Work and Health Employment Coach, Worcester City

This is an exciting opportunity to work in a brand new role within Worcester City PCN. The role will give you a unique chance to work as a member of the Worcester City PCN team, whilst also building links with a range of other local services and be part of a county wide Work and Health coach network. We will particularly welcome applicants with lived experience and those with strong connections to Worcester City.

Workwell is a prevention and early intervention service to support people to overcome health conditions that affect their ability to start, stay and succeed in work. The post holder will be one of about 15 coaches that works in Primary Care, either in a PCN or a GP Federation. They will conduct assessments to identify the key health barriers to employment and provide health and employment advice to overcome those barriers. They will manage a caseload of people whose barriers to employment may be because of physical health, mental health and/or social situations. Using the WorkWell pathway work plan, the post holder will provide 1:1 coaching and prescribe either multi-disciplinary in-house support or signpost and refer to external services.

The post holder will facilitate access to the service quickly to the following groups of individuals:

- People who are currently working but struggling to remain active in their role because of their health condition. They may be experiencing periodic episodes of sickness which they or their employer feels is getting worse.
- People who are employed but currently off sick and would benefit from support to return to work.
- People who have recently fallen out of employment and are looking to return to the workplace in a different role as soon as possible.

Post holders will not be required to work with people who have experienced long-term economic inactivity, there are other services available for these people.

**Job Context**

This is a WorkWell employment support project for eligible adults in Herefordshire and Worcestershire delivered via the Vale of Evesham Primary Care Network.

Broad scope of service:

- Participant’s home address OR address of their GP/local Jobcentre Plus must fall within Herefordshire or Worcestershire.
- Participants must be over 16.
- Participants must have the right to work in the UK.
- Participants have a health-related barrier to work.

The service will assist participants to progress their journey towards employment who are experiencing barriers into employment, support participants to remain in work who are on long term sick leave or struggling in the workplace due to a health condition.

The service will use a coaching based approach and use light-touch holistic therapy or triage to provide early-intervention work and a health assessment service. The service will provide advice and training to potential employers on reasonable adjustments and retention of employees where necessary. This service will reduce health inequalities as employment is evidenced as a way of maintaining good health and well-being.

Flexibility and adaptability are required due to the unpredictability of the environment and resource availability under which work will need to be carried out.

Staff will work to Vertis Health’s lone worker policy and ensure that they have a mobile phone in working order so that communications can be achieved at all times.

**Key Working Relationships**

a) **Internal**: Patients, Carers, GPs and Primary Care Teams, Community Care, HR, Clinical Governance, Safeguarding.

b) **External**: Local Authorities, Department of Work and Pensions / Job Centre Plus, employment support providers from statutory, voluntary and independent sector, employers, Council for Voluntary Services (CVS), voluntary sector partners, and other WorkWell partner organisations.

**Key Duties and Responsibilities**

The core purpose of the role is to support participants to Start, Stay and Succeed in work. The post holder will be expected to work flexibly, using their judgement, training and professional experience to achieve this goal. This may include the following non-exhaustive list of activities:
1. Receive and process referrals directly from Primary Care colleagues with the PCN the post holder is based in

2. Receive referrals from Job Centre Plus and Employers

3. Validate participant’s eligibility prior to offering support.

4. Manage a caseload of participants who have common mental, physical and social health problems or long-term conditions.

5. Carry out assessments to identify barriers and develop action plans in agreement with the individual to overcome those barriers

6. Provide coaching and other light-touch holistic support on a 1:1 basis to support the delivery of the participants plan,

7. Onward referral to other services where additional support beyond the 1:1 support is required. This may include a wide range of health and employment related support as needed to address the participant’s needs.

8. Work with external organi