Participation and Engagement Lead | Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS FoundationTrust

Overview

Join us as a Participation & Engagement Lead and play a central role in shaping how lived experience drives service design and improvement across our Care Group. This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated and values‑led professional to lead our care group participation strategy, strengthen partnerships, champion the voice of people who use our services and their carers, and embed meaningful involvement at every level.

You’ll work autonomously, collaborate with teams, service users and senior leaders, develop innovative engagement approaches, and support a growing network of lived experience contributors to influence real change.

Additional activities will include reviewing training needs and working with the Patient and Carer Experience (PACE) team and clinical teams to develop and cascade relevant training and information materials across the care group; driving for parity with and learning from the CYP&F and LD/NDD care groups in development of good practice and staff/peer networks for roles involved in P&E, and establishing champions for the work across clinical teams.

This role will also manage lived experience volunteers and offer expertise to programmes of work to support service design & development.

Vacancy site to be discussed and agreed at interview as the role is Cheshire Wide. This is a permanent full time role.

Shortlisting for this vacancy is due to be completed on 10-12/03/2026 and the proposed interview date is 26-27/03/2026.

• Lead the development and delivery of the Care Group’s Participation and Engagement strategy, ensuring lived experience informs service improvement and transformation.
• Gather, analyse and present lived‑experience feedback, producing regular insight and engagement reports to support decision‑making.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with staff, lived‑experience contributors and partner organisations, chairing the Care Group P&E subgroup and representing the service across internal and external forums.
• Provide specialist advice, training and support to teams, promoting best practice in participation, co‑production and accessible communication.

Cheshire and Wirral Partnership (CWP) provides health and care services for a population of over one million people, including mental health, learning disability, community physical health and all-age disability care, as well as the provision of three GP surgeries in Cheshire.

We employ around 4,500 staff across 73 sites and have services across Wirral and Cheshire, as well as Trafford, Warrington, Bolton, Halton, Liverpool and Stockport.

Our aim is to help improve the lives of everyone in our communities, adopting a compassionate, person‑centred approach to everything we do. We are rated as Outstanding for Caring by the Care Quality Commission, with a Good rating overall.

As a Disability Confident Employer, Rainbow Badge Scheme member, Veteran Aware organisation and proud holder of the Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award, CWP is committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible and developing a culture that values differences, and welcome applications from people who have direct experience of accessing our services.

All new starters will commence in post on one fixed start date each month, in line with our Prepare to Care (P2C) induction programme date. P2C offers up to 3 weeks training to support you to meet the induction / initial training requirements of the role.

If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the ‘essential’ criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer ‘YES’ to the question: ‘Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?’

Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.

The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post and encourages applications from armed forces reservists or cadet force adult volunteers.

Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment. You are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee of £16 per year applies.

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