Talent for Care - pre employment opportunities

The aim of the pre-employment programme is to prepare people who are looking for a career change or looking to enhance their job opportunities through meaningful work experience. As an organisation we have the opportunity to help people reach these goals by:

• Supporting them to develop the skills valued by employers
• Enabling them to demonstrate their value in the workplace
• Developing confidence in their own abilities to perform successfully at work

The ideal, but not required outcome from this programme will be the offer of a paid job from an employer, other outcomes include:

• Building up experience from a CV, demonstrating that the person has the skills and willingness to work
• Changing the perception of employers about employing people who may have not been in work for a given period of time or maybe they have never had a job
• Changing the perception of long term unemployed people  
• Improving interpersonal, work related and social skills  

• An additional resource for your department who may bring additional skills to the team;
• Remove barriers to work that  people face
• Raise awareness amongst staff of our corporate & social responsibilities
• Supporting  people to have opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their employment aspirations
• Create a workforce that reflects the diverse range of customers it serves and the community in which it is based

Each of the placements when agreed will need to have a member of staff assigned to the individual on placement; they will act as a placement supervisor in the work place for the amount of time that the individual is with the organisation. This supervision will act as a line manager for the trainee giving them someone who can walk them through the basics of their role and help them to progress and enhance their skills while they are on placement with NWBH. 

Typically this is between 18- 40 (All parties involved with the work placement programme are aware of the age restrictions on mental health placements of 18+)

This can be from 4 -12 weeks.

They should be performing tasks that will allow them to gain confidence in the work place and in their own abilities.  They should be shadowing and observing but not involved if there are patient confidentiality issues. All participants placed with NWBH will be briefed and inducted much like our own staff, they will all receive information surrounding patient confidentiality, safeguarding, information governance and personal conduct. The will also receive a local induction in their area of placement. 

As a trust requirement all participants of work based placements must have a placement supervisor who will be the point of contact for both the work based learning co-ordinator from NWBH and the college. This supervisor will also be the main lead of the placement and will need to monitor all activities that are undertaken by or with the participant. There can be multiple supervisors for any location this should allow flexibility of time and shift patterns if required.  

The participants will need to complete a reflective/personal development type journal. This will predominantly be reflective on the experience. This would require little time from the placement supervisors; although this can be dependent on the student’s course of study.

Placement can be anywhere in the trust with any team or department. The only restrictions that could be placed upon this are:

• No under 18s on inpatient wards
• Placement Participants are not to be left alone with service users
• They must not undertake any clinical task
• Working Hours can be determined by placement supervisors but this must be between 8am and 5pm if the participant is under 18
• Anyone over the age of 18 must have a DBS certificate in place prior to commencing on a placement with NWBH
• DBS will be provided by either Talent for Care or the place of study at no cost to NWBH