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Job summary

Main area
Peer Support Worker/Expert by Experience
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 4
Contract
2 years (Fixed Term)
Hours
  • Full time
  • Flexible working
8 hours per week (1 day per week or 2 half days)
Job ref
260-TP-730
Employer
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Tavistock Centre
Town
London
Salary
£30,279 - £33,116 Per Annum inclusive of HCAS
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
06/08/2024 23:59
Interview date
27/09/2024

Employer heading

Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust logo

Peer Support Worker/Expert by Experiance

NHS AfC: Band 4

It is a condition of this employment that you must live in and remain a resident of the United Kingdom during your employment with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

 

Covid-19 Vaccination

Getting vaccinated, and getting a booster, remains the best defence against COVID-19.
We encourage and support  staff to get  COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose as and when they are eligible. 


Please note in order to progress your application, your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust

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The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health trust with a focus on training and education alongside a full range of mental health services and psychological therapies for children and their families, young people and adults.

We are committed to improving mental health and emotional wellbeing, believing that high quality mental health services should be available for all who need them. We bring a distinctive contribution based on the importance we attach to social experience at all stages of people’s lives, and our focus on psychological and developmental approaches to the promotion of health and the prevention and treatment of mental ill health

We contribute to the pool of ideas through our own research and development, but are also committed to bringing together the best ideas of the time, old and new, from inside and out, together with the most gifted and able professionals in our fields of endeavour. We aim to share our ideas and practice through as many routes as possible.

As a Trust we aim constantly to be evolving in nature and form in relation to the environment in which we work, to ensure that our contribution remains relevant.

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

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Job overview

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is looking to recruit three Peer Supporters to work in its award-winning Trauma Service.

The service is a specialist NHS psychotherapy team that provides therapeutic support to adults who have been significantly affected by traumatic events experienced at any stage of life. The people we see hv experienced multiple episodes of trauma over extended periods and find the trauma has come to dominate their lives in numerous ways, making it hard to move fwd. The service is non-diagnostic, provides a flexible and individualised approach to treatment and sees lived experience work as a vital and integral aspect of the clinical work provided.

We are looking to recruit people who have accessed the Trauma Service at the Tavistock Centre as patients to work in the service as Peer Supporters/Experts by Experience. Whilst we will consider applications that otherwise meet the relevant criteria, we will prioritise applications from people who have accessed the service in line with our developing model of peer support.

We are looking to recruit three motivated and enthusiastic peer support practitioners who are open to reflecting on, and sensitively using, their own experience of past trauma and accessing therapy to support the therapeutic journey of others. These roles will provide a unique opportunity to work alongside clinicians in supporting a wide range of individuals as well as close involvement in the ongoing development of the service.

Main duties of the job

The role will involve providing lived experience/peer support work to patients accessing the service. This may take the form of making welcome calls to people new to the service, leading a drop-in peer support space alongside another peer supporter and providing brief one-to-one support around specific problem areas. There will be opportunities for participating in and co-delivering psychoeducational groups, receiving training and supervision from clinicians in the service. The role will also involve providing consultation to clinicians from a lived experience perspective, advising on and working towards co-producing aspects of the service, as well as working closely with other Experts by Experience and our panel of current service users. We envisage lived experience work involving sharing relevant aspects of one’s own experience, promoting choice, agency, hope and purpose for our patients as well as raising awareness about local resources and opportunities that support development.

Working for our organisation

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We are particularly keen to attract candidates from underrepresented backgrounds to better meet the needs of the service users and students that we serve. The Trust aims to ensure that all job applicants, employees or clients are treated fairly and valued equally regardless of sex, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, domestic circumstances, age, race, colour, disablement, ethnic or national origin, social background or employment status, sexual orientation, religion, beliefs,

 

The Tavistock and Portman is caring, compassionate and committed to co-creating the care and training we offer. We are passionate about the quality of our work and committed to openness, the use of evidence and the application of improvement science. We value all our staff, are concerned for their wellbeing, and seek to foster leadership, innovation and excellence in our workforce. We embrace diversity in our workforce and work to make our services and training as accessible as possible. We have made a firm commitment to being an anti-racist, anti-homophobic and anti- transphobic organisation. We work with others, in the UK and internationally, who share our values and can enable us to achieve our mission.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

 

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is looking to recruit three Peer Supporters to work in its award-winning Trauma Service.

Please see job description for main responsibilities an duties.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Willingness to undertake training in Peer Support and Lived Experience work – With You training provided by Health Education England
  • Relevant experience and/ or level 4 qualification in Health and Social care

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Personal experience of mental health challenges, adverse experiences and/or past trauma
  • Personal experience of accessing mental health services for therapeutic support
  • Being willing to share aspects of recovery journey in a constructive way to support the development of others
  • Previous experience of supporting people in distress or with specific areas of significant difficulty (professional or personal)
Desirable criteria
  • Experience of accessing trauma-specific services
  • Personal experience of receiving psychoanalytic informed therapy
  • Previous experience of Peer Support/Lived Experience work
  • Previous experience of involvement in research, audits or service evaluation
  • Experience of facilitating supportive group work

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Understand the value of expert by experience work
  • Ability to form effective working relationships with people from a range of communities, backgrounds and professions
  • Motivated to work with individuals and in groups of to provide appropriate peer support to service users as part of role
  • Good communication skills
  • Ability to work effectively in a team and a receptive attitude to supervision
  • Personal resilience, ability to reflect on challenging interactions, and to maintain appropriate boundaries and professional relationships
  • Effective IT skills sufficient for word, email, and electronic record keeping
Desirable criteria
  • Ability to remain calm and supportive when working with people in high levels of distress and in unpredictable circumstances

Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • An ability to recognise that individual experiences of trauma and adversity vary widely and an openness to difference and diversity
  • An understanding of the impact complex trauma can have and an interest in developing further knowledge in this area
  • Knowledge and understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to anti-discriminatory practice
Desirable criteria
  • Knowledge of some of the complexities involved in lived experience work
  • Knowledge of different approaches to research and data collection
  • Knowledge of local services relevant to patient population including statutory and third-sector organisations, and ability to build links and networks

Personal Attributes

Essential criteria
  • Ability to work on own initiative and maintain confidentiality
  • Ability to work independently
  • Ability to meet deadlines and to be flexible
  • Evidence of an interest in and receptive attitude to a psychoanalytic approach and a variety of psychological models
  • Ability to reflect on emotional impact of the work
  • Proactive, positive and enthusiastic attitude
  • Ability to prioritise and organise tasks
  • Able to demonstrate a commitment to work in line with the Trust’s values

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Veteran AwareApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyAge positiveInvestors in People: GoldCare quality commission - GoodMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Disability confident committedStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Adam Flintoff
Job title
Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist
Email address
[email protected]
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