Peer Support Worker

Employer East London NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site East London Community forensic Service Town London Salary £24,937 – £26,598 per annum pro rata Inc HCAs Salary period Yearly Closing 08/03/2026 23:59

Band 3

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people\’s lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job overview

– To work as an integral and highly valued member of the East London Community Forensic Service , facilitating client-centred activities which inspire hope, control and opportunity for services users who are working towards, or who have already made, the transition from hospital into the community.

– Through sharing aspects of their own lived experience of mental health challenges and of accessing services, the Peer Support Worker (PSW) will inspire hope and the belief that recovery is possible in others. This may include working with service users who have issues with addiction, and/or dual diagnosis.

– To support East London Community Forensic Service’s commitment to addressing inequalities within mental health and criminal justice services, by sharing their own life experiences and by supporting people from diverse backgrounds in their recovery journeys.

– The PSW will act as an ambassador of Recovery with other Trust Recovery Champions, working with external agencies and partner organisations.

Main duties of the job

• To get to know the service users within the team, and to understand their recovery goals in order to improve their quality of life and to support them to do the things they want to do and live the life they want to lead.
• To support individuals in identifying personal recovery goals to improve the service users\’ quality of life and to support them to do the things they want to do and live the life they want to lead.
• The post holder will develop relationships based on mutuality so they can facilitate and support information sharing to promote choice, self- determination and opportunities for the fulfillment of socially valued roles.

Responsibilities under Working for our organisation

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people\’s lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

· To assist individuals in their Recovery process through sharing lived experiences as Peer Support Workers

· To support service users to direct their own Recovery process through encouraging them to work collaboratively with the team to identify their own goals and needs

· To assist service users to identify their strengths, personal interests and goals and support them toaccess and participate in activities which meet these whilst demonstrating acceptance of and respect towards service users\’ personal beliefs, uniqueness and identity.

· To promote and support service users to maintain and/or develop positive relationships with those within their community and learn how to improve or eliminate unhealthy relationships.

· To positively promote and support inter-dependent living with their community through developing and maintaining extensive knowledge and links within the communities served by ELFT and NELFT and/or in the area the individual service users wish to return to, and supporting them to access these resources, e.g. in relation to vocation, education and leisure.

· To act as a role model and mentor for Recovery using their own experience to inspire hope in others; demonstrating coping skills, sharing life experiences and lessons learned where appropriate.

· To adhere to ELCFS and ELFT Health and Safety protocols To ensure any concerns regarding an individual\’s wellbeing, including issues of safeguarding, are raised with the team.

· To participate in the promotion of the Recovery Peer Support Worker role and the delivery of activities to all services users and professionals within the team.

· To offer practical and emotional support, through lived experience, with the challenges associated with making the transition from hospital to the community.

*Peer Support Workers do not provide psychotherapy or counselling services and the support given is best described as life coaching. They also do not provide assistance with general household tasks, in particular there will be absolutely no handling of cash or driving service users to healthcare appointments.

Person specification

Education

• • ELFT accreditation certificate in Peer Support Work

Experience

• Post holders must have direct, personal, lived experience of using mental health services as a service user.
• Experience of working in a small team.
• Supporting individuals to resolve their own problems.
• Working within a referral system.
• Supporting people with addiction issues/ dual diagnosis, to work towards recovery.
• Working with a range of disadvantaged groups e.g. disabled people, BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) communities.

Knowledge and Skills

• Commitment to equal opportunities and confidentiality.
• An ability to deal with information in a confidential manner and respond with sensitivity to the opinions of others.
• Commitment to involving service users in their own recovery.
• Sound understanding of peer support work and its role in the recovery from mental health problems.
• Ability to work in a small team.
• Empathetic to needs of individuals.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.Excellent active listening skills and ability to ask open questions.
• Clear understanding of how to manage boundaries.
• Flexible and accommodating to needs of service users.
• Ability to support peers to identify what’s important to them.
• Ability to work with a diverse range of service users.
• Imaginative, determined, committed and solution-focused.
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Enabling service users to make their own choices and decisions without offering advice.
• Good organisational skills e.g. diary management, managing appointments with service users.

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rated \’Outstanding\’ in 2021. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other reasons to apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

What Next?

If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!

As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..

If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.

Find us online at www.elft.nhs.uk | Find us on Facebook | Follow us on @NHS_ELFT

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This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.