Mental Health Link Worker

Pennine Care; Stockport; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 31,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous annual leave

Flexible working opportunities

Continued Professional Development

Staff wellbeing service

Staff discounts

Job summary

Pennine Care is recruiting for a Band 4 Mental Health Support role in Stockport, 37.5 hours per week, full-time, permanent. Salary £28,392 - £31,157 per annum, pro rata.

The post supports adults with severe mental illness within Neighbourhood Mental Health Team, coordinating care through a MDT and linking service users to community resources. The role emphasises warm welcome, respect, listening, and collaborative planning to prevent relapse and promote wellbeing.

Qualifications

• NVQ 4 qualification or equivalent.
• Care Certificate.
• Lived experience or carer experience.

Responsibilities

• Form and maintain professional relationships with service users, carers and colleagues.
• Attend huddles with Neighbourhood Mental Health Team partners and contribute to discussions and plans of care.
• Identify relapse risks and liaise with professionals to adjust care; act as key worker when required.
• Signpost and refer service users to community resources to support recovery.
• Engage families and carers as part of the service users' recovery journey.

Skills

Effective communication

Teamwork

Independent work

Time management

Maintains professional boundaries

Interpersonal skills

Education

NVQ level 4 or equivalent

Care Certificate

Lived experience or carer experience

Tools

IT skills

Job description

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Main area NMHT Grade Band 4 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday-Friday 9am-5pm) Job ref 311-S775-26-A

Site Unit 2 Cirtek House Town Stockport Salary £28,392 - £31,157 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 13/11/2026 23:59

If you are Kind, Fair, Ingenious and Determined then we want you to come and join our#PennineCarePeople

The Neighbourhood Mental Health Team is an MDT who work as part of the transformed community mental health service working with people 18+, including older adults, with SMI according to the principles of the National Framework for Community Mental Health 2019. This role will be integral in ensuring people get a warm welcome that they are treated with respect and are listened to and heard. You will collaborate with service users to ensure people get to the right service whether that is inside or outside Neighbourhood Mental Health Team. You will be part of a multi-disciplinary team and take part in the discussions about the type of support a person may need and you will be then instrumental in identifying where that might come from. You will also be able to offer support to individuals on a short-term basis especially if the help they need is around access. The postholder will act as the service users keyworker in certain circumstances and support service users to access socially inclusive activities to maintain their wellbeing and to prevent relapse. You will also act as a point of contact if the service user needs to step back into active treatment due to relapse of mental health.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will work to goal oriented care plans to empower and enable service users to live as independent life as possible, by supporting our service users to access a range of community-based resources such as housing, community groups, vocational, employment and education opportunities and substance misuse services.

The role will involve working closely with a range of professionals bridging primary and secondary care and include working with our VCSE partners.

Working for our organisation

We are proud to provide high quality mental health and learning disability services, both inpatient and in the community across five boroughs of Greater Manchester - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Tameside and Glossop.

Our vision is for a happier and more hopeful life for everyone in our communities and our staff work hard to deliver the very best care for the people who use our services. We’re really proud of our#PennineCarePeopleand do everything we can to make sure we’re a great place to work.

All individuals regardless of race, age, disability, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnership are encouraged to apply for this post. We would also encourage applications from individuals with a lived experience of mental illness, either individually or as a carer.

If you come and work for us we will offer a range of benefits and opportunities, including:

• Generous annual leave entitlement for Agenda for Change and Medical and Dental staff.
• Flexible working opportunities to support your work/life balance
• Access to Continued Professional Development
• Involvement in improvement and research activities
• Health and Wellbeing activities and access to an excellent staff wellbeing service
• Access to staff discounts across retail, leisure and travel

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To form and maintain professional relationships with service users, carers and colleagues in a way that respects their views, autonomy, and culture.
• To attend huddles with Neighbourhood Mental Health Team partners and contribute to discussions and plans of care
• To identify when service users may need to step back into active care due to relapse and liaise with registered professionals
• To act as key worker for service users where nonclinical care is required and hold a caseload
• To act as a point of contact for service users who have stepped down from active treatment and support who may need to step back up
• To contribute to collaborative care planning and review processes for individual service users.
• To support service users to identify their own hopes and goals to improve their quality of life.
• To provide signposting and referral to community-based resources to service users to support their recovery.
• To build strong links with the VCSE sector and our partner agencies to collaboratively support the needs of our service users.
• To support service users in engaging positively with appropriate services and resources such as benefits, education and employment, housing and substance misuse services.
• To provide information and support to enable service users to engage in meeting education, employment, and vocational needs.
• To undertake therapeutic activity with service users that promotes recovery, is valued and increases independence
• To assist service users to develop skills for everyday living i.e., budgeting, shopping, cooking, establishing and improving social networks, accessing local services etc.
• To engage with families and carers as appropriate as part of service users’ recovery journey

Person specification

Education/qualifications

• NVQ 4 qualification or equivalent
• Care Certificate
• Lived experience or carer experience

Experience

• Supporting / dealing people with serious mental illness (SMI) and substance abuse
• Experience of community working with people with SMI
• Working with multi agency partners to provide care including voluntary, charity, social enterprise (VCSE)
• Collaborative MDT working and confidently providing professional opinion
• Experience of working with service users to recognise relapse signatures and responding appropriately
• Experience of using initiative to effectively manage situations as they occur
• Previous experience of receiving / providing supervision
• Experience of providing constructive feedback to peers

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the models of recovery from mental illness and social inclusion
• Knowledge of solution focused principles and how to apply in practice
• Knowledge of principles of community mental health transformation and Living Well
• Knowledge of local mental health system and services available
• Knowledge of employment and benefits systems

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to work creatively and compassionately to support service users and to develop collaborative goals
• Ability to motivate, engage and support service users in their own recovery and to achieve their goals
• Effective communication skills both verbally and in written form
• Ability to develop rapport and therapeutic relationships with service users
• Maintains professional boundaries
• Demonstrate effective interpersonal skills
• Ability to understand needs of people with complex mental health issues and awareness of issues relating to consent and capacity
• Ability to deliver recovery based and socially inclusive interventions
• Ability to work independently on own initiative without close supervision, and as part of a team
• Ability to supervise and delegate tasks to others
• Competent use of IT
• Ability to act calmly in emergencies and respond in a professional manner to challenging situations
• Ability to adapt and respond positively to service changes
• Good organisational and time management skills.

Pennine Care are committed to the ‘Get ahead on Flex’ pledge initiative to support the right to request flexible working for all colleagues. “We can work flexibly,as a modern and model employer, flexible and less than full-time working isn’t a barrier to progress in the NHS – it is commonplace”.

We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the communities we serve. We actively encourage applications from individuals of diverse backgrounds to help us grow, innovate, and improve.

If you wish to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme, you will be guaranteed an interview if you meet the essential criteria for the role.

If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please contact us on 0161 716 3181 as early as possible so we can support you.

Please note:

• We do not accept unsolicited contact from recruitment agencies. Hiring managers should not be contacted directly.

We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. If you have a disability or long-term health condition and need extra time or adjustments to complete your application, please contact us as soon as possible. We will ensure you are not disadvantaged where a reasonable adjustment is appropriate.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.