Early Intervention Psychosis Care Coordinator PATH Service

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust; St Albans; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization in St Albans is seeking qualified Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, or Mental Health Nurses to join their Early Intervention in Psychosis Service. This role involves supporting individuals experiencing psychosis for the first time, offering personalized, recovery-focused care within a collaborative team. Successful candidates will have the ability to work flexibly and will benefit from a variety of professional development opportunities in a supportive environment.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Flexible working options

Comprehensive training programs

Excellent employee benefits

Qualifications

• Registration with NMC / HCPC is required.
• Must have experience in acute mental health services.
• Ability to use electronic recording systems and produce reports.

Responsibilities

• Work closely in a multi-disciplinary team to deliver mental health services.
• Provide assessment, care planning, and coordination for individuals with first episode psychosis.
• Train as a family intervention therapist.

Skills

Communication

Teamwork

Compassion

Crisis management

Education

Degree in Mental Health Nursing / Social Work / Occupational Therapy

Job description

Are you a qualified Social Worker, Occupational Therapist, or Mental Health Nurse with a passion for mental health care? We’re looking for compassionate professionals to join our Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) Service - PATH (Psychosis: Prevention, Assessment and Treatment in Hertfordshire). Based in St Albans & Harpenden, covering a specified area in West Hertfordshire, this is a rewarding opportunity to support people experiencing psychosis for the first time, delivering personalised and recovery-focused care. You’ll hold a caseload and work closely with the wider MDT, helping you build strong relationships and develop your leadership and delegation skills. We welcome applications for full-time, part-time or job-share roles and are committed to flexible working that supports work-life balance.

What we offer

• A values-driven, innovative EIP service
• Collaborative mini team working
• Flexible working options
• Training in Family Interventions
• Opportunities to grow your leadership and clinical skills

Key responsibilities

• Be an active member of a skilled multi-disciplinary team.
• Work together with your colleagues to provide our PATH service in our St Albans and Harpenden Team.
• Cover a designated locality – not the whole county.
• Travel less and work out in the community, in people’s homes and our local hub buildings.
• Train as a family intervention therapist.
• Deliver recovery-based and collaborative approaches to care planning, working flexibly and creatively with people to achieve their individual goals.

Qualifications & experience

• Education to degree level or academic qualifications equivalent (Diploma/Degree in Mental Health Nursing /Social Work /Occupational Therapy).
• Registration with NMC / HCPC.
• Experience of working in acute mental health inpatient/day‑care services.
• Experience of working in situations of crisis and emotionally demanding environments.
• Experience and knowledge of safeguarding processes, dealing with family breakdown, serious mental ill health and risk of self-harm.
• Experience of partnership working with service users and carers, demonstrating dignity and respect.
• Own transportation to travel to various locations.

Desirable criteria

• Advance training in mental health.
• Approved Mental Health Professional / Best Interest Assessment training, post-registration experience including solid Band 5 experience.
• Experience of teaching and training.

Essential communication skills

• Excellent ability to communicate with a wide range of stakeholders including service users and carers, other professional colleagues, members of other organisations and local communities, verbally and in writing.
• Experience of using electronic recording systems and ability to produce accurate, appropriate and timely reports.

Visa and registration

Applicants who require a Skilled Worker visa to work in the United Kingdom should assess their circumstances against the criteria specified on the UK visa check page. You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

About HPFT

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

Our family of over 4,000 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services. The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers – everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout: Welcoming, Kind, Positive, Respectful, Professional.

Role Overview

You will work as a member of the multi-disciplinary Community Team, will be responsible for the clinical and operational day-to-day service delivery, providing a high quality social care service to adults of all ages having First Episode Psychosis (FEP). The core functions are to provide assessment, care planning and care coordination, including care programme approach, within a framework of recovery that embraces each individual’s right to choice and control. You may be responsible for supervision, development and teaching of junior staff and/or students as delegated by the team manager.

Learning and development

• You will be offered a structured 12‑week induction programme, giving you access to FEP specific learning and development opportunities to give you the confidence and skills to start delivering the FEP pathway to our service users.
• Your development is our focus and we will offer a range of ways for you to further your career. You’ll have access to personal coaching, to help you achieve your goals, coupled with 100-day conversations and a high quality supervision and appraisal programme.
• You’ll want to be a leader and will be encouraged to develop your leadership skills through our offer of bespoke leadership training, high-quality profession-specific support and opportunities to learn the most effective supervision and personal coaching approaches.
• You will be an important part of an innovative, creative and developing service. We are committed to a future where we use continuous quality improvement to harness your ideas for service development and make them a reality.
• You will work with a team who have highly specialist knowledge, experience and skills around FEP, where you will have access to a comprehensive internal training package to develop these skills in your first year too.
• Delivering the FEP Pathway is a chance to change service users’ lives, teaching them the skills to self-manage their illness and encouraging self-reliance and independence, as well as helping them rebuild their lives.
• You will be working with people who come with a variety of needs, at various stages of their illness and recovery.
• HPFT offers a wide variety of competitive employee benefits including access to a range of salary sacrifice schemes and discounts, a lease car scheme and excellent pension provision with up to 42 days leave per year.

Testimonials

"I love my job, I see service users over their journey from when they first become unwell to being able to re-start living a rewarding life"
"It’s a specialist team, lots of opportunities for career development, it’s a very supportive team and we work together as a mini team to look after a case load."

Additional information

Come and find out more about what we do and consider joining our team. We’d love you to come and work with us!