Peer Support Practitioner

Job overview
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 The Grove.
The Grove is situated in Ramsgate, 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.

Working for our organisation
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 strategy
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

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

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria

• 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.

Desirable criteria

• 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

Desirable criteria

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

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• 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.

Desirable criteria

• Good IT skills, including Word, Outlook and the ability to use the RiO electronic records system, or be willing to undergo training.

Important Information:
In cases where we receive a high volume of applications for a post, it may be necessary to bring the closing date forward. Please submit your completed application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
Due to the high volume of applications received, it is not possible to respond individually to your application. Should you not hear from us within six weeks of the vacancy closing, please assume that your application has not been successful.

Probation Period. New employees external to the trust are subject to a six-month probationary period.
To deliver an effective service it is essential in some of our roles that you are able to travel between work bases in a timely manner.
Production of false or forged documents/qualifications in order to obtain employment is a criminal offence and will be reported to the Police.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check.
Certain roles are subject to criminal record checks called Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. Therefore, you will be required to submit a completed Disclosure form to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust are signed up to NHS England's Sexual Safety in Health Care Organisational Charter
The trust takes a systematic zero-tolerance approach to tackle any unwanted, i