Community Engagement Worker

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Barking; Remote; GBP 30,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Community Engagement Worker to promote mental health awareness, engage with diverse communities, and support psycho-educational initiatives within CHPS.

You will travel to community settings, build partnerships with local organisations, contribute to podcasts and newsletters, and help people access psychological services, while maintaining boundaries and safeguarding your wellbeing.

Qualifications

• Lived experience of psychological difficulties and their treatment is valuable.
• Empathy, listening, and supportive communication are essential.
• Strong outreach and engagement with diverse communities.

Responsibilities

• Work with Clinical Health Psychology Services to design and deliver activities as part of care plans.
• Support health promotion, outreach, and service user engagement tasks.
• Assist in developing podcast, social media, and newsletters for CHPS.
• Be compassionate, listen, and set boundaries to protect own wellbeing.
• Support service users’ recovery and improve patient experiences, including virtual or in-person meetings.

Skills

Lived experience

Empathy

Outreach

Communication

Job description

Job overview

As a Community Engagement Worker you will focus on promoting mental health awareness and education within the community. This role offers a creative and proactive opportunity to engage with local residents, build partnerships, and support the delivery of psycho-educational initiatives. Your work will directly contribute to improving access to vital psychological interventions and enhancing community wellbeing.

• Support organising and facilitating psycho-educational groups in diverse community settings to ensure broad access to mental health resources.
• Support developing and maintaining strong relationships with community organisations and stakeholders through promotional and outreach activities.
• Contributing to the service’s access targets by increasing community awareness and participation in Thinking Together Forum.

Clinical Health Psychology Services (CHPS) deliver a comprehensive range of specialist psychological pathways across multiple physical health specialisms. These pathways operate within two hospital trusts as well as across trust-wide and borough-based services. Areas of clinical focus include oncology, haemoglobinopathies, maternity and gynaecology, long-term health conditions, dental services, critical care, and paediatrics.

Community Engagement Worker will bring valuable lived experience of psychological difficulties and their treatment, acting as experts by experience. Within CHPS, this lived expertise is specifically related to psychological challenges arising in the context of physical health issues—for example, depression following a coronary event, the experience of chronic pain, or trauma associated with cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Community Engagement Worker will support service users by demonstrating empathy, sharing relevant experience, instilling hope, and promoting recovery. Working collaboratively with service users, they contribute to the development of personalised recovery journeys and support individuals in making informed, patient‑centred choices. They help service users to raise aspirations, define personal goals, and build social resources that foster wellbeing.

CHPS operates in collaboration with a wide range of community‑based agencies and maintains multiple service bases across the Trust. As such, Community Engagement Workers are required to travel independently, whether by public transport or by driving, to meet the needs of the service.

Main duties of the job

• To work as part of Clinical Health Psychology Services (CHPS) to provide, create and deliver a range of activities as part of the service users care plan.
• To support CHPS colleagues in health promotion, outreach and service user engagement tasks.
• To support with development of podcast, social media and newsletter for CHPS.
• To be compassionate, listen and offer support but can put boundaries in place and be aware of their own emotional wellbeing.
• To provide support to service users in relation to their recovery. To improve the experience of patients with physical health conditions and their families. This could involve virtual meetings, travelling to patients home for face to face meetings, co‑facilitating groups or accompanying patients to hospital appointments.
• To work in partnership with community, local authority and voluntary sector partners.
• To support the evaluation of the service and contribute to on‑going development of the service.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For more details please see the JD and Spec.

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop‑in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

High Cost Area Supplement – Outer London

(B&D, Redbridge, Havering and Waltham Forest, Goodmayes)

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,714 to a maximum of £5,941 p.a. pro rata for part time).

Working for Us

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London and Essex. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award‑winning equality and diversity initiatives, along with staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest significantly in your development because when you feel valued and supported, we can deliver the highest quality care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been recognised in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and hold a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Through our staff networks and training opportunities, we strive to foster a just and compassionate culture at NELFT.

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co‑produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT. They are:

• We are kind.
• We are respectful.
• We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points‑based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High‑Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.