Nursing Assistant - Secure Care Division | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust; Sefton; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Sefton is recruiting Nursing Assistants for their secure mental health services. The role involves providing care to service users in a specialist environment, assisting with daily activities, and working as part of a dedicated team. Applicants should have experience in mental health settings and a passion for patient care. This position offers competitive benefits including a Recruitment & Retention premia.

Qualifications

• Experience working within a mental health setting is preferred.
• Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• Skills in reporting observations and maintaining care standards.

Responsibilities

• Assist with daily living activities as per care plan.
• Report observations and concerns about service users.
• Coordinate delivery of care under supervision.

Skills

Experience in mental health settings

Communication skills

Teamwork

Job description

Overview

We are recruiting Nursing Assistants for our secure mental health services.

The division is responsible for specialised secure mental health and learning disability services, in low, medium and high secure settings for service users with a primary classification of mental illness, personality disorders, learning disabilities and autism. Working across the division as part of a multi-disciplinary team, you will contribute to the delivery of high standards of care and treatment to a complex group of service users. This is an exciting and rewarding opportunity to gain invaluable experience in a specialist forensic environment.

This is the perfect opportunity for those who have experience of working within a mental health setting and want to expand on their skills by working for a service that provides forensic and secure mental health services.

To support our “Grow Our Own” strategy and attract and retain talented staff within the Secure Care Division, a Recruitment & Retention premia is available. For nursing assistants, this premia is £600 or £4,034, depending on service allocation. Allocations will be determined by the service and the premia will reflect the amount for that clinical area.

• To carry out assigned duties, involving direct care and observation of service users under the guidance and indirect supervision of qualified staff.
• To report to the qualified staff any observations made whilst providing care to service users activities and leisure, providing details of mental state and risk factors.
• To work with service users on an individual and group basis as outlined in the care plan and as directed by the appropriate named lead professional.

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.

Responsibilities

• To coordinate the assessment and delivery of a planned programme of care with guidance and indirect supervision from a qualified practitioner and to contribute to formal assessment and delivery of an individuals plan of care.
• To assist with activities of daily living, social, recreational and occupational activities as agreed in the service user care plan.
• To report general observations and provide feedback to a qualified practitioner both verbally and in written formats, if required. This should include any concerns arising from the service user physical or mental health.
• To contribute to effective running of the service by providing and receiving information to/from other departments or services. Ensure this information is provided in the most effective way i.e. telephone, fax or in writing.
• To assist service users with self-administration of oral medication and ensure any concerns / issues about medication are reported back to a qualified practitioner.
• To use a variety of verbal and non-verbal skills to overcome communication barriers presented by service users due to their mental health needs.
• To contribute to maintaining a safe environment for service user in the community (where appropriate).
• To carry out specific duties that contributes to the assessment of service users as requested by a qualified practitioner.
• To develop and maintain links with other agencies and services, both statutory and voluntary (where appropriate).
• To use skills and techniques, to de-escalate situations where service users become physically or verbally aggressive.
• To carry out observations and inform the Registered Nurse of any concerns. e.g. temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, diet and fluid intake, weight as requested by a qualified practitioner.
• To contribute to the development of risk management plans for service users by reporting, to the qualified practitioner any issues or concerns regarding service users behaviour / action towards themselves or others.
• Respond to the changing needs of service users.
• Control the assessments of implemented individual service users care plans.
• To undertake and understand the support of observations as per policy (Levels 1- 4).

This advert closes on Sunday 28 Sep 2025