Mutual carers support worker jobs

Salary: £26,140 - £31,400 per annum

Hours: 35 hours per week

Contract: Permanent 

Location: Wokingham

Job Reference Number: 1691

Cranstoun is a charity which believes in creating a better, healthier and safer world. With passionate staff, courageous people and the knowledge and expertise to match, Cranstoun empowers people to change and rebuild their lives. 

We provide a range of services for those affected by alcohol and other drugs within the Borough of Wokingham. 

We support people to deal with their substance use so that they can change their lives, be happy and reach their goals. 

As a Key Worker in Wokingham, you will be part of a small, dedicated team who are passionate about empowering others. You will be responsible for delivering a good quality and safe service to the people you support including assessment and engagement support, case load management, needle syringe programme delivery, harm reduction and interventions. If you are someone who enjoys problem solving to help people to change their lives for the better, this is the role for you.

You will have good Microsoft Office skills and be able to manage your own diary efficiently and proactively. The most important thing you’ll bring to this role is your desire and ability to make a positive difference to people’s lives. 

All post holders may be required to work some evenings, to meet our service delivery requirements. The core service operates Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm. The service offers a 4 day working week to support a healthy work-life balance.  

All posts are subject to an enhanced DBS Disclosure.

For more details and to apply, please visit our website via the apply button.

We are an inclusive employer, committed to promoting equality and diversity in all areas of our work.

Registered Charity No: 1061582

Job Title:                     Case Worker – CAPSA Services (Culturally Appropriate Peer Support and Advocacy)  

Reports to:                  CAPSA Team Manager

Geographic focus: Lambeth

Salary:£30,500

Hours of Work: 37.5 per week (flexible working available)

Duration:                    2 Year Contract (with a potential to extend)

Benefits:26 days annual leave plus bank holidays, pension contribution, Employees' Assistance Programme.

Purpose of the role

The CAPSA (Culturally Appropriate Peer Support and Advocacy) Worker role has been specifically designed to support Black people using the secondary mental health system. As a CAPSA Worker, you will provide both Generic Mental Health Advocacy and Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) to eligible individuals, including people detained under the Mental Health Act(MHA) 1983/2007, conditionally discharged restricted patients, those under Guardianship, and those on Community Treatment orders, as well as individuals considered for section 57 treatments.

You will play a key role in ensuring that the perspectives of Black service users are recognised and respected, addressing their unique and multiple needs, and promoting access to advocacy for all eligible individuals. You will raise awareness of advocacy, rights under the MHA, and the CAPSA service among professionals, individuals, and agencies.

In addition to direct advocacy, you will contribute to service development by supporting an effective administration system and helping evaluate the impact of advocacy for both service users and commissioners.

As part of CAPSA’s race-led approach to systems change, you will also help challenge systemic racism in mental health services, embed culturally competent practice, and promote equitable care within South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM).

Job summary

Black Thrive Lambeth has developed a co-designed, culturally appropriate peer support and advocacy service (CAPSA) on behalf of the Living Well Network Alliance (LWNA). CAPSA provides support to Black community members with mental health needs through peer support and advocacy, led by individuals with lived experience or lived understanding of mental health challenges. The service creates a space where experiences are respected, accepted, and valued equally.

The role involves building positive relationships with Black service users; offering one-to-one and group advocacy; supporting self-advocacy; gathering and sharing information to inform decision-making; and preparing monitoring reports and feedback. Advocates ensure that the views, wishes, and needs of Black service users are heard and acknowledged, addressing the impact of racism within traditional mental health services.

Duties and responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

Advocacy & Support for Black Service Users

• Work with individual Black service users to provide culturally informed advocacy, support, and representation to assist them in decision-making related to their care, treatment, and legal status.
• You will manage a caseload of up to 10 clients.
• This will consist of weekly meetings with clients and supporting them around their care in the mental health system, this will be both within inpatient services and CMHTs (Community Mental Health Teams) as well as in the community.
• Support Black service users in developing and maintaining their cultural identity by identifying strengths and advocating for culturally relevant mental health interventions.
• Develop trusting relationships with Black service users within appropriate boundaries to help them express their mental health needs.
• Assist service users in preparing for meetings, attend appointments with them if required, and advocate on their behalf where needed.
• Provide information and updates on the progress of advocacy issues and ensure clients understand proceedings.

