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All peer workers must complete peer support training. Ideally peer workers should complete the training that is offered within the Trust, but other courses are also available. Peer support training equips peer workers with these key skills:

• Active listening
• Understanding the importance of language and the role of stigma
• Supporting personal wellbeing
• Building and maintaining and ending relationships with people who use services
• Codes of conduct, boundaries and personal safety
• Using lived experience in a way that is helpful
• For a full overview of the training, please contact the peer support development team

While Nottshc have been employing peer workers since 2010, the peer worker role is still a new addition to many teams. It is well documented in the research literature on peer support that role clarity, alongside a supportive team culture, are the two biggest predictors for the success of peer support. For this reason, it is vital that peer workers feel welcomed into the team and are supported to develop a clear understanding of their role.

It is helpful for peer workers to shadow other members of staff when they are first employed within teams, and for them to be assigned a mentor – a member of the team who can support them with queries and offer them extra guidance in their first few months in the team.

In terms of the peer worker role, this will vary depending on the team that they work within but there are some common elements across all peer support worker roles. All peer workers:

• Are able to lone work or offer one to one support. In the community, peer workers hold a case load of their own. Peer workers should plan their own time with the support of supervision and manage it appropriately.
• Should support people to work toward goals that they have defined for themselves in their own recovery
• Should maintain up to date clinical records using the same reporting systems as the rest of the team
• Be conscious of issues surrounding risk and know who to go to if they have concerns
• Follow the peer worker and bands 2-4 codes of conduct
• Should have access to the IT systems used by the team, including a mobile phone and laptop where needed

Peer workers all bring their lived experience of recovery to their roles, and like any staff member, they are expected to work on their own wellbeing, using supervision to help them with this. Some peer workers may find it helpful to complete a wellbeing at work plan, and share this with their supervisor or their wider team. These formats are not helpful for everybody though, so it is not mandatory that peer workers complete a wellbeing plan. It is however expected that peer workers are prepared to have open conversations within supervision about their wellbeing, including the factors that affect it, how they support themselves and any situations that they would find triggering or difficult.

Like any member of staff, peer workers will have an occupational health check prior to them starting in their roles. Occupational Health will be able to make specific recommendations following on from this about any reasonable adjustments that should be made to the peer workers role/working environment. 

It is a common feature of best practise guidance for peer workers that they should have ongoing access to development opportunities and feel part of a peer support community. Because of this, the peer support development team facilitates ‘peer development days’ four times a year for all the peer workers employed within the Trust as well as all the people that have completed the peer support training but aren’t currently in role. These days include additional training, guest speakers and updates on developments within peer support. They also provide a reflective space for peer worker to discuss the successes and challenges they are currently experiencing within a community of their peers. Dates for the development days are sent to the peer workers in advance and can be provided on request.

The peer support development team has been established to support the employment and ongoing development of peer workers across the Trust. It is located within the Learning and Organisational Development Department and is made up of peer development workers and the peer support development lead, all of whom are former peer support workers themselves. The peer development team facilitate peer support training, as well as other training for the Nottshc workforce. They provide supervision and development days for peer workers and are a source of support for peer workers and their teams. For more information about the peer support team, please visit the Connect webpages, or get in touch with the peer support development lead: emma.watson@nottshc.nhs.uk.