Senior Advocate

About this role:

Your Voice Counts deliver high quality independent advocacy services that support people with a range of health and social care needs. We are looking for a Senior Advocate to support our Advocacy team, and to help us ensure delivery of an effective, high-quality service. The Advocacy team provides a range of advocacy services across the North East including non- statutory and statutory advocacy roles to clients under the Mental Health Act, the Mental Capacity Act, the Care Act and DOLS legislation.

As Senior Advocate, you will line-manage a team of advocates and be responsible for providing support, developing your team, and managing performance. You will work closely with our Head of Advocacy to review, maintain and improve the quality of our advocacy services, including analysing data and producing reports. You will support the effective and timely allocation of referrals, and you will be a point of contact for queries about our advocacy services.  

You will also be expected to manage your own caseload of advocacy referrals. This will involve meeting with clients, professionals and other stakeholders and ascertaining and representing your client’s wishes, views and beliefs.  As such, the role involves travel to locations such as clients’ homes, hospitals, care homes, and community settings. While some work can be completed from home, particularly administrative tasks, access to your own transport and a reliable home internet connection is essential.

To learn more about Advocacy and the services we provide, please visit our website.

What we do:

Your Voice Counts’ advocacy services promote social inclusion, equality and social justice by supporting people to say what they want, to secure their rights and to represent their interests when they are unable to do so themselves. 

The Advocacy Charter  

“Advocacy is taking action to support people to say what they want, secure their rights, pursue their interests and obtain services they need. Advocacy providers and advocates work in partnership with the people they support and take their side, promoting social inclusion, equality and social justice.” 

The Advocacy Charter, Revised 2018 

Main Responsibilities:

1. Provide appropriate line-management support and challenge to members of the advocacy team, including providing case support to advocates in your team. 

2. Oversee the training and development of your team. 

3. Monitor service capacity and support the allocation of referrals to Advocates. 

4. Ensure, through regular monitoring and feedback, the quality and accuracy of case notes, reports and record keeping from the Advocates in your team. 

5. Respond to relevant queries from referrers, service users, members of the public and other stakeholders. 

6. Maintain a focus on the delivery of a high-quality advocacy service. Review key statistical and qualitative data to ensure the service is reaching agreed targets.  

7. Carry a case load of advocacy referrals – the size of your case load will be dependent on the size of the team you are managing and your hours of work. 

8. Promote and publicise the advocacy service in creative ways to ensure it reaches people who may require the service. Promote the service to other stakeholders such as partner organisations and professionals.  

9. Keep abreast of developments in relevant legislation and good practice guidance. 

10. Assist the Head of Advocacy and Senior Management Team to determine any future development of the service and take lead responsibility for specific areas of work as required.  

11. Be an active participant in the wider YVC team and seek to work with all YVC colleagues to deliver our strategy, maintain quality and embed the values of the organisation.  

12. This is not an exhaustive list of duties, and you will be expected to undertake other duties commensurate with the duties of the post as may be reasonably directed and/or as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation and the overall business objectives of the organisations. 

Person Specification:

Just as our values are key to our ways of working, attitude is key to our staff team.  We work in challenging, changing circumstances with a very vulnerable client group. We are looking for someone with excellent interpersonal skills, an ability to develop team working, empathetic and supportive but not afraid to challenge when challenge is needed.  We are looking for someone who has good attention to detail and understands the importance of effective systems and processes.  We’re looking for someone who has a demonstrable belief in the rights of people who use our services. 

You will: 

• Have experience of managing teams of front line workers - ideally within the context of health and social care, and with experience of providing supervision to staff who provide 1:1 support to vulnerable clients

Or

• Have experience of delivering independent advocacy (or a similar type of role involving case work) in a range of health and social care settings

• Have strong interpersonal skills, with an ability to develop team working. Be able to motivate, support and drive high performance in your team. 

• Have a strong focus on collaborative working within a dynamic team and a commitment to helping everyone improve. 

• Be well-organised with an ability to handle a busy workload and prioritise effectively. 

• Have excellent IT skills - ideally experience of using Excel, databases and contact management systems such as CharityLog or equivalent, with an ability to produce reports.

• Be an excellent communicator, with an ability to adapt your approach in order to engage with a wide range of stakeholders 

• Have excellent verbal and written communication skills and be able to communicate effectively with vulnerable people who often have significant communication barriers. 

• Have a commitment to equal opportunities and confidentiality. 

• Approach issues objectively and diplomatically. 

• You must have a full clean driver’s licence and access to a vehicle you can use for work purposes during work hours. Alternative arrangements can be made for people whose disability prevents them from driving. 

Desirable:

• Hold an Independent Advocacy Qualification, including the IMHA, IMCA and/or Care Act modules 

• Good knowledge of Gateshead, Newcastle, South Tyneside and the surrounding area, including a good understanding of health and social cares services and local voluntary sector organisations.