Celebrating and learning with our peer support workers

4 November 2024

Three of our peer support workers are up for the NHS peer worker of the year award, which will be handed out at a special regional celebration and learning event this week.

The event brings together peer workers from the NHS and the voluntary sector from across South Yorkshire, creating a space to network, share learning, think about how we work as a system, and to shine a light on some of the fantastic peer workforce.

Zoe Dodd, our peer support lead, will join Jess Anderson, South Yorkshire mental health workforce lead, to host the event taking place this Thursday 7 November, from 12pm to 4pm at the Showroom Workstation.

A sold out audience of more than 70 people will take part in a packed agenda, with the keynote speech coming from Julie Repper, CEO of the charity Imroc, who will be sharing the national picture and context for peer support work.

Following this there are a number of world café sessions for attendees to choose from with contributions from across South Yorkshire, including Zoe, our Quality Improvement team, Ben Dorey, our deputy peer support lead, and the peer support workers from our Gender Identity Clinic.

There will be a panel for attendees to ask questions from a variety of people from across the region who have been instrumental in developing peer work. These are Salma Yasmeen, our chief executive, David Bussue, CEO of SACMHA, Laura Frost, SHSC peer support worker, Tony Swindells, peer support volunteer and chair of The Rainbow Project Rotherham, and Julie Repper.

The event will close with an awards ceremony, presented by Salma alongside Sarah Boul, ICB director for mental health.

It will be a moment to highlight the fantastic work of Laura Frost, Naomi Rice and Trevor Wright, who have all been nominated for an award, as well as other brilliant peer support workers from across South Yorkshire.

You can read a sample of the award submissions which were made about them here:

Laura Frost

Laura joined 18 months ago and has been outstanding since day one. She has role modelled the values of peer support work and has used her skills not only to support service users but to support the peer agenda across the organisation and beyond.

Laura always has a full caseload and waitlist and continually delivers excellent care to the people she works with. Laura also contributes significantly to the peer development and peer supervision and contributes to wider projects, sharing her experience in Trust arenas and contributing to the development of the clinical and social care strategy. She additionally also always provides support to her peers and new peers joining the organisation.

In addition to this Laura contributes to the wider South Yorkshire agenda such as lunch and learn sessions and the community of practice.

Laura is a pleasure to work with.

Naomi Rice

Naomi has being phenomenal since starting in post, she has created her own pathway supporting people with psychosis, has been creative and shared her own experience effectively.

Naomi has made a huge contribution and difference particularly to clients in the hearing voices group.

Naomi is new to the NHS and has navigated creating a new role which she has done as the only peer in this area, reviewing it and developing a service whilst bringing her own.

Trevor Wright

Trevor is one of our most experienced peer support workers and always goes above and beyond. He supports and mentors new colleagues and has taken proactive steps in his learning and development. He has completed peer support work supervision training and has become a structured clinical management (SCM) practitioner.

He has continually received positive feedback particularly from a specific service user going through the SCM pathway who recognised that having a peer worker made a significant difference.

Trev continually adapts to new situations, team changes, and new ways of working. He has shown great adaptability working through the new community transformation.