Enhanced Clinical Practitioner

South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust; Teddington; On-site; GBP 51,000 - 59,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to transforming mental health care in the UK. This role offers the chance to work as an Enhanced Clinical Practitioner within a dynamic multi-disciplinary team, focusing on older adults with mental health conditions. You'll play a crucial role in assessing and providing timely interventions for patients, ensuring high-quality care while fostering a collaborative environment. With opportunities for professional development and a commitment to inclusivity, this position is perfect for those looking to make a significant impact in mental health services. Embrace the chance to be part of a compassionate team that prioritizes patient recovery and well-being.

Benefits

Flexible working

Career development opportunities

Inclusive work environment

Support for Armed Forces Community

Qualifications

• Qualified Healthcare Professional with current registration.
• Evidence of continuing professional development in mental health.

Responsibilities

• Act as a key worker for patients with complex needs.
• Conduct comprehensive assessments and develop care plans.
• Lead and motivate staff to provide high-quality services.

Skills

Clinical assessment

Leadership

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Mental health knowledge

Risk assessment

Education

Health-based undergraduate degree

Postgraduate certificate in education or equivalent

Tools

IT systems

Job description

Site: Livingston House, Town: Teddington

Salary: £51,883 - £58,544 per annum inclusive of outer London HCAS

Salary period: Yearly

Closing: 01/01/2025 23:59

South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust has a rich history, well-established community links, and an international reputation. We provide a full range of local mental health services to the Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton, and Wandsworth London boroughs, as well as specialist forensic mental health services, including specialised services such as national deaf adults and CAMHS inpatients and OCD.

We are committed to providing high-quality integrated health and social care for local people with mental health problems in South West London and more specialist mental health services for people throughout the UK. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’; however, we aim to be ‘outstanding’.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values; being consistent, compassionate, collaborative, respectful, and open is at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is "making life better together".

When you join us, you’ll be part of something special – an innovative and rapidly growing organisation that is helping to redefine the Mental Health, education, and social care landscape in the UK.

As a Trust, we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job Overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Older Peoples services. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a dynamic multi-disciplinary team that assesses all referrals for old age adults with mental health needs and residents in the service’s local area.

You will be part of the Richmond Older Peoples Community Mental Health Team and expected to work closely with the services within the Older People Care Service Line, the Community Service Line, Primary Care, the Local Authority, and with family and carers in a collaborative and professional manner. In return, you will have the opportunity to be supported to develop further your clinical knowledge and skills, and if you wish to achieve further promotion within the organization, this is something that we are keen to develop and nurture.

The post requires an individual who is visionary, innovative, assertive, autonomous, thrives under pressure, compassionate, and can bring their experience and expertise to this senior role within our Richmond Older People Community Team, ensuring that they can provide a responsive and coordinated Enhanced Clinical Service, providing training and development, participating in QI projects and research, and acting as a compassionate leader.

Main Duties of the Job

As the Enhanced Clinical Practitioner, you will be part of a community patient-led service and work with older adults aged 75 and above, who have a functional mental health condition and with older adults who primarily have a diagnosis of Dementia.

The new role will be introduced into Richmond to improve the community systems that are already in place, providing additional senior support and capacity to assess, provide brief interventions, and review patients within 24-48 hours when they are escalating towards a mental health crisis. In essence, this role will act as a senior liaison nurse for Older People community services and for patients who need to be seen quickly but safely outside of other crisis services such as A&E, Crisis Care, etc.

The initial assessment will determine the crisis response needed, and this will be carried out by the ECP. It is hoped that the addition of this new role will free up the time from other community staff in the community team to carry out their scheduled clinical appointments rather than needing to respond to patient crisis escalations at short notice.

You will be responsible for monitoring and assessing patients whose mental health is deteriorating or behavior is escalating in the community with your team and using various IT systems. You will work closely with the service’s Senior Management Team to ensure the services delivered are of high quality and meet nationally agreed targets and local KPIs.

Working for Our Organisation

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. We have expert services, a rich history, and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ - we aspire to be ‘outstanding’.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti-racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development, and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.

Richmond Borough at Livingston House in Teddington.

