Please note: although this role is hybrid/ home based, you will be required to travel around Aylesbury and High Wycombe on a daily basis.

Barnardo's is delighted to be working with Buckinghamshire Council to develop an innovative, culturally competent and culturally safe service to improve health outcomes for local women.

The role of the Women's Community Health Worker is to help improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of a targeted group of women, living within identified areas of Aylesbury and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire before, during and after their pregnancies. You will provide a range of targeted one-to-one, group and community-based activities offering health advice and guidance as well as support to access other services as appropriate. The Women's Community Health Workers will provide:

Support: Provide women with opportunities to identify areas for support and cocreate a plan together of how you will achieve these.
Education: Provide evidence based information to women in both one to one and group settings, enabling them to make evidence informed decisions about their health and care (training will be provided).
Navigation of the system: working collaboratively with partners to support their engagement of women and actively remove any barriers.
Gathering and sharing knowledge:Bring together local information pertaining to women's experiences, to help shape the service and bring about wider system change, ensuring all women have access to equitable services.

Women's Community Health Workers will also serve as “buddies” for peer support volunteers who will support the work of the service.

Who we are looking for

Whilst we strongly encourage applications from local ethnically minoritised individuals, we will prioritise those who bring a complementary skillset and experience to the role; as well as those that can strongly demonstrate the values of cultural humility in the following ways:

Self-reflection:Being aware of how your own world view/ use of language/ behaviours/ practices can positively and negatively contribute to people's ability to achieve
A commitment to ongoing learning/curiosity:Knowing that as an individual, you cannot know everything about someone's/ a group's lived experience and continuously seek to learn new things with an open mind, from a range of sources- including from communities themselves.
Compassion/empathy:The ability to decentre your own feelings and understand and share the feelings of others.
Awareness of negative power relations:Having an understanding of dynamics within society which can negatively impact others. This includes issues relating to: race, social class, gender, disability and sexuality.

There is a strong emphasis on supporting maternal and infant outcomes within this service, so experience working with mothers and babies/ young children would be advantageous but not essential.

In addition to the above, the Women's Community Health Workers will need:

To be approachable and friendly
To be adaptable
To use initiative and be able to work alone or as part of the team
Courage and confidence to challenge ways of working both within the service/ organisation and partners (with support)
Have the ability to work across Aylesbury and High Wycombe in a variety of settings including health and community venues

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting ...

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