Job overview
The Recovery worker will embrace the core values of the organisation and adopt the principles of Recovery. Promote safe practice; Value the aims of service users; Work in partnership and offer meaningful choice; Be optimistic about the possibilities of meaningful change; Value social inclusion
As a recovery worker you will be working intensively with service users, enabling them to live their lives and achieve their own goals with support from a multi-disciplinary team of nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, physiotherapist, speech and language therapists, dietitians, creative therapist and medical staff.
Please note - This role is not eligible for sponsorship unless you meet criteria by temporary exemption from current changes to immigration rules put in force on 22/07/2025. Separate provisions are applied to workers who have been sponsored and held continuously Skilled Worker visa since prior to 04/04/2024.
Main duties of the job
The Recovery worker will support individuals in their recovery and achievement of goals through using a variety of person centred interventions to promote independence, functioning and social inclusion. Interventions may involve activities of daily living, vocational and educational aspirations, development of family and social relationships, attending appointments, accessing meaningful activities and intervention within inpatient and community.
The Recovery worker will assist the integrated Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) in the care planning process and to support service users with discharge plans and provides person[1]centred care and support.
The Recovery worker will fulfil a key role in implementing discharge plans, as well as planning safe and therapeutic activities in the community aimed at promoting social inclusion post discharge.
To work as a key member of the inpatient team, which provides mental health services to the patient group and their families. To be able to respond to service needs and support the team and service users, supporting them to work collaboratively in their treatment, recovery and discharge planning.
The Recovery worker should aim to promote the independence and well-being of service users; assist social inclusion and valued community presence and enable the widest possible expression of chosen lifestyle.
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
Main Duties & Responsibilities
Heading
Duty/Responsibility
GMMH Values
·Demonstrate the values of GMMH
Communication
·To demonstrate high–level communication skills.
1. To establish and maintain robust communication networks with clients, carers, and other health care workers as well as external agencies.
Clinical
·To be an active member of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT)
2. To work predominantly with the ward social worker and the Occupational Therapist to support recovery and discharge in a timely manner.
3. To support the MDT to facilitate discharge focused activities, including supporting services to apply for accommodation, continue to maintain bills and finances.
4. To facilitate leave from the ward to support service users to attend accommodation for repairs and adaptions.
5. To support service users in graded leave, escorting service users to and from their homes, in discussion with Occupational Therapist
6. To support service users to visit new accommodation options, including both housing and care homes.
7. To encourage and support clients to collaborate in their treatment programme and recovery.
·To encourage self-help as much as possible, promoting service users to maintain their skills and independence. This may include supporting service users to familiarise themselves with their community and to access services within their local area.
8. To support with mobility assessments within service users own accommodation under direct guidance of Physiotherapist.
9. To support health promotion and encourage independent and healthier lifestyles. This includes supporting service users in attending health appointments in the community.
10. To undertake planned interventions and feedback outcomes to MDT and document in paper/computer records in a professional and timely manner. This includes updating aspects of the physical health assessment tool.
11. To be responsible for updating and completing the weekly reason to reside documents.
12. To assist the service during times of need by supporting with escorting to appointments, completing patient observations, meals times, 1:1 sessions, de-escalation and prevention and management of violence and aggression.
Clinical and Social Care Governance
13. Ensure compliance with all Trust Policies and procedures.
14. Support the quality standards relating to the service user and carer experience.
15. To participate in post Incident Reviews, and subsequent learning events
Policy / Service Improvement & development
16. To participate in the continuous improvement of the service
17. Identify unmet needs to support service planning and development in relation to role.
·Demonstrate the sharing of knowledge, skills, and attitudes to others.
Finance and other resources
18. To ensure the effective use of resources, including the responsible use of petty cash.
19. To exercise good personal time management, punctuality, and consistent, reliable attendance
Human Resources
20. Participate in the appraisal process.
21. To participate in Line Management and Clinical Supervision according to policy.
22. Clinical supervision provided by Occupational Therapist
23. Appraisal to take place along with OT and Ward Manager
·Ensure compliance with all Trusts policies and procedures.
24. To work predominantly Monday to Friday within normal business hours.
Service User, carer and stakeholder Involvement
25. To promote recovery and social inclusion with service users and carers by co designing and co delivering the therapeutic intervention
·Promote service user and where appropriate, relative and carer involvement in recovery plans.
26. Promote user and carer involvement in services, including completing carer and service user questionnaires and ensuring welcome information is sent to carers when service users are admitted and that this contact is documented.
