Community Practitioner

NHS; Croydon; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Croydon seeks a motivated Mental Health Nurse, Occupational Therapist, or Social Worker. You will join a dynamic team, providing assessments and care for individuals with complex mental health needs, ensuring high-quality service delivery. The role involves collaboration with various professionals and supporting service users through their treatment journey. A strong focus on assessment skills and crisis management is essential, along with a commitment to professional development and teamwork.

Benefits

Generous pay, pensions and leave

Flexible working options

Career development opportunities

Car lease benefits

Keyworker housing

NHS discounts

Counselling services

Cycle to work scheme

Season ticket loan

Qualifications

• Experience in community mental health settings.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.

Responsibilities

• Provide assessment and planning of care to service users.
• Work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team.

Skills

Assessment Skills

Crisis Management

Communication

Education

Registered Nurse (Mental Health)

Completion of Preceptorship Course

Job description

Go back South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Community Practitioner

The closing date is 27 May 2025

The Assessment & Liaison Team provides a service for people aged 18-65 who live in the Borough of Croydon. We are a short-term service who provides mental health assessment to service users who are experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties within the community. We also provide advice on the best treatment and care options available on mental health illnesses such as anxiety, depression, psychosis, or personality disorder.

We work with a team of health and social care professionals including nurses, doctors, social workers and psychologists. We also work closely with service users, their carers, local organisations and GPs.

The Croydon Assessment and Liaison team is made up of three teams (North, South, and Central) and is situated at Jeanette Wallace House, Croydon.The team generally works with individuals for up to 12 weeks providing a holistic package of care in collaboration with local care networks.

Main duties of the job

To provide assessment and planning of care to a group of service users within Croydon Assessment and Liaison team.Ensuring records associated with this process are maintained.

To work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team and across other agencies.

To provide a high quality of care to individuals with complex bio psychosocial needs.

The post holder will carry out procedures to a standard that ensures safe and effective care, and complies with their relevant professional code of conduct.

To provide supervision to junior staff and students

To support the team leader and act up as team leader in their absence

We are looking for a motivated and dynamic Mental Health Nurse (RMN), Occupational Therapist or Social Worker to be part of our front-line team. You will work with senior nurse practitioners within a GP clustered team delivering an enhanced liaison approach using an engagement and stabilisation model.

This involves liaising with primary care, completing baseline mental health assessments, crisis management supporting individuals to identify and understand their mental health difficulties and working out a joint treatment plan that will support them through the 12 weeks process, getting them the right treatment and care as soon as possible.

Excellent assessment skills are essential including an interest in working with mood anxiety and personality service users within a highly skilled team.

About us

We are committed to ensuring our staff get the most out of their benefits package and understand the importance of a healthy work life balance. There is an extensive range of excellent benefits for you and your family. We want you to feel like you are part of a close knit team at SLaM. It's important to us that you feel valued and appreciated and that is why we have a comprehensive benefits package on offer.

Some of our benefits are highlighted here:

Generous pay, pensions and leave, we offer a comprehensive pay, pensions and leave package which is dependent on the role and length of service.

Work life balance, flexible working and supporting a range of flexible options, such as: part-time working and job sharing.

Career development, There are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and we support your development through a number of programmes such as mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes

Car lease, our staff benefit from competitive deals to lease cars

Accommodation, our staff benefit from keyworker housing which is available on selected sites

NHS discounts, with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands through Health Service Discounts website.

Other benefits include:

Counselling services

Long service awards

Cycle to work scheme

Season ticket loan

Job responsibilities

Please attached JD and person specification

*Please note that professional registration (either RMN, Social work or Occupational Therapy) is one of the essential requirements for this post.

Applicants who do not hold the relevant professional registration will not be shortlisted.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• oRegistered Nurse (Mental Health) or other professional registration (Social Work or Occupational Therapy).
• Completion of Preceptorship course
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Student practice assessor training

Experience

• Experience of working in community mental health settings (i.e. Home Treatment Team, CMHT) or acute inpatient settings
• Experience in managing safeguarding issues.
• Experience in carrying out detailed assessments, formulating and planning care
• Experience of working in an MDT setting
• Experience of managing a caseload

Knowledge

• Experience of racial awareness/diversity training/cultural competence.
• knowledge of evidence based interventions for people with complex mental health problems.
• Awareness of bio-psycho-social assessments and the safe and effective management of risk
• Current up to date knowledge of relevant legislation
• Knowledge of wider local organisations to support recovery plans for service users

attributes

• Recognition of own limitations, strengths and weaknesses and an ability to seek advice when necessary
• Methodical approach to work with attention to detail.
• Ability to use computerised information and communication systems.

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.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust