Mental Health Practitioners

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; West of England; On-site; GBP 34,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting a Registered Mental Health Practitioner to join our Mental Health In-Reach Team, delivering mental healthcare to offenders in a prison setting. You will work within an integrated model, collaborate with CMHTs, MAPPA, and court liaison teams, delivering evidence‑based interventions, risk assessments and care planning.

You will manage a mixed caseload, perform robust assessments with a focus on early discharge, and contribute to alternatives to inpatient

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Practitioner role within criminal justice settings.
• Experience delivering specialist mental health care to offenders is advantageous.
• Willingness to undertake National Security Vetting and pre-employment checks.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist mental health care to offenders within the Mental Health In-Reach Team.
• Carry out robust assessments, screening, care planning and risk assessment.
• Deliver evidence-based interventions and group work where applicable.
• Work collaboratively with CMHTs, MAPPA, police, probation and court liaison teams.

Job description

Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? This is an excellent opportunity for a Registered Mental Health Practitioner to join our team of diverse, talented healthcare professionals to deliver care that is not only efficient but deeply centred on the patient. Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patient's future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future. This position isn't just a job; it's a chance to blend your clinical knowledge, personal skills and a commitment to delivering the highest standards of care in an environment that is as rewarding as it is challenging.

• Important Sponsorship Information for this post: We are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.
• As a Mental Health Practitioner you will be providing specialist mental healthcare to offenders and working as part of the Mental Health In-Reach Team, plus wider mental health services. You will be required to work in a psychologically minded way with offenders in achieving their agreed goals and quality health outcomes. Our Mental Health Team provide specialist interventions at primary and secondary care level including referral management, screening assessment, triage, evidence-based interventions, care planning and risk assessing, plus one-to-one and group-work facilitation.
• Our Mental Health Practitioners manage a mixed and challenging caseload and are required to perform robust assessment, screening and interventions to offenders with learning disabilities and mental health conditions.
• You will contribute to alternatives to inpatient admission and assisting with early discharge through the implementation of high intensity interventions and complex case management arrangements.
• One of our key aims is to ensure continuity of care for an offender on ordinary location and reduce the length of stay, both in relation to prison inpatient services and external NHS/independent in-patient services.
• To perform robust assessment, screening, and interventions to service users with mental health and neurodevelopmental and trauma needs.
• 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.
• Work closely with community mental health teams (CMHTs) to ensure appropriate sharing of information, continuity of care and the Care Programme Approach (CPA) for all service users where necessary.
• Provide comprehensive and timely reports and mental health expertise to multi agency public protection panels (MAPPA), police, probation services, solicitors and court liaison teams as directed.
• Deliver active clinical leadership and supervision within the team, covering for the manager and colleagues as required. To receive supervision as directed (line management and clinical).
• Close working relationships with all prison staff, to include participation in sentence planning, resettlement, safer custody, and the ACCT processes.
• The post holder will be required to undertake training to maximise uptake of screening, health promotion and prevention activity, including vaccinations.
• The post holder will be required to hold a caseload and care co-ordinate services uses with secondary mental health and complex needs. Ensuring a proactive, evidence-based approach to clinical interventions, health promotion/prevention activity, and management of acute and long-term conditions using a stepped care approach.
• 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. 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.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. 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. Our wider 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 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. 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