Working alongside Employment Specialists and wider team

You'll provide peer support, and practical guidance to participants, helping them build confidence, develop skills, and achieve their own aspirations. Through sharing your experiences, promoting self-advocacy, and building trusted relationships, you'll help create positive change.

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you'll do at work:

• Identify, facilitate access to or signpost resources within the service and communities that promote choice, informed decision making and are aligned to personal goals
• Safely discloses personal experiences with individuals and models self-help and self-management skills
• Establish safe, supportive and respectful relationships with individuals, carers and families
• Use co-production and lived experience to support individuals and groups to identify and work toward their self-defined goals
• Empower individuals to self-advocate and understand their rights and choices
• Represent and promote peer support within development activities and service development
• Work as part of the team and contribute to service improvement
• Maintain their peer perspective by using personal development and supervision to reflect on the role
• Maintain the safety of themselves and others and encourage positive risk taking putting the best interests, needs and preferences of the individual first
• Communicates effectively with individuals, colleagues, and other services in the context of peer support and provides feedback to individuals

Where you'll work

Cobourg House Mayflower Street Plymouth PL1 1QX

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

PLYMOUTH CITY COUNCIL

Training course

Peer worker (level 3)

Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)

What you'll learn

Course contents

• Develop and maintain mutual and reciprocal peer relationships
• Mutually establish the purpose and boundaries within the peer relationship
• Engage with and support families and carers
• Manage and prepare for the ending of the peer relationship
• Purposefully share lived experience within the context of the peer relationship
• Establish connections with the individual based on shared understanding of experiences
• Model self-help and self-management approaches for the individual they are supporting
• Support the individual to develop self-management and problem-solving skills
• Support individuals to identify opportunities and overcome setbacks and challenges when trying to achieve self-defined goals
• Support individuals to work toward self-defined goals using peer-based approaches in 1-to-1, drop-in or virtual settings
• Support individual-led activities
• Collaboratively discuss care and support options with the individual
• Actively contributes to an individual’s care and goal plans with the individual
• Sets up and work with groups to facilitate working toward individual or shared goals within the group setting
• Support individuals to safely access support for their goals through digital platforms
• Support the individual during changes in their life circumstances
• Discuss concerns with the individual and when necessary raise any issues with an appropriate colleague or supervisor
• Support the individual to self-advocate and through self-determination, make choices and control the care and support options open to them
• Signpost to advocacy services
• Support the individual to prepare for reviews and complete applications or referrals, e.g. housing, medication review, food bank, benefits
• Identify new resources or community projects that could be accessed by individuals being supported
• Raise awareness and understanding of the opportunities available to the individuals being supported
• Act as a community connector to build links with community resources
• Support individuals to navigate through systems to access support, signposting resources relevant to their circumstances and self-defined goals that they can access independently
• Support co-production and delivery of learning and development activities to raise awareness and understanding of the Peer Worker’s role and remit
• Use service development activities to tackle stigma and labelling to encourage culture change
• Give presentations and deliver training to small groups
• Promote the lived experience perspectives and concerns of the individual being supported across own workplace and other organisations and services
• Promote and embed peer-based approaches in teams and services with which they work
• Use meetings with other multi-disciplinary team members to facilitate understanding of the individual’s perspective and their rights
• Work collaboratively with the multi-disciplinary team and other organisations or services
• Positively challenge low expectations and discriminatory practice to influence system change and enhance services
• Seek advice, support or assistance from the appropriate person when the limits of own responsibility and competence has been reached
• Manage own time and work priorities, using resources effectively
• Develop and maintain peer and professional networks
• Actively participate in team and peer supervision
• Reflect on and applies learning to practice
• Recognise the importance of self-care, taking appropriate action when required
• Participate in appraisal, personal development planning and continuous professional development
• Identify risks and contribute to required risk assessments
• Facilitate discussions with individuals and between the individual and the services they use on potential risks to their health and safety when working toward their self-defined goals
• Promote positive risk taking and different perspectives on risk within the team
• Take action in line with organisational policy where there are safeguarding concerns
• Recognise high-risk situations and takes action in line with organisational policy
• Adapt their communication to meet the needs of others
• Support individual's who are experiencing distress
• Provide relevant and supportive feedback to the individual in the peer relationship
• Actively seek feedback from individuals or groups on the support provided
• Maintain accurate records, ensuring where records are about the individual being supported, these are co-produced
• Follow legal and organisational requirements when dealing with confidentiality, consent and information sharing