Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This role sits within the Multi-Disciplinary Team and will be involved in on going service development.  In your capacity as a Peer Support Worker you will have lived experience of trauma or bereavement associated with pregnancy or childbirth.  

Please note, the post holder can expect to hear stories of perinatal bereavement and trauma.  For this reason, we would expect this post to be suitable for someone that is able to listen to these stories without it feeling retraumatising.  There is extensive support and supervision within the clinical team around the post-holder.

In this role, we would expect that you will offer 1:1 or group support to women and families that have also experienced perinatal loss or trauma.  This will be supported within the MDT and with allied organisations.

Patient involvement is also key to the development of the service and there will be a requirement for the applicant to collect patient feedback forms and organise and run the bimonthly online Patient Involvement Group.

It is important that you feel able to cope with the highly sensitive and emotional stories that accompany this work.  We will however provide strong support and supervision structures to enable this work.

Please note, the lived experience is an essential aspect of this role and we cannot accept applicants where this is not apparent.

A full UK driving licence and vehicle for business use is required for this post; however reasonable adjustments will be made for disabled individuals in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Key roles;

To establish supportive and respectful relationships with people using perinatal mental health services.

To help people identify their personal goals

To support women and families using home visits using active listening skills and signposting/accompanying to community resources.

To build and sustain relationships with third sector organisations with the  support of the wider MDT.

To offer relationships built upon acceptance, empathy and trust both to women and to their wider family networks

To draw on personal experiences and range of coping, self-help and self-management skills

To model personal responsibility, self awareness, self belief, self advocacy and hopefulness

To sign-post to various resources, opportunities and activities within the Trust and in communities to promote choice and informed decision making

To raise awareness of recovery among Trust staff by modelling positive, strengths based, non-discriminatory, non-jargon, non-medicalised language in all areas of work

To support the team in promoting a trauma informed approach to recovery

Be actively involved in the continued development of the PSW training programme and in the ongoing

To abide by the PSW Code of Conduct, so that the central focus of work, inspiring recovery, is not compromised in any way

To act as an ambassador for the Trust with external agencies and partner organisations

Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment. The cost of the DBS application is £26.40 (standard) or £54.40 (enhanced), this cost will be deducted from your salary over the first 2 months of employment.

You are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. An annual fee of £16 per year applies.

Please note that this post does not meet the pay level required for a Skilled worker visa.

Successful applicants with no prior NHS experience would normally be placed at the bottom of the band in line with Agenda for Change. This salary is below the minimum salary required for sponsorship for a Skilled Worker / Health & Care visa. In these circumstances the Trust would not, therefore, be able to sponsor for a Skilled Worker / Health & Care visa.

Applicants requiring a Skilled Worker Visa can determine the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship against the relevant criteria here https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa