Widening Access Project Officer

Job overview

Please note that this role is open to candidates currently working within Gloucestershire ICB, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Gloucestershire Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust.

This role is offered on a secondment basis for 6 months (possible extension to 12 months)

The postholder will be employed by Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Trust (GHC) and will report managerially to the Widening Access, Careers Engagement & Outreach Lead. The Widening Access Programme Support Officer roles are hosted by the Trust’s Learning and Development Team working on behalf of the One Gloucestershire Integrated Care System. 

The Widening Access Project Officer will play a key role in supporting the successful delivery of a nationally funded widening access demonstrator (WAD) project, which aims to encourage and support young people (particularly care leavers, those not in employment, education and training, and young carers) and individuals from working class communities into health and care careers. The role will involve coordinating pre-employability engagement activities, tracking progress, liaising with stakeholders and helping ensure the programme meets its delivery and impact targets for Gloucestershire. This position is ideal for someone who is passionate about social mobility and who is motivated by helping others unlock long-term career opportunities. 

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The postholder will support the design and delivery of targeted outreach and pre-employment campaigns, help facilitate supported entry-level roles across health and care providers and work to remove barriers for underrepresented individuals entering the workforce. Your contribution will ensure the programme delivers both short-term engagement goals and long-term sustainable employment outcomes.

The post holder will help to attract and develop a future workforce for the County’s health and care sectors with the right skills, knowledge and competence necessary to deliver safe patient/client care and to enhance quality of service delivery. 

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Working for our organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us.  In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views.  It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement.  However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.