Advanced Clinical Practitioner

Mersey Care Nhs Foundation Trust; St Helens; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an Advanced Clinical Practitioner to deliver high‑level clinical care within the Homeless Health Team serving St Helens and surrounding areas.

The post requires independent clinical judgment, advanced health assessments, and leadership within a multidisciplinary team, with responsibilities across diagnosis, treatment, and referrals in a community setting. Flexible NHS commitment and professional registration are essential.

Qualifications

• Registration with relevant clinical body as a mandatory requirement.
• Masters in advanced Clinical Practice in physical health or equivalent qualification.
• V300 Non-medical prescribing accreditation.
• Ability to work autonomously in an advanced physical health role.
• Proven leadership skills.
• Non-medical prescriber in line with Trust policy.
• Engagement in research and audits.
• Experience in community settings and MDT working.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Change management capabilities.
• Ability to work across primary and secondary care boundaries.
• Negotiation and conflict management skills.
• IT literacy (EMIS/ICE/RIO).

Responsibilities

• Deliver advanced clinical practice in physical health within Trust frameworks.
• Provide independent clinical assessment, diagnosis, planning, and management.
• Lead and support trainees and MDT within the Mental Health Care Division.
• Collaborate with nursing, medical, and multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
• Support education and development of ACPs; operate within Band 8a role.
• Ensure patient safety and high-quality care across services.
• Promote safeguarding and health and safety practices.
• Contribute to organisational transformation while maintaining clinical excellence.

Skills

Leadership skills

Excellent communication

Autonomy

Change management

Negotiation & conflict management

Research

Audits

Multi-disciplinary collaboration

Education

Master's in Advanced Clinical Practice (physical health)

V300 Non-medical prescribing

UK registration in nursing/HCPC (as applicable)

Tools

EMIS

ICE

RIO

Job description

Job summary

The Mersey Care Homeless Health Team provides essential health services and support to vulnerable individuals experiencing homelessness in the St Helens area. The Homeless Health Team focuses on assisting individuals who are homeless, vulnerable housed and veterans. Their services include:

• Holistic Assessments: The team conducts thorough assessments to understand the health needs of clients, addressing both physical and mental issues.


• Healthcare Advice: They provide guidance on managing health problems and navigating the healthcare system.


• Ongoing Support: The team offers continuous support and follow-up care to ensure the clients received necessary services.


• Signposting and Referrals: They connect clients with other relevant services, such as housing support, mental health services, and addiction support.

Main duties of the job

• Deliver and participate in the physical health clinical care of patients referred into the Homeless Health Team.


• To be professionally and legally accountable for all work undertaken to practice at an advanced level of professional autonomy and accountability that is within Trust policies and the Nursing and Midwifery Code of Conduct (2008) or the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC).


• Provide a level of advanced and comprehensive physical health assessment based on a specialist body of knowledge.


• To appropriately assess, examine, investigate, diagnose and treat patients, resulting in the safe management and appropriate referral or discharge of patients.


• Is able to identify the need for appropriate diagnostic tests, interpret the results and act on any results requiring clinical intervention or management.


• To identify and intervene proactively where circumstances contribute to an unsafe environment for patients, staff or relatives and elevate these to the health and safety team/safeguarding team.


• Must have completed the Independent Non-Medical Prescribing course and registration with the NMC or HCPC, undertake non-medical prescribing in accordance with the Trust non‑medical prescribing policy and maintain evidence and competence of this qualification.

About us

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Job responsibilities

The post holder is required to deliver an advanced level of clinical practice within their recognised remit of physical health. Working within the local and nationally agreed frameworks the Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP), will exercise independent judgment to assess, investigate, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate the clinical care and management of patients physical health within their care. The ACPs will provide the teams with advanced clinical leadership, having undergone training to meet all academic and core clinical requirements (4 pillars of advanced practice) relevant to the role.

The ACPs reporting lines will be via the Mental Health Care Division leadership structure. They will work alongside and support the education and development of trainee APs and the wider MDT within the Mental Health Care Division. The ACP will have key working relationships with all members of the nursing, medical and multidisciplinary teams, trust management teams and wider partners.

The Band 8a ACP practices in partnership with the multidisciplinary team.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registration with relevant clinical body


• Full Masters in advanced Clinical Practice physical health or qualification, such as relevant in-depth experience and postgraduate/registration study/qualification


• V300 Non-medical prescribing


• Working autonomously in an advanced physical health role


• Proven leadership skills


• Non-medical prescriber


• Research


• Audits
  
• Community experience


• Working within a multi‑disciplinary led environment


• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal


• Change management


• Able to work across boundaries within primary and offering support to secondary care


• Negotiation and conflict management skills


• IT literate


• EMIS


• ICE


• RIO

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.