Consultant Psychiatrist - First Response Service

Transformationunitgm; Warrington; On-site; GBP 105,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS Trust seeks a full-time Consultant for their First Response Service, providing clinical leadership and expertise to enhance patient care in Mid Mersey. The role involves comprehensive assessments, managing emergencies, and working collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team to ensure high-quality service delivery.

Qualifications

• Approved clinician status OR can achieve within 6 months.
• Evidence of achievement in education, research, and quality improvement.
• Wide range of specialist experience within NHS or comparable service.

Responsibilities

• Carry out comprehensive psychiatric assessments.
• Support staff to manage psychiatric emergencies.
• Conduct patient reviews and mental health act assessments.

Skills

Excellent oral and written communication skills

Excellent knowledge in specialty

Ability to manage clinical complexity

Education

MB BS or equivalent medical qualification

CCT or CESR in General Adult or Old Age Psychiatry

Job description

Main area Consultant Grade Consultant Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 10 sessions per week (10% R&R + 10% acuity (until review), SPA- 2.5, DCC- 7 .5) Job ref 350-MED6855225

Employer Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Hollins Park Hospital Town Warrington Salary £105,504 - £139,882 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 29/06/2025 23:59

Consultant

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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.

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Job overview

We are seeking to recruit a full time Consultant for First Response Service across Mid Mersey and are looking for an enthusiastic, proactive colleague to provide dynamic leadership to the service and the Trust as a whole.

This is a new full-time post based in Hollins Park Hospital. The post holder will work collaboratively with our Operational Manager, Clinical Service Manager and FRS Specialty doctor based in Clock View to provide leadership and clinical expertise to the First Response Service and ensure we deliver an excellent, responsive, and high-quality service. The post holder will also be supported, where appropriate, to develop a special interest in a clinical area, which meets the Trust objectives.

The post holder will be responsible for the overall assessment, and management of patients presented to FRS in Mid Mersey by working closely with other members of the multidisciplinary team including clinical service manager, advanced clinical practitioner, clinical lead, Operational Managers (Band 8A), dual diagnosis practitioners, mental health practitioners, assistant practitioners, assistant clinical psychologist, clinical psychologist, social workers and support workers.

You will enjoy working as part of a highly skilled and motivated team to deliver excellent care.

Main duties of the job

Urgent reviews for the patients and to chair management planning meetings involving families, community and social care services.

Clinical/managerial supervisor responsibilities for the specialty doctor based in FRS in Clock View Hospital.

For Medic Assessments within team there are appointments available within office hours . They are first triaged by the clinical leads. Registered practitioners can speak to the medic on site or by phone to discuss acceptance of service users. Urgent Assessments are facilitated by the medic directly and via secretary.

If an MHAA is required, this should be discussed with the clinical lead. Every opportunity should be actioned to support contact with the service user. This includes telephone contacts, home visit, discussion with family or carers, prior to application to careline, in order to gain as much clinical or collateral information as possible.

Consultant psychiatrist responsibility for FRS across Mid Mersey.

Carry out comprehensive psychiatric assessments and provide treatment for patients referred to FRS as in outpatient and community assessment.

Support FRS staff to manage psychiatric emergencies.

Conduct patient reviews, and mental health act assessments, and attend multi-professional meetings.

Maintain a high standard of clinical work when carrying out assessments.

Ensure compliance with our clinical governance framework, you will motivate colleagues, champion service user safety and dignity and drive continuous improvement.

Working for our organisation

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical duties of post holder:

• Consultant psychiatrist responsibility for FRS across Mid Mersey.
• Carry out comprehensive psychiatric assessments and provide treatment for patients referred to FRS as in outpatient and community assessment.
• Support FRS staff to manage psychiatric emergencies.
• Conduct patient reviews, and mental health act assessments, and attend multi-professional meetings.
• To carry out comprehensive Risk Assessments and participate in Trust’s risk management processes such as Health Risk Assessment and Management Meetings (H-RAMM) and Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) Meetings.
• To provide medical leadership to the FRS team.
• Liaise with families / carers.
• Liaise with aspects of the Criminal Justice System regarding patients.
• Liaise with other stakeholders and interested parties.
• The post holder will be expected to maintain effective communication with other services, including in-patient and community mental health teams, crisis services, and primary care.
• Provide clinical/educational supervision to junior colleagues, NMP and AP.
• To attend daily safety huddle and multidisciplinary team meetings.
• The Trust has a number of medical management roles and encourages medical staff to participate in these. Likewise, medical staff are encouraged to participate in the wider discussion forums within the Trust and join committees/working parties in other areas. Support is provided within job plans to undertake these roles.
• The post holder will be expected to participate in the Consultant on call rota covering all specialties apart from CAMHS and Forensic services in the Warrington, Halton, St Helens & Knowsley areas.

Please see job description for further details.

Person specification

Qualifications

• MB BS or equivalent medical qualification.
• Qualification or higher degree in medical education, clinical research or management.
• CCT or CESR in General Adult or Old Age Psychiatry.
• Additional clinical qualifications.
• Fully registered with the GMC with a licence to practise at the time of appointment.
• Included on the GMC Specialist Register OR within six months.
• Approved clinician status OR able to achieve within 6 months of appointment.
• Approved under S12 OR able to achieve with 3 months of appointment.
• In good standing with GMC with respect to warning and conditions on practice.

Transport

• Holds and will use valid UK driving licence OR provides evidence of proposed alternative.

Clinical Skills, Knowledge & Experience

• Excellent knowledge in specialty.
• Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Able to manage clinical complexity and uncertainty.
• Makes decisions based on evidence and experience including the contribution of others.
• Able to meet duties under MHA and MCA.
• Wide range of specialist and sub-specialist experience relevant to post within NHS or comparable service.

Academic Skills & Lifelong learning

• Able to deliver undergraduate or postgraduate teaching and training.
• Ability to work in and lead team.
• Demonstrate commitment to shared leadership & collaborative working to deliver improvement.
• Participated in continuous professional development.
• Participated in research or service evaluation.
• Able to use and appraise clinical evidence.
• Has actively participated in clinical audit and quality improvement programmes.
• Able to plan and deliver undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training relevant to this post.
• Reflected on purpose of CPD undertaken.
• Experienced in clinical research and / or service evaluation.
• Evidence of achievement in education, research, audit and service improvement: awards, prizes, presentations and publications.
• Has led clinical audits leading to service change or improved outcomes to patients.

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Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust’s guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.

Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email [e-mail] to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.

We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team (01516761452 or email [e-mail] ) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team can prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Please be advised that the use of Artificial Intelligence on applications is monitored and if you choose to use this, you must declare this on your application form.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

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Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.