King's College London

About us:

If you are passionate about embedding the involvement of those with lived experience in mental health research, the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health would like to hear from you.  We are recruiting a Lived Experience Advisory Board Co-ordinator to help us work in partnership with people with lived experience.

About the role:

As the Lived Experience Advisory Board Coordinator, the post holder will coordinate and champion the activities and participation of our Lived Experience Advisory Board (LEAB) in the Centre, and more broadly in King’s. This will include strengthening the identity of the LEAB and ensuring that all members are strongly connected to, and impact, the work of the Centre and King’s more broadly. The postholder will also share responsibility for managing the LEAB’s budget to meet the priorities of both the LEAB and the Centre, and will help deliver LEAB-initiated projects. We also hope that the postholder will work with us to champion lived experience involvement within and beyond King’s College London, drive innovative practices in this area, and communicate insights in ways that lead to change.

All shortlisted candidates will be offered the opportunity to meet some LEAB members in an informal, online meeting, and to come and visit the Centre for Society and Mental Health. Both the ‘meet the LEAB’ opportunity, and the visit to the Centre, are optional.

We would welcome applications both from people from marginalised communities with lived experience of inequalities, and/or with direct lived experience in an area/areas relevant to the work e.g. of trauma, violence and abuse, (ref)using mental health services, mental distress, neurodivergence, as the coordinator will be coordinating the involvement of people with these experiences.

This is a part time post at 0.5 FTE (17.5 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until the end of April 2028.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Experience of empathetically and effectively supporting, working with, or facilitating the active engagement of lived experience groups and/or a strong understanding of the value of lived experience involvement.
2. Understanding of values-based practice and the ethics of involving people from marginalised communities and with direct lived experience.
3. Experience and demonstrable skills in co-producing research and projects with people with lived experience of marginalization or mental distress.
4. Experience of coordinating or managing the involvement of advisory groups, and addressing barriers to involvement (including meeting individual access needs and adapting organisational processes)
5. Demonstrable commitment to promoting innovative inclusion and involvement for individuals and groups that have been subject to marginalisation and exclusion.
6. Excellent written, oral and interpersonal skills with an ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, with sensitivity to individual preferences and confidentiality, and in ways that can lead to change.
7. Experience of activism and advocating for change, and an ability to articular the relationship between organisational culture and lived experience.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of developing and maintaining successful working relationships with community groups, researchers, and practitioners.
2. Ability to follow an agreed plan of work, as well as having an ability to work independently and under own direction
3. A passion for change in lived experience and mental health research, and an ability to champion the importance of involvement in mental health research.
4. Strong understanding of research in the field of society and mental health and the ethics of conducting research / working with marginalised communities.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information:

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university. The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination. When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Application deadline: Monday 25th May, 23:59.