Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Band 4 Perinatal Engagement Community Support Worker - Bristol

The closing date is 28 December 2025

Job summary

Are you passionate about making Perinatal Mental Health services more inclusive and ensuring that every voice is heard? We are looking for an Engagement and Participation Worker to join our amazing Perinatal Mental Health Services across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG).

In this role, you'll not only drive forward our equality and service user inclusion agenda but also play a vital part in providing care and support to mothers, birthing parents, families and carers. You'll help shape services by listening to the people who use them, gathering feedback, and making sure their experiences directly influence how we grow and improve.

You'll build strong relationships with local communities and diverse groups, finding creative ways to improve access to perinatal services. Alongside this, you'll support engagement events.

This is a chance to combine professional expertise with compassion, ensuring our services are not only clinically excellent but also truly responsive to the needs of those we care for. You'll be joining a dedicated, supportive team committed to making a real difference for families across BNSSG.

Main duties of the job

As the Engagement and Participation Worker within the BNSSG Perinatal Mental Health Services, you will play a vital role in both supporting families and shaping how services evolve. Day-to-day, your work will be varied, meaningful, and community-focused. While working under the supervision of the team manager and you can expect to:

Champion equality and inclusion, embedding these values into every aspect of service delivery and team culture.
Provide care and support to mothers, birthing parents, families and carers engaged with perinatal mental health services, ensuring their voices are heard and valued.
Develop mechanisms for involvement, creating opportunities for service users and carers to influence how services are designed and delivered.
Build strong relationships with local stakeholders, community organisations and diverse groups to improve access and inclusion.
Gather and consolidate feedback from patients and carers, presenting it in ways that inform management decisions and service development.
Support engagement events, sometimes flexing your hours to attend and contribute to activities that strengthen community connections.
Work across BNSSG, engaging with local service user and carer groups to ensure services reflect the needs of the population.

About us

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust):a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

AWP is committed to support and create a positive research and evidence-based environment and culture, which can have a beneficial impact on everyone who works for the organisation and the care we provide to those who use our services.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Date posted

12 December 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£27,485 to £30,162 a year (pro rata)

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time

Reference number

342-SS175-1225

Job locations

Callington Road Hospital

Bristol

BS4 5BJ

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical Duties/ Responsibility for Patient Care

Support delivery and work with the Trust Perinatal Mental Health Teams to support patient care and public engagement.

Work with individual services to establish links with patients and members of the public including groups and networks.

Liaise with the Trust Equality and Diversity and Inclusion Lead to create opportunities for meaningful engagement/involvement of people from diverse communities.

Explore innovative ways of engaging stakeholders.

Plans, facilitates and co-ordinates meetings, events, focus groups and other methods of working collaboratively with patients, carers, the public and staff, considering reasonable adjustments (e.g., patients with learning disabilities).

Facilitate improvements in levels of service user feedback across the service, using processes such as outcome measures under the direction of management.

Utilise learning and feedback to develop proposals to support improved outcomes in perinatal care delivery.

Work towards ensuring that people accessing services are representative of the whole local community.

Support the team with data collection and analysis to improve patient, carer and public experience.

Communicate complex, sensitive, and contentious information effectively with patients, families/carers, colleagues, and professionals where barriers to understanding may be present.

Use non-verbal communication skills that are non-judgemental and appropriate to the situation.

Recognise potential conflict or difficulties in groups, use de-escalation/negotiation skills, and escalate when outside own scope.

Work in partnership with other services (Maternity, Health Visitors, GPs, local council, Family Hubs, Voluntary Services).

Staff Management

Attend supervision and team meetings, as appropriate.

Provide and respond to feedback constructively, raising issues where appropriate to clinical supervisor or line manager.

Accept personal responsibility for the quality of own work, liaising with senior staff.

Act as a role model for students where appropriate.

Policy/ Service Development

Recommend policy/service changes following evaluation of feedback from patient, carer, and public events.

Support with data collection and analysis to provide reports and recommendations for service development.

Respond to queries regarding services as part of involvement groups.

Plan, organise, and evaluate participation events, projects, and workstreams to ensure successful outcomes.

Be aware of Trust-wide and national initiatives within the area of work and participate as required.

Ensure up-to-date awareness of Trust-wide issues and directives, applying them in the workplace.

Research and Development

Support with data collection and analysis to improve services and provide evidence for development.

Monitor own interventions and effectiveness, sharing findings with others.

Demonstrate continual improvement by engaging in self-study, learning opportunities, and supervision.

Participate in relevant training as required.