Peer Support Practitioner

Kent & Medway NHS & Social Care Partnership Trust; Canterbury; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 27,000; Full time

Job summary

A respected healthcare trust in Canterbury is looking for a Peer Support Practitioner to inspire recovery in individuals with mental health challenges. You will share your lived experience and assist service users in managing their mental health. The ideal candidate will have a qualification in health and social care and demonstrate excellent communication skills. This role offers a salary of £24,937 to £26,598 annually and the opportunity to work in a supportive, multi-disciplinary team.

Qualifications

• Personal experience in 'telling your story' is encouraged.
• Experience of working or volunteering with people with mental health issues is required.
• Must demonstrate good IT skills, including RiO.

Responsibilities

• Assist in providing a safe and caring environment.
• Establish respectful relationships with service users.
• Support individuals in managing their mental health.

Skills

Lived experience of mental health problems

Good communication skills

Knowledge of recovery-focused ways of working

Education

BTec/City & Guilds/NVQ level 2 in health and social care

Tools

Word

Outlook

Job description

Peer Support Practitioner

The closing date is 25 September 2025

Are you looking for a job that inspires hope for a happier, healthier future?

This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic, motivated individual with lived experience of mental health services to join our multi-disciplinary team at Ethelbert Rd.

Ethelbert Rd is situated in Canterbury, and is one of 6 Rehabilitation Units across Kent, providing specialist inpatient rehabilitation for individuals with complex mental health needs. The unit comprises of 8 single bedrooms and is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

As an integral and highly valued member of the multi-disciplinary team, the Peer Support Practitioner will provide formalised peer support and practical assistance to service users to promote choice and work with them to regain control over their lives. Within a relationship of reciprocity, they will journey with service users to promote choice, self-determination and opportunities for the fulfilment of individually identified goals, working with people towards gaining greater independence and to manage their own health and wellbeing.

The Peer Support Practitioner will act as a champion for recovery within the team and an ambassador of recovery. As a core member of the multi-disciplinary team, the Peer Support Practitioner will work alongside the clients on a 1 to 1 and/or group basis.

"I feel more in control of my life - my peer has shown me never to give up hope" - service user feedback

Main duties of the job

• Assist in providing a safe and caring environment.
• Establish a supportive and respectful relationship with service users. By role modelling and sharing lived experience, encourage service users hope for change and aspirations of life.
• Support service users to identify aspects of life that give meaning, hope, value and purpose whilst recognising that each individual's wellbeing is distinctive.
• Model a recovery process and demonstrate coping skills, empowering service users to actively participate in their own recovery.
• Assist and advise individuals in managing their own mental health on a day to day basis.
• Support individuals to identify and overcome any barriers which may impact their recovery.
• Develop a range of relevant skills including sharing own personal recovery experience in 1:1 or group sessions, to give hope and support service users in their recovery.
• Adopt a flexible and participative approach to innovation and change within the team.
• Be actively involved in the ongoing development of the peer workforce within the Trust, including the Peer Support Training Programme, peer service evaluations and peer support networks.
• Maintain confidentiality at all times in line with Trust policy and adhere to Trust and Statutory Health & Safety requirements.
• Maintain and update training as required.
• With support from qualified members of staff where required, co-facilitate groups and participate in group discussion.

About us

Come and work with us in the Garden of England where we combine exceptional professional development opportunities with a tremendous quality of life.

We are Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), providing mental health, learning disability and specialist services, serving 1.8 million people in Kent and Medway, as well as specialist services for adults in Sussex and Surrey. We are rated Good overall by the CQC.

Each year we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 people in the community.

We are proud to employ over 3,800 people from 66 nationalities, and to serve an increasingly diverse range of communities across rural and urban areas.

You will be joining friendly, passionate colleagues, rich in their diversity, who are committed to providing excellent care to our service users and their loved ones.

The nature of our work attracts kindness and compassion as standard and everyone from our cleaners and porters to the chief executive and chairman are recognised as playing a vital role in providing an exemplary service.

Our mission is what we set out to do every dayWe deliver brilliant care through brilliant people

Our vision is where we want to be in the futureTo provide outstanding care and to work in partnership to deliver this in the right place, for every service user, every time.

Check out our recruitment videos Recruitment - YouTube

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities of the role.

Person Specification

Experience

• Lived experience of mental health problems and willing to positively share own life experiences
• Lived experience of mental health services.
• Have personal experience in "telling your story" or willingness to train.
• Knowledge of personal recovery and developed plans for managing own recovery.
• Experience of working or volunteering with people with mental health problems.
• Experience of using own history in a boundaried approach to support others in similar situations.

Qualifications

• BTec/City & Guilds/NVQ level 2 in health and social care OR equivalent experience

Knowledge

• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Willingness to promote the concept of recovery in all work carried out.
• Knowledge of recovery focused ways of working and ability to demonstrate these in practice.
• Good IT skills, including Word, Outlook and the ability to use the RiO electronic records system, or be willing to undergo training.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer name

Kent & Medway NHS & Social Care Partnership Trust

£24,937 to £26,598 a year per annum pro rata