Peer support workers use their experience of living with a long-term condition or recovery and any healthcare experience to support people who are accessing health services.

In our Trust, we have peer support workers in our mental health services, criminal justice services, autism services, veterans services, and perinatal services. They help to demonstrate that change is possible and give a message of hope and understanding. They are positive role models that inspire, motivate, guide and support people to work alongside services on a journey of recovery. They offer reciprocal support, helping people move to a more positive, meaningful, and fulfilled future.

Watch Ray’s story. 

Career pathway

We can support you to gain the necessary qualifications and training to be a peer support worker. This includes the Care Certificate, ImROC Peer Support Worker training, and Level 2 Functional Skills in English and Maths.

There are also opportunities to undertake further specialist training in sharing your lived experience.

A peer assistant practitioner uses their previous experience as a peer support worker, alongside their lived experience of recovery, to support people accessing our services.

Like peer support workers, peer assistant practitioners help people gain support from services, and act as a role model to inspire, motivate and guide. They also lead group interventions and supervise more junior members of the team. Peer assistant practitioners are integral to our multidisciplinary teams as they can provide their own lived experiences in discussions.

Career pathway

This role requires you to have experience as a peer support worker, the Care Certificate, ImROC Peer Support Worker training, a Level 3 healthcare qualification, and GCSE/Level 2 Functional Skills in English and Maths. The role will enable you to undertake further assistant practitioner training if desired.

A senior peer support worker uses their lived experience of recovery at the centre of everything that they do. They also help to supervise and train current staff and recruit additional peer support workers to our services.

Senior peer support workers champion co-production within their own peer support worker teams and in multidisciplinary teams to support the recovery of the person accessing our services. They are equipped with critical and relational approaches to a variety of health conditions, trauma-informed care, and the history of peer support and the survivors’ movement so they can lead and influence organisational culture.

Career pathway

To be a senior peer support worker you would need to have at least 12 months experience in a health peer support worker role. You will also need to have a relevant level 3 qualification in health and social care and/or relevant experience, peer support worker training, the Care Certificate, and either have, or be willing to complete, peer support worker supervisor training. An assistant practitioner qualification is not essential for this role.

You will also need to have training experience and be able to share your own experiences to support others in a training environment. You will advocate for others, by challenging stigma, prejudice, and discrimination and support others to do the same.

The Recovery and Wellbeing Academy offers a learning approach to recovery and wellbeing that compliments existing services.

Recovery academy tutors deliver a wide range of courses and workshops that are designed to empower people to recognise their skills, abilities and resources and learn to become experts in their own recovery and wellbeing.

Recovery academy tutors plan and create training course presentations and materials. They implement feedback from students, ensuring content is up to date with the latest research and caters to all learning styles. They take responsibility for all classroom management; this involves maintaining documentation, sign-in sheets, evaluating outcomes, and ensuring the facilitation of learning for all attendees.

Career pathway

Recovery and wellbeing academy tutors require lived experience and the ability to articulate this in a learning environment. Tutors are required to have GCSEs or an equivalent qualification in English and Maths, and a Level 3 qualification in education and training or be willing to complete it within the first year of the role.

Tutors require a good knowledge of IT software, such as PowerPoint, and need to be able to move around different sites in Coventry and Warwickshire.

In addition to having the same roles and responsibilities of a recovery and wellbeing academy tutor listed above, a senior tutor will conduct wider staff training in a specialist subject area, related to their lived experience. They will also have some management and supervision responsibilities to support other staff members in a similar specialist area.

Career pathway

On top of the qualifications and experience of a band 5 tutor listed above, a senior tutor must have a level 5 qualification in a relevant subject area, such as training and education, and significant training experience in the world of recovery and lived experience.