HealthJobsUK

Job overview

Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust are pleased to announce that we are currently recruiting Peer Practitioners to work into our Hartlepool Community Team. 

These roles will involve working together as part of a wider team. With support from the Peer Lead for Tees Valley and Senior Peer Worker, they will work towards the development of the system Peer Support Services in line with the Community Mental Health Framework and TEWV Peer Support Strategy as appropriate. 

The Community Transformation is part of the NHS Long Term Plan and represents a shift in the way we currently deliver care.  It is aligned to a model that considers the whole person, beyond their diagnosis, and looks at what the whole system has to offer (primary care, local authority, voluntary care sector, police, education as well as families and friends).  The aim is to work together to ensure we collectively deliver trauma informed, person centred care to meet an individual’s wide-ranging needs.

Peer support can be described as being when people with shared experiences connect to build safe, trusting and non-judgemental relationships where we learn and grow together.  Peer Practitioners are people who have experience of mental health challenges and accessing services for mental health care, and are employed, trained and supported to work to the TEWV Peer Support Values and use their experiences to support others. 

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
• Personal experience of accessing secondary or inpatient mental health services. 
• Personal experience of using your lived experience to support others, for example in a paid role, in volunteering, or in a user led environment

Your time in post will start with attending our peer support training alongside other people starting peer support roles with us.  This training is delivered by people with their own lived experience who also have direct experience of working in peer roles themselves. 

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 users 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 within the system (including other peer support workers / providers).

To support you with this work you will receive ongoing regular 1:1 and group supervision, and will be able to access a range of other peer connection and development structures.

Working for our organisation

We value diversity and want to have a wide range of identities represented in the peer workforce.  We welcome applications from people with lived experience of distress and mental health services from the characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010 (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation) and other diverse groups. 

We also value a diversity of experiences with mental health services in the peer workforce and welcome applications from people with helpful, difficult or mixed experiences of mental health services.

Individuals successful at application stage will attend a recruitment day to give them an opportunity to learn more about the role and to demonstrate their values and skills.  There will be a shortlisting process after the recruitment day to identify candidates for interview.

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the United Kingdom (UK) are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Please note that from January 2021, to work in the UK all candidates who are not UK or Republic of Ireland (RoI) nationals require sponsorship unless you have permission to work via another route. Non UK / RoI candidates wishing to apply can self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship here Browse: Work in the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Please provide full and accurate details of your current immigration status on the application form. Overseas applicants applying for entry clearance into the UK must present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided in continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).  Your current immigration status will not be considered as part of the shortlisting or interview process.

Please note that not everyone needs a ‘Skilled Worker’ visa. If you are applying for a vacancy in health or adult social care, you may be eligible to apply for the Health and Care Worker visa instead.

We are able to offer sponsorship for a Health and Care Worker or Skilled Worker visa, subject to candidate and position eligibility. Please review the job eligibility guidance for skilled workers here: Skilled Worker visa: Your job - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and for the Health and Care Worker visa here: Skilled Worker visa: eligible healthcare and education jobs - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Please note: if the job you are applying for does not meet the eligibility criteria above, we will be unable to offer you sponsorship and you will need to explore whether you may be eligible to apply for an alternative immigration route which will secure your right to work in the UK before you apply.  If you are in the UK already on a visa please ensure you have no restrictions that would prevent you from taking this post.