Homeless Pathway Officer

Location:

This role will predominately be based in Birmingham at the house in B45, however you may on occasions need to travel to Birmingham city centre area

**Please only apply if you have experience within Mental Health or Learning Disabilities **

Since November 2021 Birmingham has had a Homeless Pathway Team working across the Acute
hospitals within Birmingham to identify those Birmingham citizens who are homeless.

This model
provides support to those individuals as early as possible or to avoid admission and can include support
to find accommodation, register as homeless or to access Birmingham Home Choice.

Over the last 18 months, there has been a steady increase in the number of citizens presenting as homeless who have mental health and/or learning disabilities. This has meant that when they are presenting homeless on the day or becoming ready for discharge there has been a lack of suitable accommodation to meet their needs. This is even more evident in the out-of-hours cases where citizens are not able to access suitable temporary provision.

In summary, this pilot proposes to offer a 24/7 Homeless Pathway Model for those citizens who are some of our most vulnerable. This will include supporting an assessment house/safe space, providing a safe and calming environment for citizens at their time of crisis. This will allow suitably trained staff to
complete assessments and for robust processes to be developed so that the citizen can move on in a coordinated and holistic way.
Role Purpose

When citizens experience crisis including homelessness its essential that they can receive support and assessments to determine the most appropriate pathway for them. This doesn’t mean that they need to be detained or in an inpatient facility for this to happen. The purpose of the Homeless Pathway Officer will be to:

• To provide a dedicated point of contact for organisations to contact to discuss citizens who have mental health and/or learning disabilities and their homelessness
• To create robust pathways and links with relevant partner organisations to enable swift referrals to support citizens
• To work alongside the Advanced Mental Health Practitioners (AMHP) to assess and risk assess citizens for access to the accommodation, including potential move on arrangements
• To provide a welcoming environment for citizens who are accessing the accommodation
• To make a key contribution to ensuring that the service delivers against the core project performance indicators
• To be aware of the statutory guidelines and frameworks, and their application in service delivery
• To develop a robust plan on how to engage and upskill staff from Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust on the process and pathway for citizens who are homeless including early identification
• To promote with landlords the benefit of renting to citizens and explain the support available to encourage more take up of renting where appropriate
• To work alongside the Birmingham Housing Solutions and Support to ensure that citizens are given access to appropriate support at the right time including Homeless Applications

Overall, we are looking for people who have a genuine desire to empower individuals to make positive changes and will be committed to our recovery ethos. If you understand the needs and support requirements of people with mental health and other associated needs.

You will have goodcommunication skills with an ability to establish an effective
working relationship with citizens and stakeholders. If you are willing to learn we will provide you with support and supervision to build the necessary skills and abilities to carry out comprehensive and individualised assessment and action planning and increase your knowledge and understanding of the statutory service provision.

Key Responsibilities

• To maintain an integrated approach to the collection and use of qualitative and quantitative intelligence, including business information and the views of citizens, to improve the quality of the service.
• To work in partnership with other members of the Homeless Pathway Team
• To ensure that citizens are demonstrably and successfully involved in developing the service going forward.
• To undertake joint work with Adult Social Care, Birmingham Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust to deliver the service priorities.
• To successfully engage with a range of stakeholders in a range of settings to communicate service activity.
• To maintain personal and professional development in order to meet the change needs of citizens and the role.

Hours of work
The role is for 40 hours per week, there is a requirement for staff to cover weekends and evenings on a
rota basis, to enable the service to be delivered 24 hours 7 days per week.
Location:
This role will predominately be based in Birmingham, B45, however the post holder may also need to be in the Birmingham City centre area at times

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: £25,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Free parking
• Referral programme

Schedule:

• 12 hour shift
• Day shift

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Birmingham: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Experience:

• Mental Health or Learning Difficulties: 1 year (required)

Licence/Certification:

• Drivers License (preferred)

Work Location: In person