Learning, Education and Personal Development
·To take responsibility for own learning and development
27. To have an awareness of different types of learning opportunities, to develop self in line with job role.
28. To share, reflect and promote a learning environment and culture within the team which supports the professional development and effectiveness of the team.
29. To support the development of new staff, students, and volunteers.
30. To engage with AHP support worker apprentice programme
Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults
·To adhere to the principles of safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in line with Trust Policy and reporting local procedures.
·Ensure mandatory training is kept up to date
Equal Opportunities, Equality and Diversity and Dignity in Care and Work.
31. To carry out all duties and responsibilities of the Recovery worker in accordance with the Trust’s Equal Opportunities, Equality and Diversity and Dignity in care and work policies.
32. To avoid unlawful discriminatory behaviour and actions when dealing with colleagues, service users, members of the public and all other stakeholders.
33. To promote awareness of and respect for equality and diversity and dignity in care and work in accordance with Trust policies and procedures.
·To treat all staff, patients, service users, NHS contractors and the public with dignity and respect always.
Information Governance & Data Quality
34. To access only information, whether paper, electronic or in other media, which is authorised to you as part of your duties.
35. Not to communicate to anyone outside or inside the NHS, information relating to patients, service users, staff, contractors or information of a commercially sensitive nature, unless done in the normal course of carrying out the duties of the Recovery worker and with the appropriate permission.
36. To maintain high standards of quality in corporate and clinical record keeping ensuring information is always recorded accurately, appropriately and kept up to date, and that notes are countersigned
37. To ensure compliance with the GMMH Information Governance Policy
38. To ensure compliance with confidentiality policies and procedures for self and team members.
·Understand and fully utilise the IT systems for health services.
Infection Control
·To protect service users, visitors and employees against the risk of acquiring health care associated infections by consistently observing Trust Infection Prevention and Control Policies and procedures and best practice guidance to maintain high standards of Infection Prevention and Control.
Health, Safety and Security
39. To comply with all the service security requirements within the context of being a lone practitioner when off the inpatient unit, ensuring that your mobile phone is always switched on and charged up.
40. To fulfil Trust mandatory training requirements, including PMVA training as per policy.
41. To be aware of own personal limitations and seek appropriate advice.
42. To take reasonable care of the health and safety of yourself and other persons who may be affected by your acts or omissions at work and to co-operate with the Trust in adhering to statutory and departmental safety regulations.
43. Not to intentionally or recklessly misuse or interfere with anything provided in the interests of health safety or welfare misuse of equipment.
·To ensure any complaints, incidents, accidents or other untoward occurrences or near miss involving patients, service users, carers, staff, contractors or members of the public, are reported and recorded using the Trust Incident reporting system.
44. Ensure an up-to-date knowledge of all relevant legislation relating to the remit of the service, Safeguarding children and adults, Caldicott, Health and Safety at work etc, as appropriate to role
Trust Mandatory On-going Requirements - to be met by the candidate after commencing in post, these will not be assessed at the recruitment stage
·To ensure your day-to-day activities embrace sustainability and reduce the impact upon the environment by minimising waste and maximising recycling; saving energy; minimising water usage and reporting electrical faults, water leakages or other environmental concerns to the facilities department or their line manager.
·To contribute to the control of risk and to report any incident, accident or near miss.
·To ensure your compliance with mandatory and essential training requirements.
Please see attached job description and person specification
Staff benefits
45. Pay Enhancements:
Band
Saturday (midnight to midnight) and any week day after 8pm and before 6am
All time on Sundays and Public Holidays (midnight to midnight)
1
Time plus 47%
Time plus 94%
2
Time plus 41%
Time plus 83%
3
Time plus 35%
Time plus 69%
4 – 9
Time plus 30%
Time plus 60%
46. 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays rising to 29 after 5 years and 33 days after 10 years
47. Excellent pension
48. Cycle to work scheme
49. Salary sacrifice car scheme
50. Wellbeing programme
51. fuelGenie Fuel Cards (for applicable roles)
Person specification
Education / Qualifications
Essential criteria
52. A-levels or level 3 equivalent
Desirable criteria
53. Care Certificate
54. Level 2 or 3 occupation specific qualification, such as an apprenticeship.
Experience
Essential criteria
55. Experience in health and/or social care settings
56. Experience of working in mental health services
57. Experience of working with service users with risk related behaviours
58. Experience of working within a team
Desirable criteria
59. Experience of working in community and inpatient settings
60. Ability to demonstrate how to access community-based facilities
61. Experience of dealing with challenging behaviours
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.