Peer Lead for Inpatients and Culture of CareNHS

Job summary

Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust are pleased to announce that we are currently recruiting a Peer Lead for Culture of Care and Inpatient Services.

This is an exciting opportunity to build upon and significantly develop the peer support provision across TEWV Inpatient Services and Lead the Lived Experience and Coproduction in our Inpatient Culture of Care Program.

The program for the implementation of the culture of care standards for mental health inpatient care sets out to support TEWV to realise the culture of care within inpatient settings everyone wants to experience - people who need this care and their families, and the staff who provide this care. The approach is trauma-informed, autism-informed and based on anti-racism. Underpinning everything is the commitment to lived experience leadership, co-production and collaboration

You must have the Right to Work in the UK in order to be successfully appointed to this role. Please note, this role does not meet the required eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa and therefore the Trust is unable to offer sponsorship for this particular role.

Main duties of the job

For this role, we are looking for someone who has significant experience of peer leadership and has personal experience of mental health challenges and who has personal experience of accessing secondary or inpatient/tertiary mental health services. You will have substantial experience in the development of peer support and of working in lived experience essential roles. You will have personal experience of delivering formal peer support to service users. Applications from diverse backgrounds including lived experience of the criminal justice system are welcomed and those experiences will be seen as valuable lived experience for this role.

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 and the criminal justice system in the peer workforce and welcome applications from people with helpful, difficult or mixed experiences of mental health services.

Successful applicants will receive training and regular line management and peer supervision to support them in the role.

Job description

In addition to their leadership and supervision work, the Peer Lead for Culture of Care and Inpatient Services may also be professionally accountable for their own small caseload of Peer Work (as role demands allow). Drawing on your own experience of mental health challenges, you will walk alongside others on their journey in a supportive peer relationship built on our core peer values of authenticity, relationship, validation, respect, mutuality and empowerment. You will listen non-judgementally to create safe spaces where people feel heard. You will approach the peer relationship with compassion and curiosity. You will recognise and value peoples strengths, diversity and expertise in themselves. You will be aware of the impacts of trauma and committed to the importance of working in ways which are sensitive to the needs of trauma survivors.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further detailed information to ensure that you meet the role criteria before applying.

This job advert may close early if a high volume of applications have been received. If interested, please apply for this post as soon as possible.

About us

We are the Mental Health & Learning Disability NHS Trust for County Durham and Darlington, Teesside, North Yorkshire, York and Selby.

From education and prevention, to crisis and specialist care --our talented and compassionate teams work in partnership with our patients, communities and partners to help the people of our region feel safe, understood, believed in and cared for.

We nurture the recovery journey of anyone in need of our help. In Our Trust, everyone has a say in how they are supported and treated because we listen to every person in our care until they feel understood. Our patients, their families and carers work together with us towards better mental health.

We're committed to new thinking that improves the wellbeing of our region. We connect with our communities and partners to get mental health care right, in areas that really need it.

We won't rest until everyone in our region has the mental health care they need, to lead their best possible life.