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Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

About

Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 7000 members of staff, who deliver services from 122 locations.

We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.

Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.

Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.

Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.

Contact

Address: Bury New Road; Prestwich; Manchester; M25 3BL
Contact Number: 0161 938 5253

Find out more

Jobs Website

Closed

Ref: 437-7243277 Vacancy ID: 7243277

Senior Peer Support Worker

Closed for applications on:

Vacancy status: Closed

Closed for applications on:

Location

Site: Central Park
Address: Northampton Road
Town: Manchester
Postcode: M40 5BP
Major / Minor Region: Manchester

Contract type & working pattern

Contract

Fixed term: 12 months (1.6wte is funded for this post which equates to 2 x 0.8wte Senior Peer Support Workers. However, we will consider a minimum of 0.4wte (2 days) through to 1wte (5 days). Secondments would be considered with permission from line managers.)

Hours

Full time
Part time

30 hours per week (1.6wte is funded for this post which equates to 2 x 0.8wte (4-days) Senior Peer Support Workers. However, we will consider a minimum of 0.4wte (15 hours/ 2 days) through to 1wte (37.5 hours/ 5 days). Happy to discuss flexible working)

Salary

Salary: £26,530 - £29,114 Per annum pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Grade: (Band 4)

Specialty

Main area: For Individuals who have lived experience of serious mental health problems

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Help individuals identify their own achievable and meaningful recovery

goals and set recovery objectives, drawing on your mutual resources as

peers and utilising a semi-structured approach to support people

overcome internalised stigma and aid empowered decision making

regarding mental health disclosure focused peer support, and

experience.

To model personal responsibility, self-awareness, self-belief, self-advocacy, and hopefulness via the telling of own recovery story to inspire and instil confidence in peers.

To share and promote coping, self-help, and self-management techniques within the peer relationship.

To support service users to identify and overcome fears and within a relationship of empathy, trust and honesty, challenge negative self-talk.

To facilitate access to community groups and networks that enable service users to participate in community activities, in order to maximise opportunities for taking on socially valued roles and positive identity.
Act as a positive role model showing professional and caring attitudes and behaviour towards other multi-disciplinary team members, service users and carers.

Have a focus on the rights of service users at all times.
Work in a way that acknowledges the personal, social, cultural and spiritual strengths and needs of the individual.

Uses own initiative, personal experience and job-related training in deciding on the approach and interventions required when working with a service user in delivering peer support, although supervision is available.

Attend multi-disciplinary team meetings to promote the use of self-directed recovery tools.

Attend clinical review and supervision meetings to feedback progress on recovery goals.

To raise awareness of recovery language with all staff and partners by modelling positive strengths based, non-discriminatory, non-jargon, non-medicalised language in all areas of work.

Support other members of the multi-disciplinary team in promoting a recovery orientated environment and in identifying recovery focused activities imparting information/education as required.

To provide a consultation point for colleagues and agencies regarding service user matters and the trusts values.

Attend local and central team meetings to ensure the voice of service user experience is central to team culture.

To meet with partner agencies to seek opportunities to establish new care pathways to clinical care and wider social support.
To ensure effective communications of service user matters and promote the voice of service users in trust and team communications.

To share ideas about ways of achieving Recovery goals, drawing on personal experiences and a range of coping, self-help and self-management techniques.

To participate in quality assurance measures, promoting uptake of friends and family tests, satisfaction questionnaires and other measures that review the effectiveness of service delivery. Providing genuine constructive feedback and support for continued improvement of the service.

Actively seek advice and recommendations from service users through a range of formats and developing appropriate responses to feedback.
To participate in delivering service user perspectives in response to national guidelines adopted by the service.

Please see attached job description and person specification

Staff benefits

Pay Enhancements – 30% additional for Evenings (8pm onwards) and Saturdays and 60% additional for Sundays and Bank holidays.
27 days annual leave plus bank holidays rising to 29 after 5 years and 33 days after 10 years
Excellent pension
Cycle to work scheme
Salary sacrifice car scheme
Wellbeing programme
Blue Light Card Discounts

Important Information about working for GMMH:

All positions within the Trust are subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks, for further information on the checks required please visit the NHS Employers website www.nhsemployers.org

The Trust mandates all post holders who require a DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration throughout your employment with GMMH.

Applicants are encouraged to apply for posts at Greater Manchester Mental Health who have direct experience of mental health, learning disability or drug and alcohol services either as a service user or a carer.

The Trust is also committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We are aspiring to ensure our workforce is representative of the diverse communities that we serve, and we are strongly committed to removing barriers to employment for candidates from under-represented groups, for example BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ communities. If you would like to have an informal chat about the recruitment process for this role or would value some additional support, we’d love to hear from you.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when writing job applications

A candidate may utilise the help of AI when writing job application. The assessment of an application is made on its entirety and most times AI-generated content does not fully grasp the context and requirements of the job one applies for thus producing inaccurate and misleading information, especially in the supporting statement section of an application that can lack real life examples of one’s achievements, success and challenges.

We have added a disclaimer to our application process advising that the use of AI is monitored. GMMH reserves the right to follow up with a candidate at the interview on specific responses and those examples used in the supporting statement to explore it further.

Sponsorship

We are proud to be an approved sponsor for the Skilled Worker visa. Applications from individuals who require sponsorship will be considered alongside all other applications. Please be aware that not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and salary requirements on the UK Government’s website – click here.

If you are offered a role with us and you require sponsorship, we will check your eligibility in line with the information on the above website. Your offer of employment could be withdrawn if the role is not eligible for sponsorship, and you are not otherwise able to evidence your right to work in the UK.

The Home Office introduces new changes from 22/07/2025 that impact the health and care sector, you may wish to familiarise with it here.

Do you have experience outside the NHS?

We want to attract and retain people with diverse skills and experience, to deliver inclusive healthcare services to our communities.

We will consider relevant experience outside the NHS to calculate your salary on appointment. Please contact our Recruitment Team for more information.

**Please note, this vacancy may be closed at any time if sufficient applications have been received**

Applicant requirements

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications

Essential criteria

Recognised competency-based qualification in a relevant subject (e.g. NVQ, B-TEC QCF, Apprenticeship), or equivalent demonstrable experience

Desirable criteria

Willingness to undertake further training in line with the development of the SPSW role

Experience

Essential criteria

Lived experience of psychosis and having received mental health services
Evidence of pro social behaviour (e.g empathy, actions that benefit others)
Experience of working in a relevant peer support role.

Desirable criteria

Experience of working in a team
Experience of training, teaching, coaching/mentoring others
Experience of using a range of self-management or recovery tools and Techniques

Skills & Knowledge

Essential criteria

Self-sufficient: able to work in an independent and autonomous fashion handling a diverse caseload
Seeks to continuously improve their approach, using reflective learning and suggesting ideas to their first line manager.
Role model and support others to develop.

Desirable criteria

Supervisory/Management skills, e.g. wellbeing management; audits; performance management; goal setting; mentoring.
Experience of working with individuals using motivational techniques.