Reconnect Peer Support

Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 27,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working where possible

Annual leave 27–33 days + bank hols

Training and development opportunities

Job summary

Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Peer Support Worker for the Reconnect service. You will use your lived experience to support individuals transitioning from prison to the community, helping them engage with health, housing and employment services and to develop practical strategies for wellbeing.

Working within a multidisciplinary team, you will build relationships, promote recovery, and support planning and engagement with services to improve long-term stability.

Qualifications

• Recent direct lived experience of the criminal justice system, including contact with prison and/or probation services.
• Mental health awareness and ability to support others.
• Peer mentor training or equivalent recognised preparation.

Responsibilities

• Develop trusted, recovery-focused relationships with people supported by Reconnect before and after release.
• Support service users to set goals, build confidence and increase independence.
• Navigate health, housing, financial and community services with service users.
• Contribute to care planning and multi-agency discussions within the team.

Skills

Lived experience

Mental health awareness

Peer mentor training

Communication skills

Job description

Applicants require recent direct lived experience of the criminal justice system, including contact with prison and/or probation services.

The Peer Support Worker (PSW) will work as an integral member of the Reconnect service, supporting people before and after release from prison. Reconnect aims to improve continuity of care, reduce health and social inequalities and help people engage successfully with health, substance misuse and wider community services.

Using their own lived experience appropriately, the PSW will develop trusting and compassionate relationships with service users, providing practical and emotional support, promoting choice and helping individuals identify and work towards their personal goals. The role will support people through the transition from prison into the community, including engagement with appointments, services and other sources of support, helping to build confidence, independence and longer-term stability.

Main duties of the job

• Develop trusting, compassionate and recovery-focused relationships with people supported by the Reconnect service before and after release from prison.
• Use lived experience appropriately to help service users identify their own achievable and meaningful goals, build confidence and develop greater independence.
• Share elements of personal lived experience in a safe and purposeful way to provide hope, challenge stigma and support motivation and engagement.
• Act as a positive role model for service users and colleagues, demonstrating professional boundaries, empathy, respect and a trauma-informed approach.
• Support service users to develop practical strategies for maintaining wellbeing, managing setbacks and increasing self-management, including contributing to crisis or relapse planning where appropriate.
• Support people to access and remain engaged with health, substance misuse, housing, financial, employment and wider community services, including accompanying them to appointments where appropriate.
• Work alongside Reconnect practitioners and partner agencies to contribute relevant information to support plans, reviews and multi-agency discussions.
• Use role-specific training, supervision and personal experience to guide practice, maintain appropriate boundaries and reflect on the impact of the work.
• Promote choice, participation and personal responsibility, helping service users to recognise their strengths and work towards greater stability in the community.

About us

Join 'Team Derbyshire Healthcare' and become part of a talented, compassionate and enthusiastic workforce committed to a vision of 'making a positive difference in people's lives'.

CQC rated us as 'GOOD' overall, commenting on how our colleagues \"treated patients with compassion and kindness\" and \"felt positive and proud about working for the trust.\"

Benefits include:

• Commitment to flexible working where this is possible
• 27 days annual leave/year plus bank holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years & 33 days after 10 years' service
• Yearly appraisal and commitment to ongoing training
• Good maternity, paternity and adoption benefits
• Health service discounts and online benefits
• Incremental pay progression
• Free confidential employee assistance programme 24/7
• Access to our LGBT+ network, BAME Network and Christian Network
• Health and wellbeing opportunities
• Structured learning and development opportunities

Job responsibilities

• Work within multi disciplinary team and develop positive working relationships with service receivers and colleagues
• Communicate with team members and provide information to inform future care planning
• Provide relevant information to care plan co-ordinators as required and feedback information into CPA process to ensure recovery goals are integrated into future care planning
• To work with teams in the wider organisation to raise the profile of recovery and peer support.

Person Specification

• Contact with the Criminal Justice System
• Peer mentor training
• Mental health awareness

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

£25,760 to £27,476 a yearper annum, pro rata