Service: North East Edinburgh Recovery Service in Partnership with Places for People Scotland

Based: Edinburgh - Based at the Leith Hub and required to perform outreach across the city

Hours: Full-Time

Salary: £22,649 - £25,394 (£11.77 - £13.20 per hour)

Contract: Fixed Term (March 2023)

Could you help us save lives?

Do you have a passion for helping vulnerable people enjoy as much fulfilment as they can and feel included in their community? If compassion, care and inclusiveness are an important part of who you are, our opportunities to work away from the routine in a demanding, challenging but emotionally rewarding role could be for you.

Our Turning Point Scotland Services in Edinburgh are looking for people like you to help provide individualised support to adults with a wide range of needs, either on an individual 1:1 basis or alongside others and as part of a team.

As an Assertive Outreach worker, you will be offering harm reduction advice and interventions to some of the most vulnerable and high-risk drug users. These individuals may have had multiple non-fatal overdoses and won’t be engaged with support services. The worker may need to be creative in ways of engaging people, including home visits (alongside another worker) and offering support in the community. A driving licence and access to a car would be advantageous but not essential.

Support offered includes blood borne virus testing, facilitating naloxone training and distribution, general harm reduction advice, referral for medication assisted treatment, accompanying to treatment appointment and injecting equipment provision.

You will continue to support service users until they are able to engage in more structured support within the hub, and will work closely with NHS colleagues, Police Scotland, City of Edinburgh Council and other TPS staff to identify these very vulnerable individuals with the ultimate goal of reducing drug related deaths.

Training will be given in BBV testing, administering Naloxone, and injecting equipment provision.

Places for People Scotland

The North East of Edinburgh contains some of the highest levels of poverty in Scotland. As community organisations we have a responsibility to improve the lives and futures of our local communities, particularly our most vulnerable.

This new post is be part of an exciting new partnership funded by Places for People Scotland and Edinburgh Drug and Alcohol Partnership to pilot a Social Housing Assertive Outreach programme to engage those tenants at risk in of drug related harm and death in the social housing setting.

Places for People Scotland have their HQ in Craigmillar, and they own and manage 1200 properties in North East Edinburgh. Formed from three organisations with decades of housing experience between them, they are a modern, progressive, not-for-profit organisation.

The lead practitioner’s primary focus will be to provide assertive outreach to those identified at risk of drug related harm. This will require lone working and assertive follow up visits and intensive support to people who use drugs in their homes or an alternative safe place of their choosing. All referrals for this assertive outreach post will be triaged through now established NE Multi-Agency Vulnerable Adult Group to determine the best intervention / support / treatment options.

We are seeking individuals who are passionate about and have a good knowledge of harm reduction approaches and ideally a track record of effective community engagement and knowledge of national standards for community engagement.

http://www.scdc.org.uk/what/national-standards/

Applicants with a background in delivery of Assertive Outreach models in Alcohol or Other drugs harm reduction, Housing First ,Street outreach, Housing support and or lived experience would be advantageous

Please note this is a fixed term post which is up for review in March 2023, there will be considerations for renewal.

North East Edinburgh Recovery Hub

The North East Recovery Hub is a one-stop shop which offers a full range of drug and alcohol treatment and support services. We are a multi - disciplinary team comprising of Voluntary Sector TPS, NHS and social work staff. We are based with our main office in Leith, and a satellite location in Craigmillar.

We understand that everybody’s experience is different. When people come to the Hub, we personalise their care to achieve their goals.

The support we provide is always person centred, we do this by involving people who know the person well, this includes family and friends, other health and Social Work professionals, Advocacy services and our own staff members.

You will be expected to keep accurate records about what you do, so attention to detail and a good grasp of IT are crucial.

We believe having the right values of respect, compassion, inclusion and integrity is all you need to join our team! We would offer you full support in completing your application.

Full details of this role can be viewed on the attached Job Role Profile. Click here

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.

• Comprehensive Induction
• 123 Learning and development courses
• 29 eLearning courses
• Funded qualification – SVQ Social Services and Healthcare, work based assessment
  
• Your Career Pathway, we promote from within and advertise internally all jobs
• Pension Scheme, employer contribution 4%
• Wide range of family friendly policies
• 35 holiday/public holidays days' per year.