Liaison and Diversion Mental Health Practitioner including RECONNECT

North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Liverpool; On-site; GBP 37,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization in Liverpool is seeking a Liaison and Diversion Mental Health Practitioner to work within criminal justice settings. The role involves conducting assessments and supporting individuals with mental health needs, offering a unique opportunity to impact lives positively. Applicants should have a relevant degree and experience in mental health practices, with a commitment to providing high-quality care.

Qualifications

• Registered practitioner with extensive post registration experience.
• Experience in mental health assessments and knowledge of Mental Health Act.
• Evidence of leadership and case management.

Responsibilities

• Conduct assessments in criminal justice settings.
• Work within the broader mental health system.
• Provide support to those with mental health issues across various locations.

Skills

Effective communication

Flexibility

Leadership

Interpersonal skills

Education

Degree Level Qualification (e.g., RMN, AHP, Social Worker)

Post Registration Study

Job description

Liaison and Diversion Mental Health Practitioner including RECONNECT

Band 6

Main area Criminal Justice - Mental Health Services Grade Band 6 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 350-MHC7283215

Site Liverpool custody suites, Liverpool and Wirral Courts, RECONNECT HMP Altcourse and Walton Town Liverpool Salary £37,338 - £44,962 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 30/06/2025 23:59 Interview date 09/07/2025

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Job overview

Merseyside Liaison and Diversion including RECONNECT - Mental Health Practitioner

An exciting opportunity has arisen for Mental Health Practitioners to join the Merseyside Liaison and Diversion Service including RECONNECT Service. The role will provide timely access to assessments within Liverpool and Wirral Magistrates courts, Liverpool and Wirral custody suites, and HMP Walton and Altcourse.

Main duties of the job

Liaison and diversion and RECONNECT is a process whereby people of all ages with mental health problems, learning disabilities, substance misuse problems and other vulnerabilities are identified and assessed as early as possible as they pass through the youth and adult criminal justice systems.

You will be expected to work in court, police custody suites and HMP Walton and Altcourse. this role includes working across as well as the wider mental health systems and urgent care division.

You will be a registered practitioner within mental health (Allied Health Professions: Mental Health Nurse; Social Worker; Occupational Therapist; Learning disability Nurse) with demonstrable extensive post registration experience. You will have experience in undertaking specialist mental health assessments and have a sound knowledge of the Mental Health Act/Capacity Act and criminal justice systems

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

To understand the full duties of this new role please refer to the specific job outline attached.

Please ensure that you evidence in your supporting information how you meet the person specification for both the generic and the specific job outlines.

Please note, this post is subject to Level 2 Police Vetting Clearance (Outcome determined by Merseyside Police)

If you are shortlisted we encourage all applicants to arrange an informal conversation with the team before attending for interview. You can also contact the team prior to submitting an application if you require any further information.

Person specification

Skills

• Able to communicate effectively both verbally and non-verbally.
• Being responsive and flexible, seeing change as an opportunity to improve services
• Ability to lead the process of standard setting and audit
• Leadership Skills
• Ability to work within a CBU management team, be able to generate own workload and ability to work to strict deadlines.
• Ability to build purposeful relationships with a range of both internal and external to the organisation.
• Proven knowledge of relevant Proven knowledge of relevant mental health legislation
• Demonstrate knowledge of ECC guidelines.
• Demonstrate knowledge in the concepts of mentorship, preceptorship and supervision and ability to provide education and supervision to junior staff
• Demonstrate a good knowledge of professional Codes of Conduct and Staffs’ responsibility to identify gaps in their knowledge base.
• Professional attitude.
• Possess excellent listening and negotiation skills and leadership skills.
• Excellent oral and written skills
• Excellent interpersonal and organisational skills.
• The ability to lead change management
• Ability to contribute to developing care excellence within the ward / team area.

Experience/ Knowledge

• Evidence of leadership and management skills.
• Evidence of experience of managing cases & case loads
• Evidence of supervising staff
• Ability to work autonomously across the organisation/boundaries and with other agencies
• Experience of working in partnership with other agencies and service users and carers
• Experience of audit/research and working knowledge of clinical governance.
• Experience in change management and policy formulation.
• Experience of using Incident Reporting Systems e.g. DATIX
• Experience of undertaking and involvement in Serious Untoward Incident Reviews
• Evidence of experience of working with a range of people with mental health problems in a variety of health care settings.
• A demonstrated understanding of Equality and Human Rights

Qualification

• Appropriate professional qualification or experience at Degree Level e.g. RMN, AHP, Social Worker
• Evidence of post registration study / continuing professional development e.g. Mentorship in Practice
• Working towards master level education

Values

• Accountability
• Support
• High professional standards
• Responsive to service users
• Engaging leadership style
• Transparency and honesty
• Discreet
• Change oriented

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.