Thank you for your interest for the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT), it is an exciting time to join us and being part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we: Collaborate at every level by living our Values to create the right conditions for us all to work together. Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care. Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes. Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services. Ensure that research, Quality Improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services. Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more. The North London Way to deliver, Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities. Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/ Job overview Peer support workers draw on their lived experience of mental illness and treatment to enhance the care of current service users. This is done by: • Offering practical advice and support to patients • Empathetically sharing personal experiences of illness, treatment and recovery • Providing input into policy, culture and service development initiatives • Cofacilitating therapeutic activities with service users Please note, that to apply for this role you cannot be under section as a service user of the North London NHS Foundation Trust (formerly Camden & Islington and Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health Trust). Main duties of the job As a Peer Support Worker (PSW) your role will be to enhance the care and support we provide to our Service Users by: • Providing practical and emotional advice and support to Service Users on their road to recovery in groups or through structured one to one peer support sessions. • Sharing the wisdom from you own lived experience, inspiring hope and belief that recovery is possible for others. • Taking a lead in representing the value of Lived Experience, Co-Production and Co-Facilitation in our services. • Helping to develop and facilitate staff training and assist the Service's managers with recruitment by sitting on interview panels for prospective new staff. • Being actively involved in the ongoing development of our lived experience provision across the trust. • You will be given training, mentoring and supervision to ensure that you are confident and feel supported in your role. As valued member of the multi-disciplinary team, you will work with service users on a 1:1 and/or group basis for the majority of your time. You will also have the opportunity to develop the peer support service, attend training, work on projects and collaborate with colleagues from other specialisms. You will be reporting to and be supervised by one of the User Engagement Leads. You will receive additional supervision and support from other Peer Support Workers and from the Trust's Lived Experience Managers. Working for our organisation North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people. Our Five-Year Strategy: We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home. With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care. We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology. In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis. Detailed job description and main responsibilities Behave honestly and responsibly in all matters relating to trust property • Document the care you provide in line with the Trust's policy. • Communicate clearly and responsively with colleagues via email, telephone, etc. • Ensure your time is accounted for and used effectively. • Use IT equipment appropriately and effectively to complete tasks relevant to your role. • Model personal responsibility, self-awareness, self-belief, self-advocacy and hope by sharing your own recovery story to inspire confidence in service users. • Establish a trusting, supportive and respectful relationship with service users. • Share coping, self-help and self-management techniques within the peer relationship. • Support service users to identify and overcome fears and within a relationship of empathy, trust and honesty, challenge negative self-talk. • Facilitate access to community groups and networks that enable service users to participate in community activities. • Accompany service users, if appropriate, to appointments/meetings of their choice and perform a range of practical tasks, aligned to recovery goals. This is not an exhaustive list, p lease see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information on the role requirements and duties. Person specification Experience Essential criteria Lived experience of mental illness Desirable criteria Lived experience of criminal justice system Skills Essential criteria Ability to read and write effectively Desirable criteria Outstanding communication skills Experience Essential criteria Experience of supporting/coaching others References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR. If you have been unemployed for a period of four years or more, please give the details of your last employer and one character referee of your choice (not members of your family). If more applicable, references will be requested from your teacher or head of faculty. Please ensure you provide full contact details. Vacancies that are advertised as Fixed Term Contracts will also be available as secondment opportunities for substantive internal staff. Please be aware that your documents eg. Passport/NI Card, will be electronically scanned using Home Office accredited Verification System. Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we will close vacancies before the stated closing date once the first 50 applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible. All non-medical posts with the Trust are subject to a probationary period of six months, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the Trust's satisfaction, your suitability for the position in which you will be employed. Should you not hear from us within three working weeks of the closing date for this post, then regretfully in this instance, you have not been shortlisted. By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers. Employer certification / accreditation badges 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. Documents to download Peer Support Worker JDPS (PDF, 416.4KB) Functional Requirements (PDF, 536.5KB)