Culturally Informed Peer Support & Recovery

• Use lived experience and cultural understanding to promote positive self-esteem and recovery through a culturally informed peer support model.
• Provide practical guidance to Black service users, and where appropriate, their carers, on self-care, resilience strategies, and managing mental health within a race equality framework.
• Promote service user involvement by empowering individuals to communicate their culturally lived experiences and mental health needs to professionals.
• Challenge peer support models, stigma, and discriminatory practices that fail to recognise the cultural needs of Black service users.

Community Engagement & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Work collaboratively with key stakeholders and community members to develop a culturally informed advocacy and peer support model.
• Establish regular advocacy ‘drop-ins’ on wards and in the community, ensuring accessibility for Black service users.
• Signpost service users to culturally relevant community, inpatient, and online resources, as well as mainstream and specialist services.
• Liaise with, and when necessary, challenge NHS professionals, care teams, and local authorities to ensure due process and cultural competence in service delivery.
• To maintain a level of professionalism in all spaces always.

Role Expectations

• Maintain confidentiality, respect service users’ right to privacy, and ensure their dignity is always upheld.
• Keep accurate and timely records of advocacy and peer support work, providing regular verbal and written reports to the line manager.
• Attend team meetings, participate in one-to-one supervision, group supervision sessions, and complete mandatory training in peer support and other job-related areas.
• Raise safeguarding concerns following organisational policies and procedures.

GENERAL

• To attend and participate in meetings held by the CAPSA team and other bodies as required.
• To maintain records of hours worked and to complete accurate expense returns.
• To foster and develop an equality and diversity approach within the role, in line with Black Thrive’
• To promote the service through the distribution of publicity materials, liaising with statutory and voluntary services, and, where appropriate, through the media and presentations to local groups within the agreed company policies.
• To promote the role of advocates both within the Living Well Network Alliance (LWNA) and externally.
• To work well as part of the team in a way that promotes inclusivity and respect in a supportive environment.
• The above is not an exhaustive list of duties, and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation and the overall business objectives of the organisation.

Qualities Required

Each quality is marked as either E (Essential) or D (Desirable).

Experience (E/D)

1. Understanding and/or experience of mental health legislation and the Mental Health journey process in numerous settings – E
2. Lived experience of racism or discrimination in wider society and in the provision of mental health services – E
3. Experience of identifying and meeting the needs of individual people – E
4. Experience and ability to develop and maintain relationships with various stakeholders – E
5. A commitment to working in an anti-racist and anti-oppressive way – E
6. Confidence in challenging stigma and discrimination within structural settings – E
7. Experience of working in an advocacy or healthcare setting – D

Knowledge and Skills (E/D)

1. Understanding and knowledge of assessment of needs – E
2. Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work with people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences – E
3. Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, including via telephone, in person, over video link, and through presentations, demonstrating confidence and assertiveness – E
4. Emotional resilience and the ability to cope with sometimes challenging people and environments – E
5. Ability to work flexibly to meet varying demands on the service – E
6. Good organisational skills, including timekeeping and ability to travel to different locations – E
7. Excellent computer literacy and a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office – E
8. An understanding and awareness of The Equality Act 2010 – E
9. Ability to act calmly and respond professionally to distress, disturbance, and unpredictability – E
10. Ability to work independently on own initiative and prioritise workload while working as part of a team – E
11. Commitment to learning through work-based learning and mandatory training – E
12. Knowledge of mental health legislation such as MHA 1983/2007, MCA 2017 – D
13. Understanding of the specific role, purpose, and responsibilities of an Independent Mental Health Advocate – D
14. Knowledge and/or awareness of safeguarding issues – D
15. An additional language (e.g., Portuguese, French, etc.) – D
16. Qualifications in Peer Support / Advocacy – D

We welcome applications specifically from Black people of African and Caribbean heritage, as the statutory requirement of the Equality Act 2010, Advance Equality in Mental Health 2020 and Parent Carer Race Equality Framework 2020, in order to address the importance of Black employee safety. These posts are therefore restricted to Black applicants under the Equality Act 2010, Schedule 9 and Part 1.

