RECONNECT Peer Support Worker

Come and Join Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, where we offer a wide variety of challenging and rewarding roles within a supportive, innovative and dynamic work environment!

We have an exciting opportunity for a Peer Support Worker to join our team within the RECONNECT Service in the Directorate of Mental Health.

The role of the Liaison & Diversion/RECONNECT Peer Support Worker has been developed specifically for individuals who have lived experience within the Criminal Justice System as an offender.

The value of lived experience is pivotal in this role in supporting this population of people as this adds value to the support offered. The Peer Support Worker uses their own unique, life‑altering experience to guide and support others who are in a similar situation. Peer Support Workers provide support from the perspective of someone who has first‑hand experience, something that professionals cannot learn from training or education.

The post holder will have a keen interest in health and justice and a passion for supporting vulnerable individuals in contact with the Criminal Justice system under the supervision of a Liaison & Diversion/RECONNECT practitioner.

The post holder will work as part of a team and liaise closely with Criminal Justice Partners to work with individuals who have been referred. The peer support worker will support service users to access and engage with community support services for their identified needs.

• Develop supportive relationships with service users.
• Use own lived experience to guide and support others to make positive changes within their recovery journey and support engagement with support services.
• Share own recovery story to provide hope, self‑belief and self‑awareness and inspire and instill confidence in peers.
• Promote and facilitate access to community groups and networks that enable service users to participate in community activities and with partner agencies.
• Support service users to identify and overcome fears within a relationship of empathy and trust.
• Work with key stakeholders involved with supporting the service user.

We may close the advert early, if we receive a sufficient number of applicants, so please apply as soon as possible.

Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) provides a range of community health, mental health and learning disability services for people of all ages. Delivered through over 100 settings from inpatient wards to out in the community, our 6,500 staff serve over 1 million people living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. We aim to develop a workforce that reflects our community. We actively implement equal opportunities in employment and service delivery and seek people who share our commitment.

We strongly encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly from underrepresented groups. Details of our benefits, leadership behaviours and other important information can be found in the Information for Applicants, please view the supporting documents. We will consider requests to work alternative hours or varied working patterns in line with our flexible working policy. For all substantive roles, new staff (excluding medical staff) are appointed subject to a 6‑month probationary period (see Probation Policy).

All jobs will require permission to work in the UK. For all jobs the cost of any DBS disclosure required will be met by the individual. This will be deducted from salary once started. Applicants at risk within the local NHS who meet essential criteria will have preference for interview.

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.