Health Promotion Specialist - Adult Focused (West Essex)inHarlowinHarlowPUBLISHED MON 17 MAR 2025

Essex Sexual Health Service (ESHS) is led by Provide Community and commissioned by Essex County Council.

The successful applicant will work as part of the ESHS Outreach and Education Team, and will have a focus on working with seldom heard from communities in Essex to support in the reduction of adverse sexual health outcomes, and reducing health inequalities.

The post holder will support in the design and delivery of effective health promotion (HP) and behavior change communication (BCC) interventions appropriate to the needs of Seldom Heard from Communities namely; People of African/Caribbean Heritage, Commercial Sex Workers (CSW), Men who have sex with men (MSM) and other groups at increased risk of poor sexual health outcomes. Delivery will be through community engagement approaches that tackle HIV related stigma and discrimination. Delivering targeted interventions that increase knowledge and awareness of HIV, increase HIV testing and highlight the benefits of early diagnosis, access to care treatment and increase the uptake of broader sexual health services across Essex.

The post holder will be expected to undertake comprehensive training in order to achieve Assistant Practitioner (AP) competencies, to enable them to be able to offer HIV point of care testing (POCT) for HIV, syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections.

Although this post will be predominately focusing on delivering services in West Essex the post holder will also be expected to support the wider service with delivery across the wider Essex county therefore the post holder must have their own car and a full drivers license to be able to fulfil the requirements of this role.

About us

1. To deliver targeted HP/BCC outreach interventions to relevant communities. These include, for example, HIV & STI testing, health promotion including HIV awareness, inter-faith/faith-based work, GP engagement, campaign delivery/ social marketing in line with the delivery of regional and national HIV prevention programmes. All interventions will have reduction of HIV stigma embedded into them.

1. To work closely with people from seldom heard from communities, tailoring the approach to meet the needs of the groups and individuals you are supporting.

1. Increasing professional and public awareness and knowledge of key sexual health topics by delivering professionals training days and community education sessions (both virtually and face to face) with a sex-positive approach.

1. To achieve competencies to become an Assistant Practitioner (AP) enabling the post holder to offer HIV/Syphilis point of care testing (POCT), alongside other testing in a community setting adhering to local safeguarding procedures, information governance and other relevant policys.

1. To support educational establishments, parent and carers, and other professionals that work with young people in the delivery of RSHE. This includes both direct delivery to young people, and upskilling professionals and parents/carers to be equipped to carry out these interventions. This can be carried out through face to face sessions, webinars, and live web broadcasting facility.

1. To work directly with young people who may be at risk of harm or sexual ill health through ESHS 1-2-1 education and early intervention programme, supporting them to increase their knowledge and skills to make informed decisions.

1. To maintain and use systems to monitor and record HP/BCC interventions, ensuring high quality of data entry on clinical and client service databases and to accurately contribute data for reporting as requested for service monitoring reports.

8. To establish and maintain relationships of trust with partner agencies, and to professionally represent ESHS with target populations and partner agencies both at meetings with key providers and during HP/BCC interventions adhering to ESHS values and policies.

1. Use a wide range of methods to engage diverse communities including social media, radio, TV, attending community events and groups, and visiting commercial and community venues, and public sex environments.

1. Increase awareness of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), distributing self-testing kits for STIs where possible and pregnancy options & support.
2. To manage resource availability and suitability to ensure HP/BCC interventions can be delivered throughout the team.

1. To support in the recruitment and delivery of the volunteer Champions for Change health champions model, supporting community members to become sexual health ambassadors.

1. To work in partnership with the co-production and user involvement team to ensure gaining insight from local people, and to use this insight to support in shaping the service delivery.

1. To manage own workload, maintaining and updating calendars, annual leave records, and to notify line manager of any change in personal circumstances or personal information relevant to the role.

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1. Taking an active and continued responsibility for self-led education relevant to the role. This includes maintaining awareness of local and national campaigns and statistics related to sexual health and HIV.

1. To assist with campaigns and events such as World AIDS Day, National HIV Testing Week, Sexual Health Week, LGBT+ History Month, Pride, Black History Month and other promotions and events.

1. To deliver a condom distribution service aimed at increasing access to condoms and lubricant to Seldom heard from communities and those at increased risk of poor sexual health outcomes.

1. Working flexibly to meet the ever developing needs of the service and its service users across a wide geographical location. This includes flexibility to work evenings and weekends as required.