Become an ACOMHS peer reviewer

Peer reviewers are an important part of the review service. Information about becoming a peer reviewer can be found here.
As a peer reviewer you will visit other adult community mental health services. This provides an excellent opportunity to learn from other services, share good practice, contribute to the peer review process and network with colleagues.

For staff and clinicians becoming a peer reviewer provides the opportunity to be part of a dynamic network where you can share ideas, examples of best practice and resources. It also provides the opportunity to see how other services work as part of professional and personal development. For staff preparing for a peer review within their own service, becoming a reviewer gives unique insight into how the day operates.

As part of the agreement of joining, member services are required to nominate staff to become peer reviewers. Please bear in mind that your service will receive a visit from at least two peer reviewers (who are clinical staff) during your review cycle so you should provide at least two reviewers from your service in order to keep the programme running fairly and efficiently.

If more than two members of your team would like to become peer reviewers, please let us know. We always welcome new reviewers.

More information about the benefits of being a peer reviewer can be found on this poster.

You can become a peer reviewer if you work in a UK adult community mental health service which is a member of the ACOMHS network.

Clinicians or staff from non-member services can contact the team if they are interested in being a peer reviewer.

A typical review starts at 9:45am and ends at 3:30pm. 

The main aim of the peer review visit is to validate the self-review data which services carry out prior to the review. It is not an inspection.

As a peer reviewer, your main responsibilities are to:

  • share ideas and suggestions with the service being reviewed
  • give advice and support
  • provide the service being reviewed with opportunities for discussion
  • take away any best practice that is identified to your own service

All ACOMHS reviews are currently being run virtually through Microsoft Teams. You do not need to have a Microsoft Teams account to join the meetings but it may be helpful to have the app downloaded. You can also access Microsoft Teams through your web browser.

To become a peer reviewer, you will need to attend a 2-hour training session which the project team runs every 3 months.

Training is open to all staff working in ACOMHS member services. This includes consultants and specialist registrars (SpR), registered mental health nurses and nurses in training, team managers, support workers and wider MDT. 

Training takes place via Microsoft Teams and will be facilitated by a member of the ACOMHS project team. To join the next training session, please complete this booking form.
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