Health and social care are never far from the news and have an impact on all of us. Joining Healthwatch Central West London will give you the opportunity to work as part of a skilled and knowledgeable team working to make the voices of patients and service users heard.

Healthwatch uses evidence from local communities to shape or challenge how the provision of health and social care is planned and delivered across the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the City of Westminster, and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is a busy time in these boroughs, but there are opportunities to make a difference.

About us

• Healthwatch Central West London is an independent charity and membership organisation working to ensure local people’s voices count when it comes to shaping and improving local health and care services.
• We work with and support people and organisations in the London boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.
• We also provide information to help people access and make choices about their health and wellbeing services.
• Our work is coordinated by three borough-based groups with support from a small staff team who are passionate and dedicated to their work.
• We are funded by the three local authorities in the three boroughs with a seat at the table of the local Overview and Scrutiny Committees and Health and Wellbeing Boards.

We are looking to recruit 2 Engagement Leads who will work in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster.

As Engagement Lead you will be a named contact for our Local Committee and other stakeholders in one of the boroughs but will work closely with the other Engagement Lead across both boroughs to offer a joined-up approach to bi-borough commissioning and service provision.

We are looking for strategic thinkers who are comfortable taking the role of ‘critical friend’ and developing positive solutions, enjoy public engagement, and have a positive and can-do attitude. The ideal candidates will have experience in the health and social care sector.

We are looking to appoint as soon as possible.

We offer generous annual leave, flexible working hours and the possibility of working from home some days of the week.

To apply for this role, please submit a CV and a covering letter.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday 24th April 2019.

Interviews are provisionally scheduled for the week commencing the 29th April 2019.

Please note that this role requires a DBS check.

ENGAGEMENT LEAD

Salary: £28,000 to 32,000

Hours: up to full time – flexible and part time working considered

Reporting to: Programme Manager

Staff reporting: none currently

Overall purpose:

• Using a range of outreach techniques, build and maintain relationships with the local community, people using services and relevant organisations
• Feedback the work of Healthwatch Central West London and the views of local people to health and care service providers
• Take a lead role in specified areas of activity around local health and care
• Encourage opportunities for local people to consult and engage on local changes to health and care services

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Work as a member of a small team responsible for delivery of Healthwatch projects and programmes on a local level as agreed with the Board, CEO and Programme Manager
2. Working with the Programme Manager, other Engagement Leads and other team members, identify and engage with prospective Healthwatch participants, communicating aims and benefits of becoming actively involved
3. On a local level, develop and maintain positive working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including for example, patients, health and social care providers and commissioners and voluntary organisations
4. Write public reports on Healthwatch CWL projects and provide recommendations to the people responsible for commissioning, providing, managing and inspecting services, to enable service improvement and achieve outcomes.
5. Keep up to date will changes to health and care services and communicate these changes to the local community
6. Coordinate the development of a range of creative and effective mechanisms for community engagement to help people influence their local health and social care services
7. Support Healthwatch representatives on key strategic and decision-making groups and committees
8. As appropriate, support the presentation of analysis of evidence based community concerns and priorities for key decision-makers including providers, commissioners, the Health and Well-being Board, the Care Quality Commission and Scrutiny Committees
9. Provide support to and where appropriate lead in training and activity/capacity building programmes for a wide range of audiences
10. With other team members, and as agreed with the Board, CEO and Programme Manager, ensure that Healthwatch is viewed as a credible voice in the health and social care landscape, for example with local authority officers, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Health & Wellbeing Boards and local scrutiny committees.
11. Support volunteers and local committee members to carry out tasks
12. Facilitate local community members’ ability to influence change within a capacity building context
13. Take part in supervision, and take up opportunities to learn within the team, organisation and externally
14. Since job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties which are broadly in line with above key responsibilities.
15. The post-holder is expected to observe and comply with all HWCWL policies and regulations, for example the Code of Conduct, Health and Safety, Data Protection, and Equality and Diversity.

Person specification:

• Experience of managing day to day engagement and involvement of service users
• Experience of engaging with stakeholders at all levels internally and externally
• Experience of working with and engaging volunteers
• Degree level qualification or equivalent experience
• Excellent verbal communication skills, good presentation, report writing skills. Social media skills would be desirable.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work with a diverse range of people
• Willing to support a wide variety of meetings
• Experience of working to tight deadlines
• Willing and able to work evenings, weekend as required
• Strong numeracy and literacy skills
• Proficient in the use databases and Microsoft office applications
• Knowledge of health and or social care systems would be desirable
• Demonstrate an understanding and commitment to the values of Healthwatch Central West London

Healthwatch Central West London Values:

1. Independent - a freestanding body respected for our independence and trusted by residents and stakeholders alike.
2. User focused - relentlessly championing our voice, the voice of the user and would be user, in the health and social care system. We will work ‘with’ people, no do ‘to’ people. We will uphold the Healthwatch vision in championing the rights of the consumer.
3. Inclusive – find ways to work our diverse population with significant health inequalities and spanning three local authority areas.
4. Well connected - signpost people to information to help them make choices about health and social care; with access to established networks to gather comprehensive patient views.
5. Add value - understand where we add value and we will not try to recreate or duplicate the work of others if what they are doing is successful. We will work in partnership where this is beneficial.
6. Evidence based - use evidence to underpin our priorities and target our efforts.