Job overview
The role of Peer Support Worker has been developed specifically for people who have lived experience of mental health or a dual diagnosis such as mental health and substance misuse / Learning Difficulties / Autism to support others who may benefit from peer support in addition to other treatment and interventions. There is growing evidence that peer support reduces the need for individuals to access crisis and inpatient services.
The Peer Support Worker will act as a role model, mentor and ambassador for living well in both clinical and non-clinical environments across a range of community settings.
Through sharing wisdom from your own experiences, you will inspire hope and belief that living well is possible in others. You will:
·Support and promote recovery from mental health as a user led concept.
·Emphasise hope and optimism, inspiring individuals to achieve their aspirations/goals.
·Value experiential learning alongside other people.
·Focus on strengths rather than deficits.
·Foster collaboration between those who need support and those who support them.
·Enable and promote autonomy and self-management.
Main duties of the job
There is also an expectation that you will be involved in the on-going development of Peer Support Worker roles at the Trust, including such things as training programmes and evaluations.
1. Key areas: - Supporting with induction packs
2. Attending and supporting meetings
3. Providing sessions and discussing discharge/stepdown pathways
4. Supporting individual transfers to new placements
5. Supporting physical health needs
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
·To act as a positive role model to those people using our services and your colleagues, demonstrating GMMH values during your work.
·To establish supportive and respectful relationships with people using our services within professional boundaries.
·To assist those people using our services to identify their strengths, personal interests and goals, drawing on your mutual resources as peers and utilising a range of recovery tools, techniques and experience.
·To model personal responsibility, self-awareness, self-belief, self-advocacy and hopefulness via the telling of own recovery story to inspire and instil confidence in peers.
·To share and promote coping, self-help and self-management techniques within the peer relationship.
·To support service users to identify and overcome fears and within a relationship of empathy, trust and honesty, challenge negative self-talk and self-stigmatisation.
·Act as a positive role model showing professional and caring attitudes and behaviour towards other multi-disciplinary team members, partners, service users and carers.
·To liaise with carers, other health professionals, statutory and voluntary agencies to enable the recovery needs of people using our services.
·To accompany service users to appointments/meetings of their choice and perform a range of practical tasks, aligned to recovery goals and always promote choice.
·To facilitate access to community groups and networks that enable service users to participate in community activities, to maximise opportunities for taking on socially valued roles and positive identity
·To integrate and work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary team using own initiative, personal experience and job-related training in deciding on the approach and interventions required when working with a service user in delivering peer support.
·Develop and facilitate therapeutic groupwork.
·Ensure that patient health records are maintained in accordance with national and organisational policies and within the scope of the Peer Support Workers responsibility.
·Ensure that your peers recovery goals are integrated into the Trusts record keeping process and are reviewed on a regular basis, liaising closely with care co-ordinators as necessary.
·To receive and contribute to daily handovers and clinical records to ensure continuity of care for service users and to ensure their safety.
·To actively participate in regular line management and clinical supervision including recovery focused group supervision and to identify personal developmental needs.
·To raise awareness of recovery language with all staff and partners by modelling positive strengths based, non-discriminatory, non-jargon, trauma informed language in all areas of work.
·Support other members of the multi-disciplinary team in promoting a recovery orientated environment and in identifying recovery focused activities facilitating the sharing of information/education as required.
·To participate in quality assurance measures, promoting uptake of friends and family tests, satisfaction questionnaires and other measures that review the effectiveness of service delivery. Providing genuine constructive feedback and support for continued improvement of the service.
·Motivate and encourage other service users and carers to get involved in the Trust Service User and Carer Engagement Scheme and Volunteering Scheme if they show an interest in being involved.
·Attend multi-disciplinary team meetings and promote the use of self-directed recovery tools.
·Attend clinical review meetings to feedback progress on recovery goals.
·To actively engage in training to support competency for the role.
·To liaise with service users, family and carers, staff, and other services in a professional and caring manner at all times.
·To manage barriers to communication in a professional, constructive, and empathic manner.
·To keep accurate and complete records consistent with legislation, policies, and procedures.
·To receive and relay oral and written messages.
·To raise any safeguarding concerns immediately with your supervisor/duty team.
·To actively take part in annual appraisal and regular supervision in line with Trust policy.
·To take responsibility for identifying own development needs, and planning with your line manager to meet those needs.
·To actively take part in learning & development opportunities.
·To actively take part in and achieve competency in all mandatory training relevant to the role.
