Liaison and Diversion Engagement Worker

Job overview

The post holder will support individuals with any presenting need, concerns or difficulties that  might be affecting their mental health and wellbeing. The post holder will provide time limited 1:1  support to clients giving information and/or support to allow them to access a wide range of  agencies and services that can provide help and advice with for example, housing, social  isolation and exclusion, education, debt management, mental health and employment issues.  Post holders will develop links into the community and agencies to enable improved, supported  access to services. The post holder will be based within the Liaison & Diversion service within  police custody suites working with adults, children and young people with a range of  vulnerabilities who have come into contact with the Criminal Justice System.  The post holder will support clients who are typically hard to engage, to access and utilise  primary, secondary and community services in order to improve their use of resources, which is  likely to improve their mental health, social difficulties and reduce the risk of them reoffending.  The post holder will actively engage and work with individuals with forensic, traumatic and/or  abusive histories with a wide range of vulnerabilities who have a level of co-existing complex  needs including homelessness, substance misuse, significant risks and social exclusion and who  at times may present with extremely challenging behaviours.

Main duties of the job

To attend police custody suites and to carry out screening with Lead Nurses (Band  6), to give advice, and implement the delivery of the all vulnerabilities pathways  (Women, Children/ young people, veterans, sex offenders, learning disabilities, substance misuse, people open to mental health services) for individuals where  potential vulnerabilities have been identified.

To liaise and plan alongside Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Nurses and an  extensive number of external agencies for the provision of assessment, disposal and  the care pathway of service users. This includes parents/carers of young people.   To communicate, provide, and receive complex, sensitive and at times contentious  information where skills of, motivational, joint decision making, empathy, advisory  and signposting are required, often in situations where there are barriers to  understanding and high stress levels, e.g. court rooms and police custody settings

The postholder will manage a caseload of Criminal Justice Service users with  oversight from registered clinicians in the team; working autonomously on a daily  basis, assessing, planning and implementing interventions appropriate to the  individual’s needs. This is accomplished through regular guidance and supervision  from a relevant AHP or nursing professional with the use of caseload discussion and  immediate escalation where deemed necessary.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

With the service users consent (or where there is a public duty to safeguard the  individual or others) to provide the police custody with relevant verbal/ written  information pertinent to the individual in a timely manner to support the criminal justice  disposal and to manage risk.   To consistently manage your own time and planning your work load in advance.   To have knowledge and an understanding around psychosocial interventions to be  able to support and signpost to self-harm reduction/ minimization strategies, problem  solving, behavioiural interventions as negotiated with individual service users.

To educate and give information to service users and others in the care of the service  users in issues related to safeguarding and social issues including benefits, housing  and voluntary support services.   To assess and act upon immediate risk of danger to service users and/ or others  when lone working in the community.   To have professional responsibility for promoting equality, diversity and rights

To aid in the process of referrals of clients between agencies and other services.   To present and promote the service in both informal and formal settings, as well as to other service user related services/ organisations.   To develop and deliver preventative work in the community building a network of  stakeholders to create awareness and progression of the service.   To be allocated a specific pathway within the service and to maintain and develop  links with stake holders in the community. To take the lead on ensure the signposting  and referrals process are kept up to date and communicating new and developing  services within that pathway to the team.