Liaison and Diversion support worker

An opportunity has arisen within the Liaison and Diversion (L&D) services in Preston for the role of Support Worker.
This key position of Support Worker within the established Liaison and Diversion Service for Custody suites and Magistrates Courts will be offered as a full time, substantive post.
The Liaison and Diversion service work with adults and young people in contact with the Criminal Justice system.
Important: This post is requires successful candidates to undergo Level 2 (full) Vetting from Lancashire constabulary from which you will be working, of which clearance is essential in order to fulfil the role.
The Liaison and Diversion Support Worker will have the responsibility for providing quality services for vulnerable individuals in contact with Criminal Justice system under the supervision of a Liaison & Diversion practitioner. L&D is not itself a treatment service, but it is an identification, assessment and referral service offering brief intervention to support engagement.
The post holder will be responsible for supporting access to health and social care services for potentially vulnerable adults and young people.
They will value experiential learning and will work with the person to identify, navigate and engage with opportunities that may improve their health, personal wellbeing, social inclusion and social functioning., They will promote hope and optimism, working with strengths rather than deficits in working towards developing a short term plan at the point of referral; this may be within Custody or Court settings, or within the community. The plan will be based on needs identified during assessment by Liaison and Diversion Practitioner in Custody, Court or community setting. The aim of the intervention is to support and empower the individuals to reach identified goals and attend initial appointments with identified services. This will involve the individual in planning and prioritising their needs.
Pathways to care and support will be across a range of health and social care services for adults and young people, including but not limited to Housing, Drug and Alcohol Services, Mental Health and Physical Health care and other services specific for Women, Veterans, Gambling. Police, Courts, Youth Offending Services, Probation, Prisons.

• Working with service users referred to Liaison and Diversion and the individual's carers, helping to promote self-determination, choice and autonomy.


• To effectively establish a therapeutic relationship with service users and relatives / carer.


• Responsible for participating in the setting of quality standards, including the auditing, monitoring and reviewing of practice in line with current clinical guidance practice and policy., Assess patient's individual care needs, agree and refer on to appropriate agency. Involve the individual in the planning and prioritisation of their activity where possible. Provide short term intervention to encourage individual to engage with services and attending their initial appointments.


• Complete and contribute, where appropriate to robust risk assessments and risk management plans. Deliver and promote positive risk taking, where appropriate, to improve quality of life and maximise occupational performance/independence.


• Maintain an effective reporting system by observing and reporting verbally and in writing on patient conditions.


• Utilise agreed outcome measures to review the effectiveness of process, as part of Liaison and Diversion Service.


• Participate in the development of the service to ensure clinical governance processes are actively implemented at team level.


• Assist in ensuring that the aims and objectives of the service are fulfilled and to identify factors which may inhibit these from being achieved.


• To attend relevant clinical meetings / forums as requested.


• To plan and manage own delegated workload on a day to day basis.

Please see Job Description and Person Specification attached to this vacancy for the full responsibilities of this role.
For further information or an informal discussion about the post please contact: [email protected] or [email protected]
Please note that further communication from Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) will normally be to the email address given on the application form. You should also ensure that email addresses and telephone numbers are provided for your referees, to enable LSCft to contact them.
Please be aware the use of artificial intelligence (AI) when submitting an application is monitored and if you have used AI to generate an application, you are required to declare this on your application form. AI-generated content may lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description. Personalisation is essential when submitting an application form to convey your skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively.
Please ensure that you read the person specification attached below as your application will be measured against this document. Applications from job share partners are welcome and other forms of flexible working will be considered for all posts.
For all posts which require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check please be aware of the Disclosure and Barring Service Code of Practice, a copy of which is available by logging on to the DBS website. If the post is subject to DBS disclosure, a charge will be made to the successful candidate(s).

Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism and community based services for the populations we serve.
As an integrated mental health, learning disability and community Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including:

• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, forensic services including low and medium secure care.


• Specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.


• Community physical health and well-being services for children and adults.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,000 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health and general nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers.
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust supports flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, home/remote working, and flexi-time.
For more information visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT., LSCft is committed to celebrating difference as an asset and we know that recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds helps to create a more flexible, creative and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from people regardless of age, disability (particularly those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion or belief or sexual orientation. Our goal is for the Trust to be truly representative of the communities we serve so we are particularly keen to receive applications from people in under-represented groups. If there is anything you'd like to discuss in relation to your application then please ask.