Peer to peer learning

Peer-to-peer training is a great way to transfer skills from knowledgeable and experienced team members, volunteers, and care recipients to others.

The knowledge and experience of all who are involved in caring relationships has value and is valuable. Whether you're getting care and support, an independent care and support worker, an employee, volunteer or unpaid carer - or all of these! - we learn from each other.

Experienced team members

Team members who have worked in a team for some time are able to induct and welcome new team members, helping the person getting support in bringing people into the team and introducing them to ways of working.

This can take place through shadowing, joint, and overlapping shifts and can include more formal aspects of learning such as observation and checking that new team members can use equipment safely and in the way the person getting support wants them to and has been agreed in the team. This doesn't take the place of full training in helping people to move, for example.

Peer-to-peer learning

Peer-to-peer learning (also called peer learning) involves bringing people together who are experiencing similar challenges or roles and engaging in reciprocal learning activities. The idea is that all participants recognise each other and themselves as learners and teachers at the same time in the same space. Activities can be facilitated, but it's not essential.

Mutual Support

Mutual support is any emotional and well-being support offered by someone from a similar group, working in a similar role, or facing a similar problem. Support is reciprocal, given and received in the same space and at the same time.

Peer Support

Peer support is distinct from both peer learning and mutual support. It has a unique meaning in the recovery, user-led and the disability rights movements and is now common in the social care sector everywhere with the notable exception of the majority of domiciliary care and residential care for older people.

Being a peer supporter is a skilled role and you can complete accredited qualifications in it.

Here's a definition of peer support:

Peer Support may be defined as the help and support that people with lived experience of a particular condition (which could be mental illness, a physical health condition, neurodiversity, a physical or a learning disability or something else) are able to give to one another.It may be social, emotional or practical support but importantly this support is mutually offered and frequently reciprocal, allowing peers to benefit from the support whether they are giving or receiving it.

Route to offering paid support from voluntary

You may offer routes for people to become peer supporters both through the care and support they get and also through learning opportunities. You can expect to see some people progressing from voluntary support to being able to offer paid support.​

One of the methods you might use to help people become skilled and confident peer supporters is peer to peer learning.

Peer learning activities

This may happen in a variety of ways, led by roles appropriate to the setting (this may be the Community Circle Organiser, Facilitator, care and support worker or person getting support, for example):

• Buddy meetings between independent care workers

• Team meetings

• Circle meetings

• One to ones

• People getting support and care to the team

• Carer to team

• Shadowing each other

• Action learning sets

• Critical thinking buddies

• Giving and receiving feedback - this is an essential form of learning. We write about this as part of our problem-solving policy and also refer to it in our feeling capable policy

This is not an exhaustive list - Equal Care likes to take any opportunity for learning to happen peer to peer!

Peer learning routes

Routes can be face-to-face and digital.

When you join

For new workers, during the welcome each worker is made aware of the support and learning opportunities available through buddy meetings, circle meetings, shadowing each other, critical thinking buddies and how to access Asana to see other opportunities by the person welcoming them.

Through circles

Each circle meeting will have a slot for education, filled by circle members with experience in any given topic. This programme of learning will be facilitated either by the Community Circle Organiser, the Circle Leader or another member of the circle who takes on this responsibility.

Across Teams

You should enable independent care and support workers who support people in the same area to come together to participate in Action Learning and buddying, including being there for one another's emotional support and well-being (mutual support for independent workers).

Facilitators trained in these practices should lead this.