Job overview
GMMH Recovery Academy is a flagship college that offers educational programmes and resources to promote good mental health and recovery. In line with national principles, the Recovery Academy is open to service users, carers and professionals to create a shared learning environment where lived expertise is as equally important as learnt expertise. All our courses and resources are co-produced and co-delivered.
Our current manager is relocating and this brings an exciting opportunity to manage our Recovery Academy and build on our existing offer. If you are a highly motivated, organised, creative person, with knowledge and experience of mental health, interventions to support mental health and recovery, and experienced in facilitation/teaching and quality assurance in education then we would love to hear from you.
Main duties of the job
To lead on the development and delivery of the Trust Recovery Academy (RA) and promote the development of knowledge and skills which are inherent to recovery from mental health and substance misuse difficulties. This will be through the co-production and co-delivery of education programmes and resources to service users, carers, staff and other health and social care professionals.
To engage stakeholders from across all professions and service user groups within the organisation to ensure collaboration and co-production in order to adhere to the Academy core principles of shared learning and empowerment.
To coordinate service user involvement and ensure the necessary support is in place for people with lived experience and people with professional expertise to foster good relationships and ensure co-production can flourish.
To be the budget holder for the Recovery Academy and secure opportunities for income generation to ensure long-term security and commercial viability of the Academy.
To line manage staff within the Recovery Academy, including trainers with lived experience of mental health and/or substance misuse problems.
To promote co-production at a Trust wide level and influence organisational change through the sharing of good practice of RA work and values.
Working for our organisation
Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 7000 members of staff, who deliver services from more than 122 locations.
We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.
Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.
Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.
Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see attached job description and person specification
Staff benefits
1. Pay Enhancements
2. 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays rising to 29 after 5 years and 33 days after 10 years
3. Excellent pension
4. Cycle to work scheme
5. Salary sacrifice car scheme
6. Wellbeing programme
7. fuelGenie Fuel Cards (for applicable roles)
Person specification
Education
Essential criteria
8. Educated to degree level in relevant subject ( health/social care/education)
9. Postgraduate qualification in relevant subject or equivalent experience
10. Training/education covering a range of psychosocial interventions in mental health
Desirable criteria
11. Leadership/Project Management qualification
12. Teaching qualification
13. Assessor Award
14. Verification Award
Experience
Essential criteria
15. Experience of project management in a senior role
16. Experience of leading co-production initiatives
17. Experience of managing peer support initiatives
18. Working in a senior educational or development role, responsible for agreement, development and design of programmes to large groups of people
19. Teaching experience with experience of delivering accredited training programmes
20. Experience of delivering a wide range of psychosocial interventions to people with mental health and/or substance misuse difficulties
21. Experience of supervising and managing staff
22. Budget management experience
Desirable criteria
23. Communications and marketing experience
24. Income generation experience
25. Learner Management Systems experience
Knowledge
Essential criteria
26. Up to date knowledge of trauma informed care and transformation in mental health and substance misuse services
27. Knowledge and understanding of a range of different mental health conditions and interventions used to support people in their recovery
28. Knowledge of quality assurance standards and processes in education
29. Knowledge and understanding of safeguarding principles and information governance
30. Knowledge and understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion, the impact of exclusion on people’s health and life chances and an inclusive, collaborative approach to reducing health inequalities
Skills
Essential criteria
31. Compassionate leader with the ability to inspire and motivate others
32. High levels of emotional intelligence with excellent relationship building skills and the ability to manage conflict
33. High regard for lived experience and coproduction
34. Highly organised to meet expectations and tight deadlines
35. Highly creative working to find solutions
36. Excellent report writing skills
37. Good working knowledge and skills in Microsoft Office packages including MS Teams
The Trust mandates all post holders who require a DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration throughout your employment with GMMH.
Applicants are encouraged to apply for posts at Greater Manchester Mental Health who have direct experience of mental health, learning disability or drug and alcohol services either as a service user or a carer.
The Trust is also committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We are aspiring to ensure our workforce is representative of the diverse communities that we serve, and we are strongly committed to removing barriers to employment for candidates from under-represented groups, for example BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ communities. If you would like to have an informal chat about the recruitment process for this role or would value some additional support, we’d love to hear from you.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when writing job applications
A candidate may utilise the help of AI when writing job application. The assessment of an application is made on its entirety and most times AI-generated content does not fully grasp the context and requirements of the job one applies for thus producing inaccurate and misleading information, especially in the supporting statement section of an application that can lack real life examples of one’s achievements, success and challenges.
We have added a disclaimer to our application process advising that the use of AI is monitored. GMMH reserves the right to follow up with a candidate at the interview on specific responses and those examples used in the supporting statement to explore it further.
Sponsorship
We are proud to be an approved sponsor for the Skilled Worker visa. Applications from individuals who require sponsorship will be considered alongside all other applications. Please be aware that not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and salary requirements on the UK Government’s website – click .
If you are offered a role with us and you require sponsorship, we will check your eligibility in line with the information on the above website. Your offer of employment could be withdrawn if the role is not eligible for sponsorship, and you are not otherwise able to evidence your right to work in the UK.
The Home Office introduces new changes from 22/07/2025 that impact the health and care sector, you may wish to familiarise with it.
Do you have experience outside the NHS?
We want to attract and retain people with diverse skills and experience, to deliver inclusive healthcare services to our communities.
We will consider relevant experience outside the NHS to calculate your salary on appointment.