Peer Support Worker

Job summary
You should possess lived experience of accessing the Mental Health Treatment Requirement service or lived experience of the criminal justice service.

Under the supervision of a qualified practitioner, you will support the delivery of a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary community mental health service for individuals within the service. You will do this through providing emotional support to offenders and their families within the MHTR service to help them meet their treatment goals. Through sharing your own experience, you will inspire hope and belief that recovery is possible, helping individuals to feel more positively about their future.

The role of a PSW has been developed specifically for people who have lived experience of recovery from mental health challenges and who have engaged in treatment from a mental health service as well as the criminal justice service. Applicants who do not indicate they have this lived experience will not be considered.

With support from the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) your role is to provide support to individuals who are accessing the Trust, through appropriately sharing and drawing on their own lived experiences, to inspire hope and belief that recovery is possible.

Due to the UKVI immigration changes we are no longer able to offer sponsorship for this role. Please provide details of the visa type and expiry date in your application. Failure to provide the required information will result in your application being rejected.

Main duties of the job

• To model principles of hope, recovery and self-belief in all aspects of their work with offenders and their families.
• Share coping, self-help and self-management techniques with offenders and their carers, in an appropriate and supportive manner.
• To support offenders to meet treatment goals and enable them to access to the community to promote their emotional and social development.
• Support offenders who may be struggling with transitions out of, or across, services.
• Liaise with representatives from universal services, as appropriate, and facilitate and model good communication between services.
• Contribute to the development of peer support opportunities amongst offenders who are currently open to the service.
• Contribute to the development of offenders 's involvement and participation within the service.
• To be actively involved in the continued development of the PSW role in the MHTR Service and the wider service, including training and on-going evaluation.
• Comply with and carry out safe practice in accordance with Trust policies and procedures, and local and national policy and legislation.
• Engage in a period of induction, supervision and work-related training, as required.
• Maintain strict confidentiality of patient information at all times and ensure accurate record-keeping in accordance with Trust Policy.

About us
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health services and a number of learning disability, autism and social care services in the county of Lincolnshire. Employing around 2,900 staff, and serving a population of over 768,400, our people lie at the heart of everything we do.

You could be part of a Trust rated by staff as one of the best mental health and learning disability trusts in England. We firmly believe the key to high quality care is a contented workforce. This is reflected in our Care Quality Commission rating of 'outstanding' for well-led and 'good' overall. In the most recent National NHS Staff Survey, our staff rated us as the number one trust nationally for staff morale and one of the top scoring NHS Trusts in the Midlands for being compassionate and inclusive. We're really proud of this!

We offer options for flexible working and provide a wide range of training and promotion opportunities in all professions. We support and celebrate diversity, have active staff networks groups and are always looking at what more we can do to support our staff.

Whether you're taking the first exciting steps in your career, itching for a new challenge or searching for a better place to raise a family, Lincolnshire has a range of rewarding health and social care careers in a county that's friendly, fascinating, affordable and brimming with everything you need to live a happy life. Visit beinlincolnshire.com to find out more.

Job responsibilities
Please view the attached Job Description and Person Specification documents for complete details regarding this post.

When completing your application, please demonstrate how you meet the role criteria.

We can also offer you many staff benefits to help support you which include:

• Early access to Psychological Therapies and Physiotherapy
• Competitive annual leave allowance
• Car leasing scheme
• NHS pension scheme
• Free eye tests
• Money saving options through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Discounts on major high street retailers and restaurants

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Satisfactory level of secondary education to GCSE English A-C grade or 9-4 grade or equivalent (may be working toward this)
• Be able to demonstrate a good standard of English
• To have or be willing to enrol on a specific Peer Support Worker accredited course, eg through LPFT Reccovery College or with an accredited training provider when starting in post, complete and pass the training as part of your contract with LPFT
• Willingness to undertake further training to support development of peer support role

Desirable

• Mental Health or Health and Social Care related qualification
• Completion of Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) or use of similar self-management techniques -Awareness/ability of how to adapt this to make it suitable to share within the work place

Experience
Essential

• Recent Lived experience of mental health issues
• Recent Lived experience of the CJS
• Experience of being in a supportive and enabling role
• Experience of operating in an environment that requires confidentiality

Desirable

• Experience of accessing specialist services
• Able to relate to a wide range of people across different organisational boundaries

Skills
Essential

• Good written, verbal and non-verbal communication skills
• Ability and confidence to use a computer
• Ability to share personal story of recovery in a professional manner while working within appropriate guidelines
• Able to relate empathically with people
• Ability to assist people to develop their own recovery plans
• Willingness to promote the concept of recovery in all work carried out
• Ability to support people to make the best of local resources including support networks
• Willingness to reflect on work practice and be open to constructive feedback
• Able to manage conflict and support others to do so
• Able to demonstrate a patient, non-judgemental, respectful and compassionate attitude
• Ability to work collaboratively within a multi disciplinary team

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.