Lead Practitioner

Post:        Lead Practitioner (Community Navigator)

Service:     Fife Support Service

Based:      Cowdenbeath and Surrounding Area

Hours:            Full Time

Salary:      £25,326 - £28,394

Contract:    Permanent

Getting the Right Support at the Right Time

Turning Point Scotland are working with Fife Council and other partners to achieve the following aim;

‘Ensure people in Cowdenbeath (and surrounding areas) at risk of or experiencing Homelessness, and people who need help to strengthen their housing stability get the right support, at the right time through a co-ordinated system response.’

We are developing an exciting approach of change. To co-ordinate the system, we have created a Whole System approach. The community navigators will be the people on the ground who will support us to work ‘upstream’ and provide the support identified to ensure people get the right support to address an issue they have, at the right time as early as possible.

The Whole System Approach and role will adapt as we learn what works best for the people that need support.

The role may require meetings across Fife and could evolve to providing a similar support in another area of Fife.

Standard working hours are 9am - 5pm Monday - Thursday, and 9am - 4.30pm Friday.

About the role

The role of Community Navigator will support early intervention and prevent a crisis.  Our Community Navigator role will include:

• Supporting people in relation to housing, wellbeing and their wider social circumstances.
• Lead on setting up community drop in’s in Cowdenbeath and surrounding area, building relationships and connecting to established community hubs.
• Working with individuals to provide them with easy access to advice or low-level support. This may be one contact or several over a few weeks to help resolve an issue.
• Supporting people with more complex needs to access support within wider services in Fife, ensuring that we do not let go of someone until we are assured that another support service has taken on the Lead Professional role for the person.
• Supporting people to act in their own lives as well as directly providing support with a variety of issues including, accessing employability services, access and engage with mental health services, register with a doctor or mental health/alcohol or other drug services, linking in with welfare services, help registering child at school, etc.
• Building knowledge of local resources and developing a network of working relationships with local providers / services.
• Supporting the implementation of the steering group’s WSA Action plan and feeding in to the steering group to highlight what works well land not so well so that the WSA can learn and change the system. This will include being involved in Task and Finish groups as required, ensuring lived and living experience is heard and valued in the process.

About You

We are looking for someone who is;

• Flexible to adapt their role to meet the needs of the test of change
• Curious by nature to understand why there are barriers to someone being supported and take action to address why these work or doesn’t work for the people we support
• Self-Motivated and has a ‘can do’ attitude to support people
• Kind, Calm and Compassionate when listening and responding to people.

A level of previous working experience in a community based or social care role is an advantage, but not necessary as full training will be provided to you. 

We believe the both lived and professional experience you may have is further enhanced by having the right values of respect, compassion, inclusion and integrity in order to join our team! 

About Us – Fife Support Service

The Fife Support Service operates a Whole System Approach team, where these posts will work, in addition to a Housing First Team. This is the start of an exciting journey as we develop the WSA.

We believe that we are not going to end Homelessness by focussing on service delivery alone. Ending, preventing, or responding effectively to homelessness demands input from housing but also from across the public service system – no one service, or approach is going to have all the answers. These inputs need to be coordinated and integrated, underpinned by effective communication and information sharing arrangements and overseen by a strategic structure that brings agencies together around a shared goal. We believe that whatever door someone opens, this is the right door (No Wrong Door Approach) and when this door is opened, they are met with a co-ordinated multi agency response.

Please note that IT skills are required for all our vacancies.

Where applicable, successful candidates will be required to register with the SSSC within 6 months of start date.

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