Community Access Facilitators

Key Working Relationships:

The post holder will be expected to work with:

• Adults

• Circles of Support

• CRC Staff & Management

• Volunteers & CE Workers

• Internal Stakeholders

• External Stakeholders o Community and Peer Networks o Housing, Employment and Social Partners o Education and Research Partners

Purpose of the Post

In line with New Directions and the HSE Interim Standards, the purpose of this post is to develop, establish, and support adults to live a meaningful life within their own community and live a life of their choosing aligned with their Person-Centered Plans (PCPs).

The Community Access Facilitators will:

• Empower people to live full and meaningful lives, build their confidence and autonomy, and explore/progress their career and life goals.

• Enable adults with complex needs to gain and maintain valued social roles (student, employee, volunteer, neighbour, friend) and to be recognised as equal citizens.

• Work with adults with complex needs, key staff, their nominated circles of support, and multidisciplinary team members through a person-centred approach towards the values of New Directions: person-centred, community inclusion, active citizenship, and quality services.

• Provide supports within the framework of New Directions, guided by Human Rights Based Approach principles of participation, accountability, non-discrimination, empowerment, legality, and an outcomes-based individualised approach to services for adults with complex needs.

• Promote input and co-design of how their Day Services are planned and delivered so as to ensure that adults with complex needs shape policies and supports that affect them.

• Support participation in decision-making at both the individual and the service design/delivery level, addressing barriers to inclusion and advocating for structural change where required.

• Respect the dignity and autonomy of the person, ensuring rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and equality legislation are central to all actions.

• Work in both group and individual settings in the community with adults with complex needs and their nominated circle of support, promoting equality of opportunity to access a wide range of community-based services and mainstream opportunities (education, work, leisure, civic participation) on the same basis as the general population to meet their individual needs.

• Promote positive risk taking, supporting individuals to make their own decisions and learn from new experiences.

Key Duties and ResponsibilitiesService User Support/Care

The Community Access Facilitator will:

• Work collaboratively with the adults and their nominated circle of support to co-produce person-centred plans with ambition and possibility.

• Support adults to access mainstream opportunities (education, work, civic life) on the same basis as others, and to challenge structural barriers where they arise.

• Promote advocacy and self-direction, ensuring the adult's voice is central to all planning and decision-making by supporting adults with a disability to speak up for themselves and make their own choices, making sure their views guide all planning and decisions.

• Support adults with a disability to identify and manage risk, respecting their right to make informed choices even when those choices involve some level of risk.

• Support social and community inclusion, recognising the diverse identities of adults with disabilities who are supported (e.g. gender, Traveller identity, ethnicity, sexuality).

• Provide respectful and dignified personal support, which may include assistance with eating, showering, dressing and toileting, when required.

• Support adults with developing their skills in the areas of: o Creating and maintaining valued social roles o Communication o Activities of daily living o Social Integration and the use of community facilities

• Support adults to establish a circle of support and wider community connections.

• Support adults to focus on outcomes/goals aligned with their person-centred plans.

• Support adults to identify their strengths and areas of interest to enable active citizenship and community participation.

• Support adults to identify who is best placed to support them to access valued roles in community.

• Ensure that all activities and supports are monitored, maintained/reduced at an appropriate pace to ensure adults with a disability can sustain their valued social roles.

• Introduce new experiences at a pace that enables the person to achieve success, addressing obstacles and other issues that may compromise achievement of agreed goals.

• Seek out opportunities for adults to participate in social, work or training roles of their choice which are in socially inclusive settings and typical for a person of a similar age.

• Assist adults to develop a full range of social relationships and valued social roles including developing friendships and social networks.

• Empower adults to be a valued citizen in their local community, make choices and have ordinary life experiences.

• Seek out opportunities for adults to experience a range of activities as a means of discovering their areas of interest, strength and conditions that will enable inclusion and citizenship.

• Promote advocacy and self-direction through listening to the adult's wishes, supporting the person to make decisions and advocating on their behalf where required.