·To evaluate the learning & development activities you take part in and take responsibility for transferring that learning back into the workplace.
·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 co-operate with the Trust in adhering to statutory and departmental safety regulations.
·To not intentionally or recklessly misuse or interfere with anything provided in the interests of health safety or welfare misuse of equipment.
·To contribute to the control of risk and report immediately, using the Trust Incident reporting system, any incident, accident or near miss involving patients, service users, carers, staff, contractors or members of the public.
·To aid as requested in the event of a health emergency.
·To keep confidential information stored safely in line with Trust policy and procedures.
·To actively engage in service improvement by reflecting on and developing own practice and to develop peer support work within mental health services.
·To effectively carry out tasks related to evaluating services as directed.
·To promote and actively encourage service user engagement in evaluating and enhancing service delivery.
·To give constructive feedback regarding the improvement of services to the appropriate person(s).
·To comply with legislation, policies and procedures relevant to the work being undertaken.
·To work within the limits of own competence and responsibility and refer issues beyond these limits to the relevant people.
·To act responsibly as a team member and seek help where necessary.
·To use and maintain resources efficiently and effectively.
·To report problems as they arise to the appropriate person(s).
·To treat everyone equally and with dignity and respect.
·To recognise and report behaviour that undermines equality, diversity and inclusion.
·To promote and support service users’ rights, beliefs, and choices, taking into account issues of diversity and cultural needs.
·To undertake any other reasonable duty, when requested to do so by an appropriate Trust manager.
·To understand and comply with all Trust policies, procedures, protocols and guidelines.
·To understand the Trusts Strategic Goals and how you can support them.
·To understand the need for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and adhere to all principles in effective safeguarding.
·To carry out all duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with Equal Opportunities, Equality and Diversity and dignity in care/work policies and principles.
·To avoid unlawful discriminatory behaviour and actions when dealing with the colleagues, services users, members of the public and all stakeholders.
·To access only information, where paper, electronic, or, in another media, which is authorised to you as part of the duties of your role.
·Not to communicate (including on social media) to anyone inside or outside the NHS, information relating to patients, services users, staff, contractors or any information of a commercially sensitive nature, unless done in the normal course of carrying out the duties of the post and with appropriate permission.
·To maintain high standards of quality in corporate and clinical record keeping ensuring information is always recorded accurately, appropriately and kept up to date.
·Take reasonable care of the health and safety of yourself and other persons.
·To contribute to the control of risk and to report any incident, accident or near miss.
·To protect service users, visitors and employees against the risk of acquiring health care associated infections.
·To take responsibility for your own learning and development by recognising and taking advantage of all opportunities to learn in line with appraisal and supervision.
Person specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential criteria
6. •Has undertaken the Trust Level 2 Award in Peer Mentorship or is willing to do so as soon as the position is offered / or completed equivalent programme.
7. •Competent in Maths and English at Level 1 Functional Skills (equivalent to GCSE grade D-E) and willing to work towards Level 2 (GCSE grade A-C)
8. •Competent in basic Microsoft Office applications e-mail, Word, Teams.
Desirable criteria
9. •Completed group facilitation skills training
Experience
Essential criteria
10. •Have lived experience of mental health problems
11. •Experience of accessing services and actively contributing to own treatment/interventions to support own recovery
12. •Experience of actively supporting individuals to identify and work towards achieving personal goals in a related social care or health setting (paid or unpaid)
Desirable criteria
13. •Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
Knowledge
Essential criteria
14. •Demonstrate an understanding of what Peer Support work is
15. •Demonstrate an understanding of professional boundaries
16. •Have a basic awareness of equal opportunities legislation and understand the importance of recognising and respecting diversity and promoting inclusion
17. •Have a basic awareness of policies and procedures in relation to confidentiality, information sharing, and safeguarding children and vulnerable adults
Desirable criteria
18. •Knowledge and understanding of the Trauma Informed Care Agenda in mental health
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
19. Be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people including service users, carers, other professionals, and members of the public
20. Able and willing to share own experiences appropriately to work in a trauma informed way, validating other experiences, listening and empathising, whilst promoting and empowering hope
21. Able to motivate others and promote choice and empowerment
22. Be able to handle challenging situations and behave in a professional manner
23. Be aware of the limits of your own competence, and responsibilities and know when to consult with others
24. Show commitment to one’s own professional development
Desirable criteria
25. •Basic psychosocial intervention skills Motivational Interviewing, Behavioural Activation, Node Link Mapping, Solution Focussed Approaches
26. •Group work skills
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.