Are you passionate about helping others in their journey through recovery? Are you a person who is keen to drive change through innovative thinking? If so, this could be the role for you!

This is an exciting opportunity to use your own lived experience to work at Forest Close as a Peer Support Worker, working with a range of professionals and service users to support people in their recovery.

Forest Close is a mental health inpatient rehabilitation unit for adults living in Sheffield.

Our aim is to provide care to people with severe and enduring mental health needs who require support to aid their recovery.

Service users are supported by a full multi-disciplinary team in a psychologically and trauma informed service with the aim of enabling them to live independent and fulfilled lives.

Forest Close serves the whole of the city and works closely with teams across Sheffield, including the Community Enhancing Recovery Team. The average length of stay at Forest Close is between 12 and 18 months.

As a peer support worker at Forest Close, you will be supported to draw upon lived experience to enhance the approaches offered to service users and support their recovery, through helping identify their strengths values and aspirations.

The successful candidate will have experience of using rehabilitation mental health services and a desire to work with people in their journey through recovery, and contribute to collaborative care planning, recovery goals and goals based outcomes.

The successful candidate will provide both 1:1 and group peer support in line with national competencies. This might focus on using a peers own lived experience as part of work on a persons identity, goal setting and connecting with their chosen community.

Forest Close has an ethos of a whole team approach with an emphasis on staff wellbeing and supporting each other. It is essential to work closely with colleagues and play a role within the multi-disciplinary team to play a part in maintaining standards of care and driving quality improvement work to continually ensure our service users receive the best care possible.

We are passionate about providing the very best care to the people we support, and we're looking for amazing people who share this passion to join us.

What is it that makes our Trust such a special place to work? Well, it's all about the people. Our staff, service users, carers and families all come from such diverse backgrounds and all have expertise and stories to share.

It’s important that you feel supported in your role, that the people who you work with are as passionate as you are and that your health and wellbeing is taken care of

If you're interested in developing your career, you'll have access to a range of training and education opportunities, including apprenticeships, work experience and placements, as well as the chance to get involved in research.

We are all very proud of the difference we make to people's lives each and every day and if that's something that you'd like to be part of we'd love to have you with us.

General Requirements:
To act as part of the multi-disciplinary team in a way that reflects the core values and principles of the recovery values and the team/service ethos
Aspire to instil hope and optimism in relation to service users, their families and colleagues.

Principal Duties:
The post holder will work flexibly in collaboration with others to undertake a number of duties. Below are some examples:

Working with service users and their families or carers:
To draw upon your lived experience to enhance the approaches offered to service users to support their recovery.
Understand a person’s experiences in relation to their mental health.
Ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect .

To work as part of the team providing approaches to support the service user with their recovery.
Build and maintain safe and effective therapeutic recovery relationships.
Contribute to the collaborative planning and review of recovery goals with service users and team members
To ensure that interactions are sensitive and responsive to the service users’ ethnic, cultural and social background, using a range of communication and engagement skills as appropriate to the context
Support people using services and staff to develop recovery plans and implement them collaboratively and creatively using initiative.
Understand a person’s coping strategies and strengths and support people to use these at times of distress or difficulty.
To accompany service users to appointments/meetings/activities of their choice and in performing a range of practical tasks, aligned to recovery goals.
To enable service users to develop self-management skills, taking an empowering approach to promote independence (‘doing with’ and empowering, ‘not ‘doing for’ people)
Be responsible for maintaining up-to-date records to reflect service users’ care and treatment packages and needs.
To report untoward incidents and areas of concern as soon as they arise
Promote anti-discriminatory activities.

Working with colleagues as part of a team:
To work collaboratively with other members of the teams and to build and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues.
Support colleagues by promoting systems of work, which promote safe practice
Contribute to review systems and team meetings.

Co-produce staff training:
To co-produce and deliver training (with team members and other Peer Support Workers across SHSC)

Personal responsibilities:

Work flexibly to meet service needs.

Administrative responsibilities:

Keep clinical records up to date including using mobile working technology in accordance with legislation.
Maintain records to a high standard and record activity data in a timely manner.

Service development:
Contribute to service development and change processes within the team and the SHSC PSW network.

Act as a role model- demonstrating trust values, credibility with the team, the wider health community and external agencies.

Ensure compliance with SHSC policies, procedures and guidelines for self and others, by acting and alerting managers or senior clinicians if practice appears to contravene policy, or if concerned about any aspect of service user care.
Adhere to SHSC standards of behaviour and expected performance.
Maintain a healthy, safe and secure working environment, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, maintaining accurate documentation and reporting any concerns.
Participate in promotion of the team and PSW to the directorate and wider trust.
Be involved in recruitment processes.

Supervision, training, reflective practice and continual professional development:

Take responsibility for own learning and development by recognising and taking advantage of all opportunities to learn, including full participation in PDR appraisal and supervision
Attend and complete all required Trust Mandatory training as per the Trust Mandatory Training Policy
To attend and contribute to reflective practice and case/ team formulation to encourage compassion and understanding.
Participate in regular individual and group supervision/reflective practice; within the service and PSW colleagues.
Participate in the development of the service and the SHSC PSW offer.
To take a proactive stance towards the maintenance of your well-being at work using supervision as appropriate.

Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust

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