Community Engagement and Involvement Lead
Job Description
Job summary
We are seeking a dedicated and self-motivated Community Engagement and Involvement Lead to support the newly formed Engagement and Involvement Department.
A successful candidate will be a motivated and compassionate individual with a strong desire to elevate the voices of our service users and carers in co-creation activities. You will play a key role in ensuring that the views of services users and carers are influential in service development and improvement.
You will be responsible for managing our growing Improvement Community that is made up of service users, carers, staff, members of the voluntary and charity sector, and the general public, all of whom have a desire to support the organisation to drive positive change.
You will also be responsible for managing our Involvement volunteer workforce to support them to be meaningfully involved in co-creation projects.
Main duties of the job
- Establish and manage our relationships and engagement with community partners to support the trust's ambitions for involvement, engagement and co-creation.
- To work collaboratively across departments, services, and teams to implement the service's new co-creation framework policy, to deliver training, and to implement other involvement and engagement activities and projects.
- To have an appreciation of the challenges facing people and families in accessing mental health services, and act on complex and sensitive information and experiences to drive improvements to what we do.
- Have an appreciation of the social factors of mental ill health and the compounding effects of health inequalities i.e. social exclusion from mainstream activities, discrimination, stigma etc which contribute to extraordinary physical ill health
About us
Come and work with us in the Garden of England where we combine exceptional professional development opportunities with a tremendous quality of life.
We are Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), providing mental health, learning disability and specialist services, serving 1.8 million people in Kent and Medway, as well as specialist services for adults in Sussex and Surrey. We are rated Good overall by the CQC.
Each year we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 people in the community.
We are proud to employ over 3,800 people from 66 nationalities, and to serve an increasingly diverse range of communities across rural and urban areas.
You will be joining friendly, passionate colleagues, rich in their diversity, who are committed to providing excellent care to our service users and their loved ones.
The nature of our work attracts kindness and compassion as standard and everyone from our cleaners and porters to the chief executive and chairman are recognised as playing a vital role in providing an exemplary service.
Our strategy
Our mission is what we set out to do every dayWe deliver brilliant care through brilliant people
Our vision is where we want to be in the futureTo provide outstanding care and to work in partnership to deliver this in the right place, for every service user, every time.
Here are some clips of our KMPT staff, speaking about their role and why they enjoy working for us.Working at KMPT (youtube.com)
Job responsibilities
- To build, manage and maintain our relationships with community partners and our community improvement pool. Work with a broad range of organisations to identify potential community partnerships that will enable the communities they serve to have a voice in improving the quality of our services now and in the future.
- To have overall responsibility for managing, growing and promoting the Improvement Community to grow a diverse membership that is representative of the communities of Kent and Medway
- To line manage the involvement and engagement assistant and provide mentorship, coaching and informal line management to our volunteers to ensure that their skills and knowledge are appropriately utilised to meet the service objectives.
- To develop and deliver a package of co-creation training to staff and patients, so that everyone feels confident and able to meaningfully involve patients in driving improvements to the quality of our services.
Please refer to the attached job description for full details and main responsibilities of the role.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent specialist experience.
- Evidence of Leadership and Project Management
- Evidence of personal professional development through theoretical or practical experience in involvement and engagement.
Desirable
- Qualifications in delivering training.
- Knowledge of Equality & Diversity
Knowledge
Essential
- Specialist knowledge of how to support and engage people from a diverse range of backgrounds and with complex and distressing experiences.
- Sound knowledge about service user and carer involvement, coproduction, cocreation and the challenges and opportunities of embedding this approach.
Desirable
- Knowledge of legislation and guidance governing Patient and Public Involvement
Experience
Essential
- Extensive experience of working in a mental health or learning disabilities field
- Experience of cocreation and supporting change involving service users and carers
- Working with voluntary or charity sector and building relationships with key stakeholders
Desirable
- Lived experience of mental illness and or accessing services
- Experience of working with a range of mental health services
Skills
Essential
- Excellent written and verbal communication, interpersonal and presentation skills, with the ability to engage and build trust with a wide range of audiences
- IT skills particularly in the use of Microsoft Office applications with skills in preparing and delivering presentations and reports
Desirable
- Ability to demonstrate facilitative and negotiating skills
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name
Kent & Medway NHS & Social Care Partnership Trust
Address
Priority House
Hermitage Lane
Maidstone
ME16 9PH
