Mental Health Practitioner

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust; Preston; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust in Preston is seeking a Band 6 Nurse Practitioner to join the Central Home Treatment Team. You will deliver high-quality mental health care in the community, performing rapid assessments, risk management and care planning to prevent hospital admission.

The role requires flexible shift patterns across seven days, strong MDT collaboration, and leadership to support junior staff, with a focus on recovery and personalised care.

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse with UK registration.
• CQSW, CSS, DipSW or equivalent or relevant experience.

Responsibilities

• Deliver high quality care to individuals with severe mental illness and complex needs.
• Act as key MDT member for assessment, risk management, planning and evaluation of care.
• Provide gatekeeping and rapid, holistic assessment and signposting.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Risk assessment

Time management

Health & Safety

Education

Registered Mental Health Nurse

CQSW, CSS, DipSW or equivalent

Job description

Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism, community, and physical health services for the populations we serve.

As an integrated Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFT) delivers a comprehensive range of services, including:

• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults, including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, and forensic services with low and medium secure care.
• Specialist mental health inpatient care for individuals with learning disabilities, alongside specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
• Extensive community physical health and well-being services for children and adults, covering prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term condition management.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,500 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health, general nurses, children’s nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers, as well as those specialising in learning disabilities and community physical health services.

This is an exciting for a band 6 Nurse Practitioner to join Central Home Treatment Team

The Central Home Treatment Team offer short term, intense support to service users, and their families/carers, who are suffering from enduring or new mental health concerns that would otherwise require admission to an acute in patient environment. There is a strong focus on a recovery model and effective risk management to provide quality care in a community setting.

The Central Home Treatment Team are always striving towards excellence in service delivery and ensuring that the Trust values are achieved. The successful applicant will be dynamic and forward thinking with the ability to work as part of a Team and in partnership with local services.

There will be an expectation that the successful applicant will have the ability to work flexible shift pattern across 7 days a week, to provide clinical support, upskill and guidance to junior members of the nursing team including the completion of formal clinical supervision reviews in accordance with the Trust policy.

Successful applicants will be provided with a full induction and appraisal to formulate a Personal Development Plan and to identify training and development needs

Main duties of the job

To deliver high quality care to individuals who have specific mental health problems i.e. have a severe and enduring mental health problem and multiple, complex needs

To act as a key member of the Multi-Disciplinary Team ensuring the effective assessment, including Risk Assessment and Risk Management, planning monitoring and evaluation of care giver to service users with severe and enduring mental illness in acute crisis, ensuring the effective supervision of staff accountable to the post holder, whilst liaising with a wide range of multi-agency professionals

To provide a “gatekeeping” function as detailed in the Operating Procedure

To provide rapid and holistic assessment, care and sign posting of individuals within the above group but also for those presenting with other urgent risk issues

The work of the Crisis Team will be managed as a whole though the post holder has crisis co- ordination responsibilities for a caseload specified within the team

To act in the role of “Shift Co-ordinator” as detailed in role protocol.

To undertake the role of Bed Management for the local area.

To organise and deliver a rapid intensive intervention service in order to meet the health and social needs of those adults experiencing a serious mental health crisis

To form close working relationships with and provide highly specialised advice and information on mental health issues to a variety of other services/agencies/organisations and carers both within and outside mental health services

Working for our organisation

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time.

The wellbeing of our people is at the heart of everything we do. We offer a wide range of resources, tools and support to help you thrive both in and out of work.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached the job description and person specification for more information about this role.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse
• CQSW, CSS, DipSW or equivalent and/or experience relevant to the post

Experience

• Able to manage own time and prioritise workload
• Demonstrate advanced Risk Assessment and Risk Management skills

Skills and Knowledge

• Demonstrate understanding of Health & Safety policies, procedures and effects on Practice
• Can demonstrate knowledge of severe and enduring mental health problems and its effect on clients, families and carers
• Good interpersonal skills

You are advised to consider applying for LSCFT vacancies as soon as possible as in some instances vacancies are closed as soon as a sufficient number of applications have been received. If you are not invited to interview within four weeks of the closing date then please assume that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful, as it is not possible to contact all unsuccessful candidates.

Please note that further communication from LSCFT will normally be to the email address given on the application form. You should also ensure that email addresses and telephone numbers are provided for your referees, to enable LSCFT to contact them.

Please ensure you read the person specification as your application will be measured against this document.

If you use AI to assist with your application, you must declare this. Undeclared use may result in withdrawal. Please ensure your application reflects your own skills and experiences. While AI tools can assist, they may produce generic or inaccurate content. We encourage you to provide personal examples that demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria.

For all posts which require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check please be aware of the Disclosure and Barring Service Code of Practice, a copy of which is available by logging on to the DBS website. If the post is subject to DBS disclosure, a charge will be made to the successful candidate(s).

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.