Solace Cafe Worker

Solace Café Worker

Job description and person specification

Salary                    £21,948 – (£2,966 pro rata for 5 hours)

Contract               Fixed term contract to 31/03/2024 (with possibility of extension)

Hours                     5 hours per week (Sunday evening 3pm-8pm)

Reporting to         Solace Project Officer

Location                West Kent (Tonbridge/ Sevenoaks)

 

Job description

Purpose of the role

West Kent Mind enriches lives through better mental health by offering support to get well, stay well and thrive. We are an ambitious, award-winning organisation. The Solace Café is a much-needed resource for people who may be heading towards or experiencing an emotional crisis, offering out of hours mental health support. The service aims to prevent escalation of problems and thereby avoid a mental health crisis and reduce referrals to secondary mental health services, emergency departments and use of other emergency services.

The Solace Café Worker will help facilitate the Solace Café in accordance with the funders’ specification and in achieving the outcomes required. You will have a high-level ability in working with vulnerable adults and be skilled at supporting people on their recovery journey. You will work as part of West Kent Mind’s Solace Café team and with our key partners including the NHS, social services, and the police to offer a high quality out-of-hours support service with and for people with mental health problems.

Adopting our fundraising culture

West Kent Mind operates and encourages a fundraising culture, this means that our staff, volunteers and trustees are all fundraising advocates and contribute to an organisational fundraising ethos. We expect all colleagues to play their part in generating income, this could be anything from being pro-active working with colleagues to secure funding for your area of work, to writing a heartfelt thank you note to a donor, or putting together a testimonial from a beneficiary to demonstrate funding impact for a grant application. Securing income is vital to our survival and we expect everyone to embrace our ethos. We don’t expect you to be a fundraising expert but we do expect you to fully adopt our fundraising culture with energy and passion.

Key tasks

·       Contribute to the smooth running of the café and the project.

·       Welcome new referrals to the café, carry out initial assessments and maintain accurate case records.

·       Provide advice and person-centred support to individuals referred to the café that works towards empowerment, understanding, self-awareness and recovery for each individual client.

·       Help clients develop self-management strategies and to make the best use of the local resources around them, signposting or making referrals as required.

·       Provide one-to-one confidential emotional support as needed.

·       Provide activities on site and/or on Zoom that are engaging, of interest to the clients, through co-design, and that contribute to an improvement in individual mental wellbeing.

·       Promote the wellbeing, safety, and health of clients, reporting any concerns to your line manager.

·       Keep up to date with best practice and contribute to the continuous improvement of the service.

·       Assist in the monitoring of the quality of the service and the outcomes required.

·       Communicate effectively with other team members ensuring that relevant information is passed on to the team.

·       When required, support and supervise volunteers as agreed with your line manager.

·       Undergo mandatory training as required for this post.

·       Perform all other duties as may reasonably be expected by your line manager.

Carry out all the above in accordance with the aims, values and policies of West Kent Mind, in particular confidentiality, safeguarding, and equality & diversity; and also in accordance with the requirements of Kent & Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB).

Person specification

All experience may be paid or voluntary, full or part-time, in the UK or overseas. (E) – Essential (D) – Desirable.

Qualifications

No specific qualifications are required, however if you have qualifications that you feel are relevant to this position, please tell us about them in your letter of application and CV.

Experience

·       At least one years’ experience of providing a support service to vulnerable adults to increase their independence and to develop self-management strategies (E).

·       Experience of mental health services. This could be from working with young people or adults with mental health problems, either paid or voluntary. Your experience could also be from your personal circumstances – looking after someone with mental health problems or dealing with your own mental health (D).

·       Experience of undertaking monitoring and evaluation (D).

·       Experience of setting objectives and collating outcomes (D).

Knowledge

·       Knowledge and understanding of the relevant statutory authorities including NHS and social services (D).

·       Understanding of the relationship between mental health and social issues and how these issues may impact on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing (E).

·       A good understanding of mental health conditions and awareness of issues in the mental health service provision (D).

·       Understanding of the recovery model in mental health (E).

·       Safeguarding and risk assessing the welfare of vulnerable adults (D).

·       Equality & diversity (D).

Skills and competencies

·       Very good communication skills and ability to work effectively with other team members, with a wide range of people and organisations, and to build and maintain excellent relationships (E).

·       Discretion and judgment when dealing with sensitive and/or confidential information (E).

·       Ability to deal effectively and calmly with challenging situations as they may arise from time to time [E].

·       Ability to prioritise your own workload and manage time effectively (E).

·       Excellent IT skills including use of Microsoft Office, videoconferencing platforms (MS Teams, Zoom etc.), and an ability to learn new systems (E).

·       Excellent administration skills and process driven (E).

Attributes

·       Understanding and empathy for people with mental health needs (E).

·       Professional, enthusiastic, self-motivated and proactive with a commitment to the aims and values of West Kent Mind (E).

·       Understanding and commitment to equality & diversity (E).

Benefits

We’re a charity and we’re here to make a positive difference to lives and communities. You’ll work with a passionate, knowledgeable and dedicated team with a big heart.

Holidays

It’s important to take time off. We give you 23 days a year, increasing by one day per year of service up to 30 days, plus bank holidays (all calculated pro-rata for part-timers).

To refresh and recuperate before the start of a new year, we also give you extra holiday (pro-rata equivalent to three days) between Christmas and New Year.

Learning

We’re committed to supporting our staff with learning and professional development, so we offer opportunities for coaching, training and mentoring. Everyone, regardless of role, is offered free Mental Health First Aid training.

Pension

If eligible you’ll be auto enrolled into our pension scheme, and our contribution is based on 3% of your salary.

Employee Assistance Programme

Everyone can access our Employee Assistance Programme. It’s confidential and includes 24/7 telephone advice, counselling and a suite of online tools to help you stay happy and healthy.