Community practitioner - personality disorder | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS trust in Greater London is seeking a Community Practitioner to provide maternity leave cover for 12 months. The ideal candidate will be a Registered Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker, or Occupational Therapist with experience in a multi-disciplinary team. This role involves working with patients with personality disorder, developing clinical skills in a supportive environment, and participating in therapeutic groups. Numerous benefits are offered, along with a commitment to career development and flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Generous pay and pension package

Flexible working options

Career development programs

Car lease options

Keyworker housing

NHS discounts

Qualifications

• Experience working in a multi-disciplinary mental health team.
• Commitment to supporting individuals with personality disorder.
• Training in Mentalisation Based Treatment (MBT) and Structured Clinical Management (SCM) skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide maternity leave cover for mental health services.
• Work with personality disordered patients in therapeutic groups.
• Develop clinical skills through training and support.

Skills

Multi-disciplinary teamwork

Therapeutic group facilitation

Working with personality disorder

Education

Registered Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker, Occupational Therapist or equivalent

Job description

The Croydon Personality Disorder Service, based at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham, is looking to recruit a Registered Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker, Occupational Therapist or equivalent to the post of Community Practitioner – specialist in personality disorder. We are also open to Band 5 applicants with appropriate qualifications/experience (see JD & PS). This is to provide maternity leave cover, so is for a fixed term/secondment for 12 months, which may end on 1st October 2026, with a potential to extend. It would be an ideal opportunity for someone interested in working with patients with personality disorder/complex emotional needs and wishing to develop their skills in working with these patients. You will have worked in a multi‑disciplinary mental health team. We are looking for staff with a commitment to working with people with personality disorder along with the confidence and skill to work effectively in therapeutic groups.

This is an exciting opportunity to learn a range of clinical skills working in therapeutic groups, and with personality disordered patients. You will be trained in using Mentalisation Based Treatment (MBT) skills level A, the Structured Clinical Management (SCM) model, and in the competencies required to facilitate SUN (Service User Network) groups, and become an accredited SUN group facilitator. You’ll also learn skills working individually with personality disordered patients, from an experienced and well‑established team.

We provide specialist, evidence‑based MBT, psychotherapeutic day hospital treatment for working‑age people with moderate to severe personality disorder. We also run The Sun Project, a coping skills development and crisis support group 3 times a week in central Croydon to people with or without a diagnosis of personality disorder. You will work within our team of psychotherapists, doctors, specialist community practitioners, nurses and care co‑ordinators.

We offer a strong, supportive and cohesive team and this exciting post means that you get the opportunity to develop your clinical skills to attain accreditation from us in facilitation of appraisal based coping skills development groups (the SUN project), develop MBT skills in working with personality disordered patients, SCM skills and will participate in learning identified in your appraisal and personal development plan.

Our Trust headquarters is located at Denmark Hill less than 5 minutes from the train station (zone 2). We also provide services and operate across other locations, such as London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; and substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Lambeth, Greenwich and Wandsworth.

Benefits

• 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 support 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 benefits from competitive deals to lease cars.
• Accommodation, our staff benefits from keyworker housing available 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
• Wellbeing events
• Long service awards
• Cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Staff restaurants

We look forward to receiving your application.

Please note vacancy may be closed early once capacity has been met.

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. For both overviews please view the Job Description attachment with the job advert.

This advert closes on Friday 19 Dec 2025