Welcome from our Chief Executive - Samantha Allen

Our organisation is expanding and we're looking for people with the right values, skills and/or potential to join us. We need people with energy, expertise, enthusiasm to help us provide the very best possible specialist NHS mental health and learning disability care. This involves helping us achieve our strategy to improve the quality of life for the communities we serve through People, Prevention and Partnerships.

So what can we offer you in return?

We're an organisation which puts people first. We'll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. We'll help you learn, acquire new skills and gain further experience to support your career development. And we'll provide the opportunity for you to bring your fresh ideas to work about how we can do things differently and continue improving.

You will also be joining a health and care system committed to working together to do the best we can for the communities we serve. Above all, at Sussex Partnership you'll have the chance to make a difference to the lives of the patients, carers and families across our communities.

If you like the sound of that, then come and join our team.

Samantha Allen

Chief Executive

Job overview

The Youth PPI Café is a collaborative peer-based network based within Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT) that aims to engage children and young people (aged 11-24 yrs. old) in research that impacts them.

This space is entirely youth-led and gives young people the opportunity to share what they feel is important to them, using their unique experience to guide clinicians and researchers to take research and service development projects forward.The young people involved come from Children and Young Person Services (ChYPs) & Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHs), local schools, colleges and charities working with young people.

We are seeking a PPI Café co-ordinator to oversee all Youth PPI Café activities, and related projects, as well as innovate the group and support its continued development.

The Youth PPI café meet early evening (usually once a month), so this will require the co-ordinator being able to work outside of normal office hours at this time.

Given the Youth PPI Café's aim of youth involvement in research 'by young people for young people', and the ages of the membership, we are seeking a young person (ideally between 18- 25 years of age).

Main duties of the job

• Seek out research for, advertise, recruit to, and lead monthly Youth PPI Café sessions for young people and researchers.
• Oversee and co-ordinate the involvement of young service users in all youth-focused aspects of research activity within the Sussex area.
• Advise and support researchers undertaking studies about ways to meaningfully involve young service users.
• Establish links with youth organisations, universities, charities, and community services and explore areas for potential collaboration.
  Work with those young service users enrolled in the Youth PPI Café to shape and co-develop the space.
• Present at conferences, and share the Youth PPI Café core principles and practices with other teams working to involve young people in research.
• Co-ordinate a team of young people working within the Youth PPI Café team, supporting those involved to carry out their duties, and to gain experience, and develop skills relevant to their goals and aspirations.
• Lead team meetings with a team of young people working within the Youth PPI Café team.
• Support the activities of the R&D department as required.
• Promote the Trust as research active organisation.

Working for our organisation

As the Youth PPI Café Co-ordinator, you will be working closely with your own team of young people to deliver and develop the Youth PPI Café. You will also be an important member of the PPI team.

We are a small, hard-working team. We are all peers with lived experience as service users and/or carers. Although we all have our own responsibilities we work as a team and we support each other. Our work is often rewarding and at times heart-warming.We know that we as a team make a difference - to each other; to the research and researchers; and most importantly to those people who we work with and support to get involved in research. Our team togetherness and well-being is our top priority.

We hope to be a 'can do' 'why not?' team. We are challenging and are challenged - this is why a sense of humour is so important.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
This is an exciting opportunity for a young person to gain experience within a diverse and exciting role in clinical research, and develop skills in youth voice and engagement, and service delivery.

What we are looking for in the young person who will join our team:

• The main requirement of this role is a young person (18-25) who is interested in mental health awareness and who is passionate about ensuring the PPI Youth Café is steered and led by young people's visions.
• It is essential that you have lived experience of using services and/or being a caregiver. You will need to be comfortable drawing upon your experience and able to encourage our Youth Cafe PPI members to do similar.
• It is essential that you have experience of involvement/facilitation of within Service User & Carer organisations and groups and/or experience of youth groups.
• Team and collaborative working are vital, but also the ability to be a self-starter is crucial.
• No two working days are the same. Flexibility and a sense of humour are a must.
• You need to be able to think outside the box and be able to think on your feet.

Person specification

Qualifications
Desirable criteria

• Educated to degree level (or equivalent)
• Research qualification

Experience
Essential criteria

• Lived experience of distress/disability and using services
• Service User & Carer organisations
• Databases (ability to record and analyse data using computer databases)
• Dealing with difficult and sensitive information
• Good communication skills, both verbal and written
• Flexible approach to all tasks, with the ability to work as part of a team.
• Ability to work to tight time-scales and prioritise workloads.
• Methodical, organised and ability to concentrate on details.
• Aged 18-25

Desirable criteria

• Interested in clinical research
• Audit & evaluation Experience of working with young people in a group setting
• Understanding of clinical research, and knowledge of the stages of the research cycle
• Experience/knowledge of PPI, and what PPI can achieve for research

Knowledge/ Skills / Competencies
Essential criteria

• High degree of motivational, persuasive, reassurance and negotiation skills
• High level of skill in communicating contested/novel ideas and principles
• Excellent communication, negotiation and influencing skills
• Ability to engage children and young people, including those who have emotional and/or behavioural needs
• Ability to recruit and develop strong working relationships with researchers, community, and clinical services
• Ability to deliver work within tight deadlines
• Ability to organise own workload and that of others with minimum of supervision
• Ability to deliver presentations and training events
• Flexibility to work some irregular hours if required
• Excellent interpersonal skills (including over the telephone, Teams, Zoom, and via email)

Values
Essential criteria

• Demonstrate support for the values and beliefs of the Directorate and those of the Trust •

Sussex Partnership NHS FT is committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. Our workforce is currently under-represented from Black and Minority, Ethnic and disabled communities and we would welcome applications from these communities.

We regret that we are unable to advise candidates if they have not been shortlisted. If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date please assume that you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.

In the event of an excessive number of applicants the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy earlier than indicated.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust takes its responsibilities for the safeguarding and protection of children and young people and vulnerable adults very seriously and expects this of all its employees and bank workers. The Trust works with adult and children's social care to ensure that the integrated service has systems in place to equip staff and bank workers with the knowledge and skills to recognize abuse, and take action to safeguard and protect vulnerable adults and children and young people. It is expected that all staff and bank workers familiarise themselves with the appropriate structures and policies and with the Sussex child protection and safeguarding procedures and the Sussex multi-agency policy and procedures for safeguarding vulnerable adults and undertake the relevant essential training and further training appropriate to their role.

Successful candidates are normally offered salaries at the bottom of the relevant salary range. However, where previous or equivalent NHS experience in a similar role can be demonstrated and evidenced, this may be taken into consideration when setting the starting salary.