Peer Support Worker

Employer Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Chanctobury Building, Swandean or The Firs, Hellingly Town Worthing, West Sussex Salary £24,937 – £26,598 pa / pro rata for part time Salary period Yearly Closing 27/11/2025 23:59

NHS AfC: Band 3

Come and join us

We’re looking for people who share our values of compassion, accountability and optimism to help us provide high quality care for the patients, carers, families and communities we serve. We specialise in NHS mental health and learning disability services and we’re proud to make a difference every day.

At SPFT we put people first. We’ll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. You’ll have opportunities to learn, grow and gain new experiences to support your career, with access to lifelong learning and professional development.

We actively promote flexible working and understand how important work life balance is, especially in healthcare. Whether it’s part time hours, hybrid working or flexible start and finish times, we’ll explore what works for you and the role.

We recognise that AI is becoming part of daily life and you may choose to use it to help prepare your application. We welcome innovation but ask that anything you submit reflects your own abilities, experience and voice. AI can support how you describe your skills and experience, but it should never replace your own words as we want to get to know you.

We’re shaping a workplace where ideas are encouraged, technology supports you and everyone has a voice in how we improve. If that sounds like the kind of organisation you want to be part of, we’d love to hear from you.

Job overview

The role of Peer Support Worker has been developed specifically for people who have lived experience of mental distress, or experience of caring for a friend or family member experiencing mental distress. Through sharing wisdom from their own experiences, peer support workers will inspire hope and belief that recovery is achievable.

The Forensic Healthcare Service is a dynamic service consisting of the Forensic Outreach and Liaison Service, low and medium secure services, a high dependency rehabilitation unit, and the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway Service with the National Probation Service.

The Forensic Outreach and Liaison Service (FOLS) is a community-based service in Sussex providing holistic support to individuals with a mental health issue that relates to their offending/risk behaviour.

Our service has a strong commitment to recovery, multi-disciplinary working, service user involvement, and equality.

Main duties of the job

As the Peer Support worker you will work collaboratively to assist in improving the wellbeing of service users within the FOLS team, as wekk as their families and carers.

• To support individuals who are overcoming mental health challenges in their journey to recovery and wellbeing.
• To be a positive role model for service users and use parts of your recovery story, where appropriate, to inspire hope.
• To support and enable individuals to resolve conflicts and regain control, responsibility, hope and enjoyment based on the principles of peer supported recovery.
• Using a peer approach, working with service users (both individually and/or in groups) to meet holistic needs (e.g. education, welfare, employment, financial, leisure, housing and spiritual), alongside the multidisciplinary care team (MDT).
• Supporting service users to engage in participation, co-production and service development opportunities

This role is a vital part of our plan to continually improve the service we provide and is aimed at people who have lived experience of using mental health care services. We are looking for people who can use their experience of mental distress, recovery and use of peer networks to inspire others.

We have a strong network of diverse and supportive peer support colleagues who meet regularly as part of peer networking across Sussex. We offer full training to new peer support workers, one-to one peer supervision and ongoing development opportunities

Working for our organisation

Sussex Partnership provides mental health and learning disability care for all age groups across Sussex.

Working in Sussex:

• Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns there’s always new experiences to be enjoyed
• Embrace the city life with great access to visit Brighton and London
• With easy access to Gatwick and Heathrow and excellent railway links across the UK there is plenty of opportunity for adventure.

We’d love you to join our organisation that is rated ‘good’ overall and ‘outstanding’ for caring by the Care Quality Commission. Our staff agree, with 82% of people in our recent staff survey telling us that they recognise that high quality care is our top priority.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To support others who are overcoming mental health challenges in their journey to recovery and wellbeing.

To plan, promote and deliver delegated activities in accordance with the service user’s needs to meet goals identified in the individual’s Recovery Plan.

For a full outline please see the attached job description and person specification.

Person specification

Qualifications

• A recognised qualification in an area related to the workplace or equivalent technical/life skills
• Evidence of a commitment to lifelong learning
• Health care or relevant NVQ Level 3 or equivalent skills acquired through experience or formal teaching qualification (Band 4 only)
• Health care or relevant NVQ Level 3 or equivalent skills (Band 3)

Knowledge

• Experience of working with people with mental health needs in a paid or voluntary capacity
• Experience of working with people with mental health difficulties
• Experience working as part of a team
• Experience of being supervised
• Lived experience of mental health issues/difficulties
• Managing personal mental health and recovery
• Knowledge of Peer Support, Recovery and Wellbeing in mental health and ability to apply this throughout your work

SPFT is committed to building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We particularly welcome applications from people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and from disabled candidates, as these groups are currently underrepresented.

Successful candidates are normally appointed to the bottom of the pay scale unless previous NHS experience in a similar role can be evidenced.

SPFT takes its responsibilities for safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk very seriously. We expect all staff and bank workers to share this commitment and complete the relevant safeguarding training for their role.

If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date, please assume your application has been unsuccessful. However, we’ll always do our best to keep you informed as we know how much time and care goes into applying for a role.

In the event of a high number of applications, we may close this vacancy early.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Application numbers

Due to high numbers of applications this vacancy may close before the advertised closing date. We will not be able to accept late applications to this post.