Detailed Job Description and Main Responsibilities

• The post holder will act as a key worker for an identified caseload of patients with complex needs whilst balancing clinical leadership and quality of care within the service.
• Demonstrates enhanced skills and knowledge to undertake comprehensive person-centered history taking, assessment, and formulation, considering biological, psychological, social, and spiritual perspectives.
• Critically assess and determine a person’s capacity to make choices and decisions.
• Develops the expertise and decision-making skills to appraise complex, incomplete, ambiguous, and conflicting information, synthesizing information from multiple sources to make appropriate, evidence-based judgments and/or diagnoses.
• Critically applies care and treatment in line with national and local guidance; utilising evidence-based interventions within scope of practice, referring people to other professionals or services as the need requires.
• Demonstrates and develops the ability to prioritise interventions in situations where there are multiple issues, changing priorities, and/or safety concerns, especially in the presence of multi-morbidity, complexity, and/or unpredictability.
• Demonstrates and develops the critical use of evidence-based evaluation tools and/or outcome measures to assess the efficacy of interventions; collaboratively making appropriate care planning modifications with the person, carers, and other relevant parties.
• Develops an in-depth critical understanding of the principles of therapeutics, polypharmacy, de-prescribing, optimal prescribing, adverse and toxic medication effects, and medication burden.
• Identifies, in a timely manner, the condition and presentation of the person; in the presence of physical health acuity and/or mental health deterioration.
• Keep accurate, contemporaneous documentation and care plans, in line with clinical governance and organisational policy.
• Ensure appropriate and timely transfer of care between services.
• Facilitate regular review of caseloads, providing guidance and support to ensure all care is of high quality and is evidence-based.
• Responsible for developing and implementing strategies that promote an environment of involvement and recovery.
• Lead & motivate staff to provide a pro-active and responsive high-quality service, contributing to ongoing audit and evaluation.
• Lead and be responsible for ensuring that they and all team members fulfil our duties regarding Safeguarding Adults.
• Supporting the Team Manager to offer support to care coordinators with caseload management and review where and when necessary.
• Other clinical duties as identified by Team Manager.

Person Specification

Training & Qualification

• To be a qualified Healthcare Professional (i.e. Nurse, Social Worker, or Occupational Therapist).
• To hold current professional registration with respective professional body.
• To hold a health-based undergraduate degree.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Willingness to become an independent prescriber.
• Evidence of education/training in specialist area (i.e. therapies, interventions, service specialism).
• To have held previous leadership or managerial roles within healthcare settings.
• Postgraduate certificate in education or equivalent.
• Evidence of CPD aligned to dementia care or care of the elderly.

Experience & Knowledge

• Proven, extensive clinical experience, delivering care (intervention-based) for a diverse population.
• Experience of working with older adults with mental health problems including dementia and their carers.
• Experience working within healthcare services at an enhanced level of practice.
• Enhanced level understanding of specialist-specific disorders and their corresponding evidence-based interventions.
• Contemporary knowledge of relevant legislation and healthcare policies.
• Applied understanding of issues relating to confidentiality and mental capacity.
• Applied knowledge of safeguarding, inclusion, and equality.
• Experience of leading research/quality improvement initiatives, developing and evaluating new ways of working.

Skills & Ability

• Enhanced skills in undertaking clinical & risk assessments, specific to the area of practice.
• Enhanced level written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage own workload / work semi-autonomously and determine / set own priorities.
• Word processing and data inputting.
• Skills in enhanced level problem-solving.

At South West London St Georges Mental Health Trust we are committed to providing services that embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Committed Employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We are Members of Stonewall Diversity Champions and Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion.

As part of the Trust's commitment to Equalities and Diversity, the Trust supports the establishment of Staff Networks groups to promote diversity in the workplace:

• BME (Evolve) Staff Network
• DiverseAbility
• Mental Health Staff Forum
• Women's Staff Network
• LGBTQIA+

We are committed to supporting the Armed Forces Community and have signed the Armed Forces Covenant.

We provide reasonable adjustments to the interview process for any candidates with a disability.

Please note:

• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received.
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system.
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful.
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees.
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process.
• That your employment is offered subject to successful completion of a Probationary Period depending on your Band (except medical roles).
• That we are a smoke-free Trust.

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.