Link Homelessness Service
If you are an experienced Mental Health Practitioner who is passionate about improving services for adults who experience street homelessness and severe emotional distress, and who may have multiple and complex needs, this could be the next exciting opportunity for you.

THE LINK TEAM:

• improves engagement for clients, creating a bridge between individuals and the wide range of expertise across the system.
• provides person-centred, trauma-informed care throughout the client journey, including transitions to other services and relationship/service endings.
• builds trust with clients through a strong relational approach.
• takes support to the client, wherever they are.
• employs an assertive engagement approach where needed (being flexible, persistent, creative, relentlessly optimistic).
• adopts a holistic and joined-up approach to support, ensuring that areas of disadvantage are not seen in isolation but as intersecting and treated as such.
  This role provides an exciting opportunity to further develop the service and partnership working between Link Team and AWP services using your own ideas and experience, alongside colleagues, building on the learning from Golden Key (through their work with people experiencing multiple disadvantages), My Team Around Me (MTAM) model, and other evidence-based practice.
  This role is focused on providing appropriate, effective interventions and treatments to people with severe and enduring mental health needs, and their carers (including friends and relatives) and their supporters in the community.
  The role will require you to assist service users with meeting their daily health, social care and wellbeing needs, in line with personal recovery goals, and facilitating engagement with mainstream services.
  The post holder will also provide clinical leadership and supervision to team members.
  Always under the overarching framework of Your Team, Your Conversation, Your Plan, the post holder will be responsible for the ongoing assessment, planning delivery and review of activities and interventions against identified health, social care and wellbeing needs, acting as care coordinator for a defined group of service users.
  You will be required to undertake tasks such as delivering specific health or social care assessments and interventions, according to care clusters,
  including identified service users on other caseloads. This maybe either on a one to one basis, or as part of a group activity.
  We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.
  We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.
  Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.
  At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
  The successful candidate will be employed into Bristol’s Community Mental Health Teams and will be seconded to work into the Link Team.
  The Link Team was established as a new service in 2021, funded for 3 years through NHS England’s Rough Sleeping Mental Health Transformation budget. The contract has been extended until March 2026. The service works with individuals across Bristol who are street homeless, or at imminent risk of homelessness; and who experience severe emotional distress associated with a mental health problem (with or without a formal diagnosis). The team works with people who experience multiple disadvantage, are often furthest from services, and face barriers to accessing and engaging with support.
  The Link Team is a multi-agency partnership between statutory and voluntary agencies in Bristol (Second Step, St Mungos, Bristol Drugs Project, AWP and Bristol City Council). The team operates a multi-disciplinary model including engagement workers, a worker with lived experience, a mental health practitioner, a social worker, a psychologist and a manager.
  Lived experience and meaningful coproduction is at the heart of Link Team’s approach and values. Link has worked closely with Independent Futures (IF) throughout the duration of service bringing lived experience and expertise to the design, delivery and review of the service.
  If you are excited by the scope of this role and the potential opportunities it brings, and you meet the application criteria (see Job Description), we look forward to receiving your application.
  This post is open to newly qualified social workers. In line with AWP trust policy all newly qualified social workers (NQSW) will be recruited initially at Band 5 level, regardless of advertised role banding. All NQSW’s are expected to successfully complete their ASYE within 2 years of employment, unless there are exceptional circumstances in which case it may be extended for a further 2 years.
  If you have been appointed to an advertised Band 6 role this will be an automatic progression, following confirmation of your successful ASYE completion. If you have been appointed to a Band 5 post you will then be eligible to apply for a subsequent Band 6 vacancy upon successful ASYE completion.
  Please see attached job description and person specification for full details

Please refer the Job description for details