Early Days in Custody (EDiC) Practitioner

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Sheerness; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION INCENTIVE

Job summary

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an registered Mental Health Nurse to join the Early Days in Custody (EDiC) Team at HMP Elmley. The role focuses on holistic, multidisciplinary care for prisoners in their first 14 days, coordinating assessments, care planning, and safety measures.

The post supports sickness and self-harm prevention, with emphasis on continuity of care, robust documentation, and collaboration with families and staff across services. National Vetting applies.

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse.
• Degree supplemented by diploma, specialist training.
• CPD portfolio containing evidence of active involvement in CPD activities.

Responsibilities

• Ensure that new prisoners are supported during their first 14 days in the prison to access relevant healthcare offers.
• Identify the wider needs of patients, through comprehensive assessment and working in partnership with them to co-produce a written care plan addressing health and social care needs.
• Cover some work for the mental health in-reach team, e.g., caseload reviews.
• Administer antipsychotic depot medication.
• Collect and synthesize all relevant clinical history to ensure safety and continuity of care and up-to-date records.
• Ensure ongoing care with clear pathway management understood by patient and families.

Education

RMN qualification

Job description

Early Days in Custody (EDiC) Practitioner

Band 6

Main area Offender Healthcare Grade Band 6 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (shift pattern covering Monday to Sunday LD - 06:30 - 18:30, 10 -22.00 pm Main - 07:30 - 17:30 - No nights) Job ref 277-8266217-ELM

Site HMP Elmley Town Sheerness Salary £41,959 - £50,117 per annum ***RECRUITMENT & RETENTION INCENTIVE INCLUDED*** Salary period Yearly Closing 22/09/2026 23:59

Job overview

We have an exciting opportunity for a registered mental health nurse to join our Early Days in Custody Team (EDiC) at HMP Elmley.

The EDiC team will act with the following principles:

Holistic – the EDiC team is multi-disciplinary, drawing on expertise from the other teams within healthcare to provide a knowledgeable and skilled service with the ability to draw upon specialist input rapidly when needed.

Curious – the EDiC team will engage with patients with clinical curiosity – drawing on all the information available to them to understand patient needs. The team will engage where possible with patients’ families/carers to fully understand patient’s needs and assist in helping maintain family relationships.

Prioritising Safety - Keep prisoners safe by identifying and addressing immediate risks for that patient including self-harm, risk of death by suicide, and unmanaged substance misuse dependencies.

Important Sponsorship Information for this post: We are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.

Main duties of the job

As a EDiC Practitioner you will:

• Ensure that new prisoners are supported during their first 14 days in the prison to access relevant healthcare offers and manage their general health and wellbeing whilst in prison.
• Identify the wider needs of patients, through the completion of a comprehensive assessment and working in partnership with them to co-produce a written care plan that addresses their health and social care needs.
• The role will include covering some work for the mental health in-reach team. For example:
• Caseload reviews
• Administer antipsychotic depot medication.
• Collect and synthesize all relevant clinical history to ensure safety, continuity of care and minimal re-assessments for the patient and ensuring that the records held for patients are up to date and accurate.
• Ensure ongoing care for every person requiring it, with clear pathway management in place that is understood by the patient and their families /significant others.
• Information is shared where appropriate and consent has been given to ensure that care plans and risks for patients are widely understood by all staff supporting them, including HMPPS staff where appropriate. This will be done with full patient consent.

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• The post holder will be responsible to take part in reception screening for new prisoners on the day of first entry into prison. This will identify immediate health, risks, and safety needs.
• To be able to develop initial mental health crisis plans for patients who are presenting as particularly at risk of a mental health crisis.
• The post holder will be responsible for carrying out comprehensive health and social care assessment (secondary screening) within seven days for all prisoners who are willing to undertake this assessment.
• For people that decline this assessment the team will ensure a care plan is in place for any known risks and vulnerabilities and will proactively work with the person to undertake a secondary screen at a later stage.
• The post holder will lead on identifying patients whose needs, risks or circumstances have changed following a return from court or hospital outside of the reception process.
• The development of a care plan that is individualised, responding clearly to each identified health need with patient input and coproduction where feasible and that ensures the wellbeing and safety of that patient for their first 14 days in custody.
• The ability to collate healthcare information from families, community providers or prior establishments to improve continuity of care and safety, and limit reassessments.
• Ensure that all waiting time, assessment and interventions are delivered in a timely manner, and positively contribute to the achievement of the service’s performance targets.
• Ensure integrated and collaborative working with other specialist services, including continuity of care and through the gate arrangements and liaison.
• Short-term care coordination to ensure referrals are made, GP appointments are attended, assessments actioned, and issues identified at the reception screening or health assessment are addressed.
• To be able to provide brief interventions for substance misuse and mental wellbeing (i.e., sleep hygiene advice, breathing techniques for anxiety management etc.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ :

All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.

You will need to provide:

• Proof of right to work documentation
• Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographic ID
• Proof of address documentation
• Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.

Address History:

5 years address history will be needed.

Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.

Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited.

In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants

If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website ( http://www.fco.gov.uk/en ).

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse.
• Degree supplemented by diploma, specialist training.
• CPD portfolio containing evidence of active involvement in CPD activities.

Experience

• At least 2 years post qualification as RMN.
• Extensive clinical experience including individual and group work reflecting social inclusion.
• Supervisory experience of junior staff and students.
• Experience of working in a multi- disciplinary team.

Skills/Knowledge

• Ability to establish rapport with difficult to engage service users.
• Ability to build effective working relationships.
• Effective written verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work autonomously, set own priorities and manage time effectively.

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that welcomes and supports individuals of all abilities. Remember, if you meet the minimum criteria for this role and you have a disability, you can be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme - Please ensure you select this on your application form. We would encourage you to be open about your needs so we can work with you to design a comfortable and accessible interview experience. Any information you provide regarding a disability or a need for adjustments will be treated in confidence and will only be shared with colleagues who are supporting this request.

If you require any adjustments to participate fully in the interview process, please let us know by adding the relevant details when scheduling your preferred interview date and time. Please feel free to contact the appointing manager to discuss your needs.

We encourage applicants to contact the hiring manager before their interview, if they have any questions about the role or the process. This is a great way to get clarity and prepare effectively for the interview.

If you have declared you are part of the armed forces community, you may be asked to provide evidence during the recruitment process. If you misrepresent this information, your offer may be withdrawn. For Armed Forces specific support, see our webpage: https://oxleas.nhs.uk/armed-forces-community/

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

If you choose to use AI or other tools to assist in writing your application, it's essential to personalise this information, particularly your supporting information section. While AI can help streamline the writing process, these tools cannot fully grasp the context or requirements of the job you’re applying for. There is also a risk that it can generate false or misleading information. AI-generated job applications can often be generic, impersonal and may not accurately reflect your qualifications, knowledge, skills, and experiences. It is crucial that you personalise your supporting statement by articulating these in your unique voice. Relying solely on AI to write your application or supporting information section is not advocated by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and could negatively impact your chances of success in the application process.

We monitor applications for any behaviour that could create an unfair advantage, and we check all references carefully. You are likely to be tested on your experience at interview, so be honest and make sure all the information in your application is correct.Please note that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is prohibited during the interview process.

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.

Name Clare Denny Job title Recruitment & Retention Resourcing Officer Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 07504877653