An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be required. Still, we will treat applicants with a criminal record fairly and not unreasonably discriminate because of a conviction or other information revealed.

ID: 1782 Operational Manager, Northeast

Service: Stockton on Tees Family Time, Stockton Family Outreach & Volunteer service and South Tees Perinatal service

Salary: Grade 4 Point 34-38: £42,562 – £46,703 FTE (£34,049.60 - £37,362.40 per annum, pro rata for 29.6 hours per week)

- Additionally, £480 home-based allowance FTE per annum

Location: Home based

Hours: Part-time (up to 29.6 hours per week)

We offer flexible working arrangements - please see below for more details.

Contract: Permanent

Family Action & the Role’s Impact:

At Family Action we support people through change, challenge or crisis. It’s what we’ve done for over 150 years. We protect children, support young people and adults and offer direct, practical help to families and communities.

We see first-hand the power of family to shape lives, for better or worse, so we speak up for the

importance of family in national and local policymaking, amplify family voices and represent the changing needs of families in the UK today.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead the operational delivery of services across Stockton on Tees and South Tees (Recar & Middlesbrough) area.  The Operational Manager will provide strategic and operational management to our services in the Northeast and line management of 2 - 3 service managers.

Stockton services are delivered under our successful strategic partnership with Stockton Borough Council. This unique partnership was formed nearly 5 years ago with the aim of transforming service provision using a collaborative approach to service development and innovation. Our South Tees Perinatal service operates over Redcar and Middlesborough and are just entering a 3 year extension to our current contract.

Main Responsibilities:

· Provide leadership, management and supervision to operational services that provide Family Time sessions, Family Outreach support and Volunteering support, plus perinatal support to families.

· Ensure that services are delivered to a good quality standard in relation to practice and performance and that services can demonstrate their impact using evidence based outcomes tools.

Main Requirements (for details check the job description and person specification):

· Experience of providing effective management, leadership and safeguarding oversight of case work and group work based support services, which overall improve the lives of  service users.

· Experience of setting up and/or managing innovative projects.

· Strong interpersonal skills, with the confidence and ability to present and communicate information effectively both in person and using a range of mediums to internal and external stakeholders, including children and young people, parents and carers, and funders.

· Appointments are subject to Family Action receiving a satisfactory disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service –Enhanced

Benefits:

- an annual paid leave entitlement that commences at 25 working days, rising each April by one day, subject to a maximum of 30 working days plus bank holiday pro rata

- up to 6% matched-pension contributions

- flexible working arrangements and new starters have the right to make flexible working requests from day one of employment

- enhanced paid sick leave and paid family leave provisions

- eye care and winter flu jabs vouchers

- cycle to work scheme

- investing in your professional development with ongoing quality training and career development opportunities

We are forward looking, ambitious and committed to continuous improvement. We are a people focused, can-do organisation, which strives for excellence in all we do and operates with mutual respect.

To Apply:

· Click the “Apply Now” link below and fill out our digital application form

· Closing Date: Sunday 10th May 2026 at 23:59

Interviews are scheduled to take place on: 20th May 2026

For direct queries or if you would like to discuss any aspect of the selection process or flexible working requests, please email: Claire Meek (email address available on advert document).

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion:

We are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that candidates may need during the recruitment process and you will be asked whether you require any adjustments if shortlisted for interview. We also make reasonable adjustments on the job, where required.

We are committed to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in all that we do and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Intersectionality is important to us and we particularly welcome applications from ethnically diverse communities, LGBTQIA+ candidates and disabled candidates because we are committed to increasing the representation of these groups at Family Action. We know that greater diversity will lead to even greater results for families and children and strive for our workforce to be truly representative of the diverse communities we support.

All candidates with a disability are welcome to apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and request priority consideration for an interview, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role.

To help remove financial barriers to working with us, we will reimburse reasonable travel costs if you are invited to attend an interview in person.

*Ordinarily Family Action appoints new starters at the starting point of the salary scale (with subsequent annual pay progression), unless you have experience that would justify appointment further up the salary scale or there are any other exceptional reasons.