Peer Practitioner

Job overview

Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust are pleased to announce an exciting job opportunity. The North Yorkshire & York Perinatal service are looking for a Peer Practitioner to join their team. The successful candidate will work across York, Selby, Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale.

The perinatal service provides community-based support to women and birthing people who are experiencing mental health difficulties:

• during pregnancy
• in the first year after they have had their baby

Peer support can be described as when people with shared experiences connect to build relationships that are:

• safe
• trusting
• non-judgmental

Peer Practitioners are:

• people who have experience of mental health challenges
• people who have experience of accessing services for mental health care
• employed, trained and supported to work to the TEWV Peer Support Values and use their experiences to support others.

You must have the Right to Work in the UK in order to be successfully appointed to this role. Please note, this role does not meet the required eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa and therefore the Trust is unable to offer sponsorship for this particular role.

Main duties of the job

These are challenging but rewarding roles supporting people with a wide range of experiences.

For these roles, we are looking for people who have:

• relevant experience of mental health challenges – for example, lived experience of mental health difficulties during pregnancy and after birth
• personal experience of accessing secondary or inpatient mental health services
• personal experience of using your lived experience to support others

Your time in post will start with attending our peer support training. This will be alongside other people starting peer support roles. The training is delivered by people with their own lived experience of mental health challenges. They also have direct experience of working in peer roles.

From there your work will involve:

• providing 1:1 peer support to people accessing the service - this may involve supporting family / carers too
• setting up and facilitating / co-facilitating peer support groups
• working into team meetings to support service user’s voices to be heard and bring lived experience expertise into team processes
• supporting service development within the teams you work in
• building connections with a range of people and organisations - including other peer support workers / providers

To support you with this work you will receive ongoing regular one to one and group supervision. You will be able to access a range of other peer connection and development structures.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

These Peer Practitioner roles will involve:

• working to support current service users - this will be on a one-to-one caseload basis and also in groups as appropriate.
• drawing on your own experience of mental health challenges
• ‘walking alongside’ others on their journey in a supportive peer relationship
• building relationships based on our core peer values of authenticity, relationship, validation, respect, mutuality and empowerment
• listening non-judgementally to create safe spaces where people feel heard
• approaching the peer relationship with compassion and curiosity
• recognising and valuing people’s strengths, diversity and expertise in themselves
• having an awareness of the impacts of trauma
• committing to the importance of working in ways which are sensitive to the needs of trauma survivors.

You also will be an integrated and valued member of the team. Peer Practitioner roles involve contributing peer values as well as the knowledge, skills and expertise that come with lived experience of mental health challenges and mental health services.

Important parts of this role also include:

• working within the team to help service users’ voices be heard
• promoting recovery values and trauma informed approaches

Peer Practitioners will be supported to challenge instances of stigma and discrimination related to mental health and other forms of exclusion.

Due to the nature of the role, it is essential that applicants can travel independently across the locality. Successful applicants will also be expected to be able travel independently across the area the Trust covers. This is primarily for peer work related training and development days. Adjustments will be considered in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Please see the attached job description

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further detailed information to ensure that you meet the role criteria, or approach us for an informal chat if you would like further details on the post before applying.

This job advert may close early if a high volume of applications have been received. If interested, please apply for this post as soon as possible.

Applicant requirements

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.