Lived Experience Support Worker

Hpft; Radlett; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 33,000; Full time

Job summary

Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust (HPFT) in Radlett is seeking a Lived Experience Support Worker to join the Liaison and Diversion Service. You will work with service users in person, by video, or by phone, delivering psychoeducation based interventions over twelve weeks and providing tailored lived-experience support within the criminal justice pathway.

The role requires personal lived experience of mental health treatment and ideally familiarity with the criminal justice system, with

Qualifications

• A recognised qualification in an area related to the workplace or equivalent technical or life skills.
• Personal experience of mental health treatment and/or involvement with the criminal justice system
• Health care or relevant NVQ Level 3 or equivalent skills
• Experience of a mental health treatment requirement order (MHTR)

Responsibilities

• To support people who are experiencing vulnerabilities which include: mental health, learning disabilities, substance misuse and other psychosocial vulnerabilities. and challenges.
• To support individuals and groups using a peer-oriented approach
• Establishing therapeutic relationships with individuals navigating the criminal justice system. Respect confidentiality whilst recognising that there are circumstances where information may need to be shared with other professionals, particularly if there's a risk to the service user or others, or if the service user discloses details of a crime.
• To be a positive role model for other people overcoming vulnerabilities, other workers and members of the public
• To use parts of your recovery story to inspire hope in others where appropriate
• To be given range of mandatory and optional training to support you in your work.

Skills

Lived experience

Criminal justice experience

Education

NVQ Level 3 or equivalent

Job description

Main area lived Experience Grade NHS AfC: Band 4 Contract Fixed term: 12 months (Full or part time available) Hours

• Full time
• Part time
• Job share

37.5 hours per week (In Radlett on Wednesdays; other locations by arrangement (St Albans Probation secondary office)) Job ref 367-LD&F-101615-C

Site 3 Bowlors Green Town Radlett Salary £29,812 - £32,715 Per annum, Pro rata (5% HCAS Included) Salary period Yearly Closing 17/11/2026 23:59

Values Based Screener

At Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust we are looking for people to join us who share our values and those of the NHS. Before your application can be considered please take part on our online values questionnaire, which you can find below. When you have finished you will be sent a 'completion code' by email, which will be valid for 6 months and required to submit your application form.

This post is for a Lived Experience Support Worker (also referred to as a Peer Support Worker or an Expert by Experience Support Worker) who will be embedded with the Primary Mental Health Requirement Treatment Team within the wider Liaison and Diversion Service.

Our team provides psychoeducation based interventions over twelve weeks for service users who have had a Community Order for primary care mental health treatment. We do this work one-to-one in person, by video, or by telephone and we offer a skills-based group virtually to all service users.
Your role will be to work with us to provide additional lived experience support to service users going through the criminal justice system to help them to overcome challenges in their journey to recovery and wellbeing. You will do this holistically, being flexible in the way you work in order to provide tailored support to our service users.
You may provide support by meeting service users for a coffee, joining them on their journey into their sessions, providing additional out of session support for their interventions, or developing different activities that suit your needs and your skills. You will work independently with service users, jointly with an AP, or as part of a drop-in clinic.

Applicants MUST have experience with receiving mental health treatment and it is preferred that they have experience of the criminal justice system.

Main duties of the job

Peer support is delivered through promoting empowerment and choice and giving the opportunity for the exploration of meaning and purpose.

You will have a caseload of service users who are benefiting from your contact; you will work with the treating AP to develop a treatment plan that works for their needs and their goals. You will also help to establish and run drop-in clinics at the different Probation sites where you and the APs will work jointly to offer skills and support on an ad hoc basis.
You will join the rest of the team in giving presentations about our work, ensuring that the Lived Experience role is communicated effectively.
You will gather feedback from service users you have worked with so that we are able to effectively evaluate the impact of your work.
You will take up other tasks that interest you and benefit the service user, as well as develop your own projects of interest.

Working for our organisation

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

Our family of over 4000 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.

The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Our Trust values are:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

These values are at the core of who we are, everything we do, and how we do it!

Would you like to be part of the HPFT family? Would you like work with us to ensure our service users live the fullest lives possible they can? Would you like to be supported in your career to be the best that you can be?

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To support people who are experiencing vulnerabilities which include: mental health, learning disabilities, substance misuse and other psychosocial vulnerabilities. and challenges:

• To support individuals and groups using a peer-oriented approach
• Establishing therapeutic relationships with individuals navigating the criminal justice system. Respect confidentiality whilst recognising that there are circumstances where information may need to be shared with other professionals, particularly if there's a risk to the service user or others, or if the service user discloses details of a crime.
• To be a positive role model for other people overcoming vulnerabilities, other workers and members of the public
• To use parts of your recovery story to inspire hope in others where appropriate

You will have the support of regular clinical supervision, peer supervision with your team, and external support from the Lived Experience lead and network.
You will be given a range of mandatory and optional training to support you in your work.

For full details of the main duties and responsibilities of the role please refer to the job description and person specification documents attached.

Qualifications

• A recognised qualification in an area related to the workplace or equivalent technical or life skills
• Personal experience of mental health treatment and/or involvement with the criminal justice system
• Health care or relevant NVQ Level 3 or equivalent skills
• Experience of a mental health treatment requirement order (MHTR)

Experience

• Experience of working with people with mental health needs or other vulnerabilities in a paid or voluntary capacity
• Experience working as part of a team
• Experience of being supervised
• Recent lived experience of mental health issues or another relevant vulnerability, and of being in the criminal justice system
• Managing personal recovery
• Knowledge of Peer Support, Recovery, and Wellbeing and an ability to apply this throughout your work
• Experience running groups/activities
• Experience of training others in technical/leisure/creative skills

Please note, we do not charge fees for job applications, recruitment processes, sponsorship arrangements, or employment offers. Please see the Trust careers vacancy webpage and Trac as the only authorised routes for recruitment communications, applications and verification of job offers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.