Advocacy Worker

This Advocacy Worker post will contribute effectively to the You First Advocacy Service, which provides independent issue-based Advocacy support to vulnerable individuals in the community and in hospitals, who require assistance to represent themselves.

The Advocacy Worker post holder will be required to clearly show an understanding of the concept of Advocacy and associated issues, with both experience of working within an Advocacy Service and being able to demonstrate excellent Advocacy practitioner knowledge and skills being desirable. It is essential that you have knowledge and experience of Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and other generic service user groups.

The post will require:

• An awareness of individual rights/Human Rights Based Practice, objectivity and empathy.
• A mature ability to challenge individuals/organisations on behalf of the service user, without recourse to confrontation.

This is a fulfilling and challenging post, for a person who supports social justice, the rights of vulnerable individuals and for someone who wants to make a positive impact in people’s lives. A knowledge of Advocacy is also essential. You should have excellent interpersonal skills and be self-motivated.

Key Duties:

1. To provide Independent Advocacy in accordance with nationally recognised Advocacy principles, standards, codes of best practice and organisational guidance for service users in a variety of settings.

2. To enable service users to express themselves through the use of the You First Advocacy Service and empower them to build on their strengths, promoting self-advocacy as appropriate.

3. To act on behalf of service users to promote their wishes.

4. To professionally liaise with Health and Social Care services and other agencies.

5. To professionally record all relevant details relating to specific areas of work.

6. To prepare written information for presentation for and on behalf of service users.

7. To promote and enhance a positive awareness of Advocacy in the community and in hospitals.

8. To promote and enhance positive awareness of Advocacy among statutory and voluntary agencies.

9. To be aware of the need for, and to maintain, objectivity when supporting service users.

10. To enable service users to access the service with minimal difficulty and actively remove barriers to access.

11. To effectively work independently, while undertaking administration/financial and overall workload, in a manner which allows maximum time to work with service users.

12. To participate in and contribute to, training, one to one supervision and Service team meetings.

13. To undertake other duties as directed by the Service Manager.

What’s on offer?

Post: Temporary contract (until June 27th 2025)

Location: Renfrewshire

Responsible to: Service Manager

Hours: 15 hours per week as the Service demands, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm

Salary: £23,400 per annum pro-rata

Pension: 6% of basic salary

Person Specification/Job Description and Application available on request.

This post is subject to a PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) check