Apprenticeship training course

Peer worker (level 3)

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Information about Peer worker (level 3)

Work alongside other professionals in hospital, justice and community settings.

• Knowledge, skills and behaviours:
  View knowledge, skills and behaviours

  Knowledge

  • The core values and principles of peer support
  • Legislation related to equality, diversity & inclusion
  • The way unconscious bias can affect peer relationships
  • The importance of establishing and adhering to the boundaries of the peer relationship
  • Empowerment and its role in peer support
  • How health and socio-economic inequalities can influence the individual’s experience and needs
  • The rights of carers and the organisation’s families and carer strategy/carer engagement protocol
  • How to manage and prepare for the ending of the peer relationship
  • The significance of culture and identity and how this can influence the individual’s experience and needs
  • Ethical dilemmas that may arise within the peer relationship
  • The history and value of the peer support movement and its relationship to systems, inequalities, power and civil rights
  • The purpose of sharing lived experience, and how much to share in a relevant way
  • Self-help and self-management approaches that can be used by individuals being supported
  • How to support individuals to develop self-help and self-management approaches through modelling
  • Problem solving skills that can be used by individual’s being supported
  • The principles of involvement and co-production within own scope of practice
  • Goal setting and how to support individuals to establish self-defined goals using co-production
  • Care planning, the individual’s current care and support needs and where to find that information
  • How to apply trauma informed approaches in own work
  • Where to find information on care and support options available and what they provide within their organisation and the local community
  • The importance and value of building links with local community organisations as sources of support
  • The differences between guidance, advice and information
  • How to facilitate and manage groups
  • Types of settings where restrictions on access to sources of information may apply to individuals
  • The rights and choices of the individual within the context of their circumstances
  • The importance of advocacy and self-advocacy in relation to the individual being supported
  • How to support the individual to prepare for reviews, complete applications and referrals
  • The importance of maintaining up to date knowledge of existing resources, identifying gaps in sources of support and how to search out new resources
  • How to raise awareness of the sources of support available and connecting individual's to the right resources for their needs
  • The importance of signposting in ways that are the most likely to be used independently by the individual
  • How stigma and labelling can affect individuals
  • Factors that may limit an individual’s access to resources and how to overcome these
  • The importance of following up with an individual to determine if signposting has met their needs or whether alternatives should be sought
  • How to get involved in service development activities to provide a peer perspective
  • The value of promoting the peer worker role to encourage understanding and acceptance of the role
  • The value of promoting lived experience perspectives and raising the concerns of individuals being supported
  • How to present information to individuals and groups
  • How individuals learn and how to tailor training delivery to the audience
  • How to work effectively in a team setting
  • How to promote the service user perspective within the team
  • The value of peer and professional networks
  • The limits of responsibility and competence of the peer worker role and where to seek advice, support or assistance when these limits are reached
  • How to positively challenge an individual or organisation’s low expectations of the individuals being supported
  • The action to take in line with organisational policy when discriminatory practice or behaviour is observed
  • How to manage own time, work priorities and resources effectively
  • The purpose and value of supervision, appraisals and personal development planning
  • Reflective practice how to use it effectively
  • The importance of self-care and available support structures
  • How to identify risk and undertake risk assessments following organisational policies and procedures
  • How to facilitate discussions on risk, acknowledge different perspectives on risk, promote positive risk taking and how and when to escalate concerns regarding risk
  • The principles of safeguarding
  • Legislation and organisational policy regarding risk and safeguarding
  • How to communicate with the individuals they support and the wider multi-disciplinary team
  • How to create and hold a safe space with someone experiencing distress
  • How to give feedback to the individuals being supported
  • How to seek and receive feedback from the individuals they support and the wider multi-disciplinary team
  • The organisation’s policy on record keeping
  • Legislation and organisational requirements on confidentiality, consent and information sharing

  Skills

  • 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

  Behaviours

  • Through sharing mutual experiences establishes the peer relationship and inspires hope
  • Acknowledges diversity of experiences and works in an inclusive way
  • Develops and shares a commonality of mutual experience and establishes equality within the peer relationship
  • Compassionate, showing respect and kindness to self and others
  • Explores choices in a non-directive and non-judgemental way with the individual being supported and empowers them to come to their own decisions
• Apprenticeship category (sector): Health and science
• Qualification level: 3; Equal to A level
• Course duration: 15 months
• Maximum funding: £5,000 ; Maximum government funding for ; apprenticeship training and assessment costs.
• Job titles include:
  • Peer Support Worker
  • Peer Mentor
  • Peer Coach
  • Peer Link Worker
  • Peer Care Navigator
  • Carer Peer Support Worker
  • Lived Experience Practitioner

View more information about Peer worker (level 3) from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.