Older Adult Clinical Lead

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in Greater London seeks a Clinical Leader for its Older Adults and Health Ageing Community Mental Health Team. The role focuses on providing clinical leadership, developing integration pathways, and managing complex care for older adults with mental health needs. It offers extensive professional development, coaching opportunities, and a supportive environment. Ideal candidates will possess strong clinical skills and experience working with older adults, contributing to a multidisciplinary team committed to delivering high-quality care.

Benefits

Free access to Wellbeing service

Career mapping and development opportunities

Excellent staff benefits and discounts

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience of working with older adults and complex needs.
• Ability to work flexibly and collaboratively across local environments.
• Strong clinical skills for high-standard practice.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical leadership for the service.
• Develop clinical pathways for older adults.
• Manage caseloads and deliver psychosocial interventions.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Experience with older adults

Interpersonal skills

Crisis management

Education

Registered Nurse or equivalent

Additional relevant qualifications

Job description

The Westminster Older Adults and Health Ageing Community Mental Health Team is a dynamic and integrated multidisciplinary service providing mental health and social care support to older adults in Westminster with functional disorders and dementia. It is co-located with the Westminster City Council mental health team, offering a holistic approach to care. The team is also involved in the CNWL Open Dialogue project, which promotes person-centred recovery-oriented care.

The team operates using a case management and recovery-focused model, offering multidisciplinary assessments and interventions for service users with complex needs, as well as their families and carers. Regular multidisciplinary meetings facilitate case discussions, initial assessments, and reflective practice. A key feature of the service is the integrated older adults home treatment team, which delivers intensive support, crisis management, admission prevention, and helps ensure timely hospital discharges. The CMHT and HTT teams collaborate closely, offering a responsive and flexible service to meet the needs of service users. Coordination with older adults' inpatient services allows smooth transitions of care.

The service promotes a friendly, respectful work environment where staff receive professional development, including supervision and appraisals. Involvement of service users and carers is a core element of the service's design and delivery.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will provide older adults clinical leadership as part of the management team. Additionally the role would focus on developing transformation agenda, integration and primary care pathways. The role would provide an exciting development opportunity for staff to interface across primary care and secondary care, and deliver more holistic and joined up care for older adults with multiple complex co-morbidities including frailty, functional mental health needs and/or dementia. It would also involve providing specialist advice, assessment and formulation and delivery of brief interventions for older adults with complex mental health conditions and dementia, who may be new or known previously to secondary care mental health services.

Developing clinical pathways across the mental health older adults, including clinical practice and standards, as well as supporting with organisational development and quality improvement strategies. Furthermore, the role would involve supporting workforce development, particularly community mental health nursing and allied mental health professionals ensuring that staff develop the skills and strategies required for their roles.

• Commitment from the team to develop you by offering coaching and in-house development sessions such as, Leadership programmes, non-medical prescribing, CBT-P training and much more
• Free access to our Staff and Wellbeing service to ensure that you are always looking after yourself
• Commitment to career mapping to ensure continuous professional development including opportunities within the Trust
• Shadowing opportunities including HTT, Psych Liaison and many more
• Local Reflective Practice forums run by one of the senior leads
• An opportunity to work with a friendly, dynamic, passionate and diverse team who are committed to looking after each other as well as their patients
• Excellent staff benefits: our benefit packages are amongst the best in London and include: childcare vouchers, health and wellbeing services, season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, blue light card, discounts at Nando's and Superdrug, mobile phone contracts and much more!
• Award-winning Staff Networks
• Hidden Gem & annual award ceremonies, In conjunction with the team manager:

Job Purpose:

• To provide the clinical lead for staff within the service.
• To assist the team manager in developing a model of working with service users with complex needs, ensuring that services are provided to the highest possible standard.
• To deputise for the team manager as needed.
• Participate in and lead meetings as appropriate.
• The postholder would be expected to show demonstrable experience of working with older adults/ those with complex physical and MH needs including functional and organic illness, an ability to work flexibly and collaboratively across local environments and strong interpersonal skills.
• The postholder will be expected to have well developed clinical skills of their own in order to enable them to practice at a high standard, appropriately guide and supervise staff at all levels.
• To manage a caseload as needed, including providing access and /or deliver a broad range of psychosocial interventions for individual patients, carry out robust risk assessments and care planning.
• To provide expert advice and consultation in professional matters relating to the postholder's discipline, and to ensure that expert information and advice is available for the other disciplines in the team.
• To work with in the relevant legislative frameworks (e.g. Mental Health Act (1983) Mental Capacity Act (2005), Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, Care Act 2014 etc).
• To ensure that the team works within the relevant frameworks and policies for safeguarding vulnerable adults.
• To ensure that services within the multidisciplinary team are well co-ordinated in order they are responsive and attuned to the needs of service users, carers and families.
• To demonstrate a high level of clinical competence both in relation to supervision of staff and direct face to face contact with service users.
• To ensure that the service works in co-ordination with other Community and Acute In-Patient services.
• To ensure effective liaison with other relevant agencies.
• To maintain and develop administrative procedures regarding the recording of case records.
• To ensure that service users are involved in the development of the team and local services.