• Explore and encourage the use of natural community supports by building interpersonal relationships in community with others.

• Provide onsite support and mentoring to adults who are accessing work experience in the local community.

• Assist adults to identify and develop opportunities to experience volunteering, work experience, supported employment and pathways to full employment.

• Promote and provide practical road safety awareness and travel training as required.

• Facilitate adults to access mainstream educational programmes.

• Identify and support the development of skills for self-directed living, including the delivery of training modules.

• Assist with administration of medication, carrying out therapeutic interventions as prescribed by multidisciplinary team/medical professionals, working collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team.

• Support adults to develop and maintain money management skills and ensure that petty cash used and any personal monies of individuals supported are properly accounted for.

Administration

The Community Access Facilitator will:

• Establish and maintain partnerships with organisations, including advocacy groups, to strengthen systemic change for inclusion.

• Lead, attend and participate in staff meetings, multidisciplinary team meetings, planning and review meetings as deemed appropriate.

• Ensure the privacy and confidentiality of adults whilst acknowledging the need for professional sharing of information within the relevant staff team.

• Ensure records and documentation are maintained to a high standard and storage of files is in line with data protection policy at all times.

• Contribute to the development of quality assurance systems and procedures.

• Identify and collect data to measure outcomes, prepare reports as requested. Record not only outcomes but also barriers experienced by adults supported, ensuring these inform service improvement and policy advocacy.

• Develop standard operating procedures and policies and support policy implementation as required.

• Report on rights-related indicators (access to services, discrimination experienced, progress on autonomy and inclusion).

• Cover for other staff as required.

Education & Training

The Community Access Facilitator will:

• Attend and participate in all staff training as deemed relevant by organisational policy and service manager.

• Undertake relevant training and be informed of current developments in services for people with disabilities e.g. Person-Centred Planning, Personal Outcome Measures, Human Rights and Citizenship, “New Directions – Review of Day Services and Implementation Plan 2012–2016”, Supported Self-Directed Living.

• Participate in committees and agency forums as directed by service manager.

• Engage in the HSE performance achievement process in conjunction with Line Manager and staff as appropriate.

Health & Safety / Risk Management

The Community Access Facilitator will:

• Stay informed of current Human Rights Based Approach developments, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities implementation, and national/international disability rights frameworks.

• Engage in training on anti-discrimination, cultural competence, trauma-informed practice, and intersectionality.

• Observe, report and take appropriate action on any matter which may be detrimental to the person’s supported care or wellbeing.

• Adhere to all HSE policies and procedures and to all relevant Health & Safety legislation.

• Enable positive risk taking and ensure this is documented in line with the person’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and service policies.

• Adequately identify, assess, manage and monitor risk within their area of responsibility.

• Have a working knowledge of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) Standards as they apply to the role, for example Standards for Healthcare, National Standards for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infections, Hygiene Standards etc., and comply with associated HSE protocols for implementing and maintaining these standards as appropriate to the role.

• Support, promote and actively participate in sustainable energy, water and waste initiatives to create a more sustainable, low carbon and efficient health service.

The above Job Specification is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties involved and consequently, the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to them from time to time and to contribute to the development of the post while in office.

Skills, Competencies and/or KnowledgeEssential Competencies

• Demonstrates a strong commitment to placing the individual at the centre of all decisions and supports.

• Strong understanding of New Directions, person-centred planning, self-advocacy, and personal development.

• An understanding of the role of the Community Access Facilitator as an enabler of equal citizenship, not simply a provider of care.

• Capacity to monitor rights outcomes and escalate systemic issues that compromise equality and inclusion.

• Skills in enabling self-advocacy, independent living, and participation in civic and community life.

• Good communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to engage a wide range of stakeholders.

• Promote meaningful participation in ordinary community life, including education, training, employment, volunteering, and social relationships.

• An understanding that adults can face more than one kind of disadvantage at the same time (for example, because of disability, gender, or ethnicity), and the ability to support them in ways that take all of these challenges into account.