Peer Support Worker | Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
| Posting date: | 02 March 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Not specified |
| Additional salary information: | £24,937 - £26,598 per annum pro rata |
| Hours: | Part time |
| Closing date: | 01 April 2026 |
| Location: | Fulbourn, Cambridge, CB21 5EE |
| Company: | Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 7784157/310-CYPF-7784157 |
Summary
We are looking for a Peer Support Worker to join our team at the Darwin Centre.
The Darwin Centre for Young People is a Tier 4 adolescent inpatient unit based in Cambridge. The unit offers assessment and treatment to young people, aged 13-18 years old, experiencing psychiatric, emotional or psychological problems that interfere with their social, interpersonal and educational functioning.
As a Peer Support Worker, you will make a positive impact on people's lives through sharing the wisdom from your own lived experience. You will inspire hope and belief that recovery is possible in others and that you can ‘live well’ with mental health challenges.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high-quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services, not only via inpatient and primary care settings, but also within the community. These services include children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, research and development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high-calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
Please be advised we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at www.cpft.nhs.uk
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities
1. Work in a busy ward environment on both a 1:1 and group basis to provide formalised peer support to children and young people with significant physical and/or mental health challenges.
2. Be creative and flexible to the often quickly changing of the ward environment; varying and adapting plans at short notice for the benefit and needs of the peers and current risk levels.
3. Have insight into your own wellbeing and be proactive in utilising your own learned coping techniques to maintain ongoing wellbeing and self-care.
4. Contribute to the wider overall care of your peer by writing recovery focussed notes on the NHS system and seeking regular feedback via service set outcome measures.
5. Support peers to collaboratively set and work towards recovery goals, incorporating hope and optimism through skills for self-confidence/belief, practical coping strategies and positive future planning (e.g., Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)).
6. Support your peer to overcome fears and within a relationship of empathy, trust and honesty, challenge negative self-talk refocussing on the unique strengths they have.
7. Support your peer to self-advocate for their needs and wants within clinical discussions; empowering them to be the expert in their own care.
8. Facilitate access to groups and networks that enable peers to participate in community activities, in order to maximise opportunities for successful discharge planning.
9. Value and promote the personal, social, cultural and spiritual uniqueness each peer has.
10. Act as a positive role model showing professional and caring attitudes and behaviour towards other multi-disciplinary team members, peers and carers.
This advert closes on Monday 16 Mar 2026