Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner- Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich

**Company Description**
Thank you for considering a Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner role with Redthread. We are a team of compassionate, collaborative and courageous professionals, committed to empowering young people to change their lives. This animation was created with our Youth Ambassadors and these clips, BBC News and ‘A day in the life’ will give you a taster of what we do every day.

We are looking to recruit a dynamic team member at our **Queen Elizabeth Hospital**site in Woolwich**.** You will support young people who are experiencing trauma or tragedy, and their families. You’ll work with them in the Emergency Department, on the wards and once they are discharged into the community.

As a Youth Intervention Practitioner working on our Youth Violence Intervention Programme, you will primarily be based in the A&E department of Queen Elizabeth Hospital. You’ll be part of a team that is fully embedded in the hospital and that is highly valued by clinicians and community partners alike.

To do this well you need to be a people person; passionate about supporting young people, and excited at the prospect of working in a fast-paced and exceptionally busy environment. You’ll need a proven ability to work with high risk, vulnerable young people and an understanding of the impact intense, short term work can have. You must be a strong communicator: as comfortable building a relationship with a young person as you are liaising with our clinical colleagues. You’ll be keen to keep learning, seizing training opportunities at Redthread and continuously reflecting upon and improving your practice.

The offer of employment is conditional on satisfactory pre-employment checks which includes meeting any applicable legal vaccination requirements, unless medically exempt, as set by the CQC.

Redthread is not a Home Office-licensed visa sponsor, evidence of the right to work in the UK will need to be provided at Interview stage.
**Job Description** What does a Youth Intervention Practitioner do?**

Youth Intervention Practitioners use the principles and power of youth work in the setting of a busy emergency department. We meet young people who have experienced injury or trauma while they are in the hospital, and work alongside our clinical colleagues to offer them support at a time when they are feeling very vulnerable. Our first contact with the young person may be to offer them a drink, or to ring their parents, or to check if they understand what’s happening to them. When their immediate medical needs have been met, we will talk to them some more and explain how we can support them. We will do a safety plan with them before they leave the hospital.

If a young person chooses to engage with us, we will then work with them for eight to twelve weeks on a plan of action that’s tailored to their needs. We work closely with the hospital safeguarding team every day and frequently have to escalate concerns. We contact any other agencies who know the young person so we’re not duplicating their work, and often arrange to meet them with the young person. We regularly have to strongly advocate for young people, for example with housing agencies. We look for organisations who can work with them towards their longer-term goals and we do relational referrals, transferring the trust that young people have built with us.

Youth Intervention Practitioners hold a caseload of young people, supported by their team leader, and need to be good at recording their work, and discussing and reflecting on their practice. We provide an intensive induction at the start of the role, ongoing training and CPD throughout your time at Redthread and fortnightly clinical supervision. Our Youth Intervention Practitioners have to be courageous and tenacious, and because ours is a short intervention, we don’t always see first-hand the impact of our work. But we know from talking to the young people we work with that we make a huge difference.

Our Youth Intervention Practitioners are resilient, able to work calmly in a challenging environment with young people experiencing trauma, injury or exploitation. They have a good level of self-awareness, the ability to reflect on how the work is impacting them, and a willingness to engage in regular clinical supervision that helps them develop their practice and emotional literacy.

**Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner Job Description**

**Post Title**:Youth Violence Intervention Practitioner

**Work area**:Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programme

**Responsible to**:Queen Elizabeth Hospital,**Team Leader

**Location**:The post will be based in an A&E department within Queen Elizabeth Hospital site in Woolwich with occasional travel to Redthread’s central offices in East London and other projects in the UK as required.

**Hours**:37.5 hours per week. The nature of Redthread’s work means that regular evening and weekend working is required. You will be required to work shifts to ensure that the