Senior Support Worker | Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust


Company:	Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Salary:	£28,392 - £31,157 per annum pro rata
Hours:	Part-time
Location:	Ipswich, Suffolk, IP3 8LY
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	2 Nov 2026
Closing date:	2 Dec 2026

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Summary

The East of England Adult Eating Disorders Provider Collaborative has an exciting opportunity for a reflective, motivated and compassionate Senior Support Worker to play a core part in delivering support to people with a severe eating disorder. You will need practical and interpersonal skills which are underpinned by psychological thinking. You will work with a multi-disciplinary team to deliver the A-EDIT service.

We are particularly looking for someone who can be based in Suffolk or Essex – although all staff will be required to travel across the six counties of the east of England. Some home working will be possible, as well as attending in person.

The principal task is to support someone to eat who fears weight restoration – this is very different from care home work. The successful candidate will provide skilled support at mealtimes by supporting someone to engage in eating, a feared activity. The support must be informed by a good knowledge of eating disorder symptomatology and psychopathology.

The role will involve carrying out medical monitoring including weighing, taking blood pressure, temperature and pulse and reporting the results to colleagues.

If you are confident that you have the skills to work with someone with severe anorexia nervosa, have experience at band 3 or 4 within an eating disorder or mental health setting and have a strong interest in the field of eating disorders, then we’d love to hear from you.

The post holder will support adults with a severe eating disorder who are on the alternative to Specialist Eating Disorder inpatient admission pathway and their carers. The nature of this support will be guided by the patient’s psychological formulation and will support the service user’s recovery.

The principal support will be required at meal times or before or after and will require skilled and compassionate thinking because it is through eating that the eating disorder is most challenged. Other groups and session support will be required and will use the post holder’s skills which align with the service needs. The postholder may also assist in the assessment and provision of behavioural and supportive interventions outside of mealtimes.

The post holder will also need to be able to weigh patients accurately and conduct other physical observations including taking blood pressure, pulse and temperature. The results will need to be communicated to senior staff and acted upon supportively where advised.

The postholder will support people both online and in person and will be required to travel across the east of England region to meet with patients (you will need to do this in your own car and claim back expenses – it will not be possible to do this using public transport because of the locations covered).

The post holder will need to ensure they communicate with excellence within the A-EDIT team and with community eating disorders clinicians and teams in the region.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.

Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.

To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly under represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.

All appointments for new employees to CPFT are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.

Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications.

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.

For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

• Work with the multi-disciplinary team to facilitate recovery from a severe eating disorder which will enable the service user to avoid inpatient eating disorder admission or continue their recovery at home following admission

• Understand the service user’s psychological formulation and use it as a guide to supporting them at meal times and in other recovery activities

• Carry out meal supports and other required supports online or in person, medical monitoring in person.

• Co-facilitate online groups

• Provide support and signposting to carers of the team’s service users

• Participate fully in providing quality care in line with local and national guidelines

• Act as a role model in providing a service for people with a severe eating disorder.

• Carry out physical health monitoring including weighing and monitoring of blood pressure, temperature, pulse and oxygen saturation for service users of the service.

• Participate in team audit projects associated with the service.

• Challenge practice that compromises or risks the quality of care.

• Provide advice and support to service users and carers on issues related to eating disorders

• Carry out other duties deemed necessary within the framework of the post as directed by qualified staff and the Team Leader.

• Partake in continuing professional development and mandatory training that will also benefit the development and quality of the service.

• Document all activity on the electronic patient record (PARIS and SystmOne), use Outlook in line with guidance and utilise Employee Online, Online Expenses and other computerised systems.

Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the East of England region (Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk) meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.

*DVLA have a number of reciprocal arrangements with overseas countries, for further information please visit the DVLA website

This advert closes on Monday 16 Nov 2026

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