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Advocacy Focus Job Description Job Title: Area Advocacy Lead (North Lancashire) Covering the following areas: Lancaster/Morecambe/Preston/Ribble Valley Hours: 37 hours Salary: £19,817 - £21,734 Length of Contract: Permanent (continuation is subject to funding) Office Location: Leyland Reports To: Advocacy Manager/Chief Executive Main Purpose of Job: To take responsibility for a designated area to ensure advocacy demands are met and local data feeds into local/national forums to shape priorities relating to strategies/developments in advocacy, client specific groups, health and social care. Duties and Responsibilities 1. To take a lead in a specified area for service development and delivery. 2. In conjunction with the Advocacy Manager/Senior Advocate to develop area plans for all aspects of service delivery. 3. To collate and share data to feed into relevant forums including Health Watch to highlight changing needs of service users. 4. To support service users to collectively feed through the potential impact of new policies/changes to service provision that relate to health and social care. 5. To take responsibility for own area and liaise with other Area Leads to ensure equity of service across all areas. 6. To identify gaps in service delivery for future work and identify potential funding. 7. To identify potential partnership work to raise the profile of advocacy/tackle stigma and discrimination relating to client groups/mental health. 8. To deliver talks, presentations and workshops. 9. To develop and facilitate area mental health peer/self advocacy groups 10. To carry a client caseload to retain competency/current service user knowledge. 11. To recruit, screen, mentor and supervise volunteers to work with service users. 12. To supervise/mentor and assess student social workers on placement. 13. To support the delivery of advocacy and related training. 14. To be flexible to support work across all areas to meet service demands 15. To undertake duties in line with safeguarding and data protection principles. 16. To produce reports for the Advocacy Manager, Chief Executive, Board of Trustees, funding bodies and others as required. 17. To work as a member of the Advocacy Focus team and attend meetings and training as necessary. 18. To attend regular supervision/appraisal sessions with the Advocacy Manager/Chief Executive. 19. To represent Advocacy Focus at various meetings as required and to provide feedback to the team. 20. To be available to work occasionally in the evening and weekends as required. 21. To work within Advocacy Focus’s policies and procedures 22. To be responsible for identifying areas for personal development. 23. To undertake any other duties as commensurate with the grading of the post. Person Specification Essential Desirable Qualifications Experience Knowledge and Skills Experience of managing a caseload Experience of supporting people with mental health through services. Experience of working with a range of people including people with learning disabilities, carers, young people, people from ethnic minority communities and people with mental health issues. Excellent organisational skills. Excellent communication/outreach skills Ability to develop and maintain working partnerships/relationships with services in designated area. Ability to use effective marketing techniques to reach/engage hard to reach groups/individuals to raise the profile of the service. Ability to make presentations to large audiences/deliver talks/provide representation at conferences/forums. Ability to work flexibly. Ability to work as part of a team and act on own initiative. Experience of working as a volunteer or with volunteers. Ability to supervise students/volunteers. Understanding of the Mental Health Act/Mental Capacity Act/Human Rights/Safeguarding. A sound understanding of and commitment to advocacy and user empowerment. Ability to drive and have access to a vehicle. Understanding of the role of an advocate. Excellent communication skills Good level of skills in the use of Email, Internet, Word and Powerpoint. A high standard of written and verbal skills including the ability to write letters and reports. Excellent presentation skills An understanding of appropriate key personnel, locations, contact sources and A relevant qualification in advocacy or social work. Stage 1 Practice Assessor Qualification or willing to work towards. Trained to Independent Advocacy Qualification standards Level 3 (IMHA/Core modules) or willing to work towards this accreditation. Experience of working within the voluntary sector, paid or unpaid. Experience of project development, monitoring and evaluation. Experience of recruiting, training and supporting volunteers. Ability to speak a community language such as Urdu, Bengal or Punjabi Ability to sign General Attributes an ability to develop these. Knowledge of Health and Social Care Services. Innovative, creative, flexible, and enthusiastic approach Team player, able to ask for and give support to colleagues Commitment to valuing a diverse range of people and building on their strengths Commitment to equal opportunities Commitment to working with volunteers Commitment to providing high quality services, centred on the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups Commitment to the values, aims and objectives of Advocacy Focus Positive attitude to a hectic working environment where tasks and systems need to be developed and updated on a regular basis Confident in speaking up