Team Leader – Harrow

Person Specification

If you are called to an interview, you will be assessed against the following competencies, which Certitude considers essential for Team Leaders. During the competency based interview we will ask you to give us examples of where you have demonstrated these competencies in the past.

Behavioural Competency Framework
Be enabling, inclusive and respectful of all people
  • Actively seek ways to learn about the needs, wishes and aspirations of all people you have contact with.
  • Consulting and involving people we support and work with, both internally (such as managers and the Leadership Team) and externally (such as carers, family and health professionals), at every opportunity.
  • Enable people we support and work with to have new opportunities and experiences, make mistakes and manage risk.

Be able to communicate in an effective and adaptive way
  • Identify and use people’s preferred communication style and change this when required.
  • Being patient and using active listening skills when communicating.
  • An ability to communicate with a variety of people.
  • Challenging poor communication practice with constructive feedback.

Be creative, innovative and practical in your planning and decision making
  • Using creativity when problem solving.
  • Co-ordinating the most effective use of resources and tools available.
  • Prioritising tasks and planning tasks effectively.

Be flexible and proactive in your approach to work
  • Identifying areas for improvement and taking steps to make it happen.
  • Being responsive and flexible to unexpected circumstances and adapting appropriately.
  • Seeking out the experience, knowledge and ideas of others.

Be able to develop yourself and others
  • Consistently listening / sharing ideas and learning from others to develop professionally.
  • Questioning own and others’ current working practice and learning from past experiences.
  • Identifying and participating in training, learning and development opportunities.

Be able to work with others
  • Identifying and valuing differences within a team and working with the strengths of others.
  • Challenging unacceptable behaviour at all levels.
  • Sharing information and ideas with others.

Technical Competency Framework
Mandatory
  • Intermediate IT literacy
  • NVQ Level 3 (or similar or equivalent qualification) in Health and Social Care
  • Minimum of 12 months experience of working with people with learning disabilities / mental health needs

Job Description

Title: Team Leader– Harrow

Reports to:House Manager

Hours of Work: 36 hours per week including week ends and evenings. You will also be expected to perform some sleep-in duties.

Overall purpose of the job

To support the House Manager to deliver recovery focused and person centred support to people with a history of mental health support need.
To provide line management and supervision of staff, promoting the continuous development of professional standards, compliance with organisational policies and procedure and the provision of quality service and good practice.
To proactively respond to the changing needs of service users who have a combination of complex needs or dual diagnosis by developing and sustaining links with community based agencies providing substance misuse advice and support.
To provide support around vocational training and social inclusion activities by establishing links and pathways with a diverse range of service providers to broaden the choice of recovery opportunities for our service users.

Duties and Responsibilities

Service User Support

  • Commitment to delivering person-centred services including assessment, person centred planning, key working and individualised support.
  • Work as part of the service leadership / management team which will involve leading a team, on a rota basis, to provide support to meet service user needs which promotes independence, choice and inclusion in the community in which they live.
  • Support service users, staff, relatives, advocates, professionals and anyone the service user wishes/needs to have in their lives to understand, agree, implement and review support and/or care plans.
  • Carry out key working duties and responsibilities; keeping the service user at the centre of all such activities.
  • Support the manager and staff to lead on effective person centred approaches in delivering a high quality service.

Record keeping and Administration

  • Ensure that all health and safety records are accurate and up-to-date.
  • Prepare and maintain records in accordance with organisational procedures and standards. This will include procedures and records in the areas of operations, finance and human resources. Following induction, to be proactive in ensuring a continued understanding of all relevant procedures.
  • Responsible for petty cash and other monies whilst on duty, ensuring clear records are maintained in accordance with financial procedures.
  • Arrange, take part and produce reports for reviews/case conferences, ensuring these are developed in consideration for each audience. E.g. service users’ and carers.
  • Awareness of required administrative duties and share these with the manager of the service; this will include undertaking delegated tasks by the manager.

Management and Liaison

  • Act as a co-ordinator of staff in day to day support - including effective planning and delegation of duties to maximise use of available staff.
  • Assist in the preparation of rotas in accordance with a needs-led service.
  • Assist the manager in the management of the service.
  • Operate as a key worker for a number of service users and to identify and support staff to carry out key working activities.
  • Take part in the referral and assessment procedures for prospective new service users, to assist in their placement, support planning and reviews and to plan and prepare them for independent living/move on.
  • Develop and maintain good working relationships with carers, professionals and any other relevant external agencies such as CQC.
  • Represent Certitude at meetings and external forums and to be responsible for informing and feeding back relevant information to the manager, the team or the organisation as necessary.
  • Maintain links with the local community and its resources to encourage and assist service user awareness and to assist with integration with the wider community.
  • Lead a shift and model good practice.

Health and Safety

  • Undertake and act upon regular Health and Safety checks in the service, ensuring all necessary repairs and improvements are reported and carried out promptly.
  • Assist in the development of risk assessments and the implementation of risk management action plans to minimise risks in all areas of service.

General

  • Attend regular team meetings, 1:1 meetings and other internal and external meetings as required.
  • Undertake any other duties commensurate with the nature and grade of the post as instructed by senior staff.
  • Take a proactive role in promoting positive team working.
  • Take part in Induction and further training opportunities as required by Certitude Partnership.
  • Ensure the approach to and the carrying out all duties is carried out in accordance with Equality and Diversity policies and standards.
  • To work with service users to ensure that housing benefit claims are kept up - to –date and that personal rents and service charges are collected from service users and appropriate records kept.

There may be other duties and responsibilities not laid down in this job description that the Specialist team leader may be expected to carry out.

Post-holders will be consulted prior to any changes being made to this job description.

Updated February 2009