discussed and agreed during the recruitment process.
Our HCA Academy Induction programme has been designed to train and support the successful candidate through the early stages of their employment at EPUT and will provide opportunities to enhance skills, knowledge and experience.
Further information will be provided post interview.
This will be followed by an additional 5 day (Monday to Friday) EPUT corporate / mandatory training welcome. (EPUT Welcome will be varied between face to face and virtual delivery).
Person specification
Physical health checks
Essential criteria- Ability to perform physical health checks independently
- Ability to take blood and ECGS
Community support worker
Essential criteria- Experience of working with people who have experienced psychosis
- Working in the community with people who have experienced psychosis
Please note - staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered ‘suitable alternative employment’ to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.
Important Professional References
Make sure that as a part of your application you have professional references with business contract information covering your last three year employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.
As a newly appointed employee you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.
Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed.
Equal Opportunities Employer
Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply.If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email [email protected] and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.
The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.
Covid Vaccination
Although Covid vaccinations are no longer a mandatory requirement within the NHS we continue to encourage and support the vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against Covid19. The safety of our staff and patients is a top priority for us at EPUT.
If you would like to book a Covid vaccination or would like more information please contact us by emailing [email protected].