Older Adult Liaison Team leader - Lambeth

Integrated Care System; London; On-site; GBP 54,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

A mental health service provider in London seeks an Older Adult Team Leader. You will oversee clinical quality and operational management for an older adult liaison team. Key responsibilities include conducting assessments, leading team initiatives, and ensuring high standards of care for older adult patients experiencing mental health crises. Applicants should be registered nurses with significant experience in mental health services.

Benefits

Flexible working options

Professional development opportunities

Competitive salary

Qualifications

• Sound understanding of acute mental illness needs for older adults.
• Experience in managing psychiatric crises.
• Experience with developing and facilitating teaching.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical assessments for older adults in crisis.
• Make decisions about patient care and treatment referrals.
• Lead a team of mental health professionals.

Skills

Clinical skills

Crisis management

Communication skills

Assessment and evaluation

Education

Registered Mental Health Nurse/AHP with live registration

Management Course

Job description

Go back South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Older Adult Liaison Team leader - Lambeth

The closing date is 12 August 2025

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a full time Band 7 - Older Adult Team Leader/ Clinical Nurse Specialist to join the Mental Health for Older Adults (MHOA) Liaison Team within our busy, multi-disciplinary Liaison Team based at St Thomas' Hospital.

The MHOA Liaison Team provides a Mon-Fri (9am-5pm) service to St Thomas' and Guys Hospitals (GSTT) offering urgent assessment and intervention to older adult patients attending the Emergency Department and those admitted to the inpatient wards. The service works closely with GSTT staff in a variety of medical settings.

You will be responsible forthe day to day clinical work, management and performance of the MHOA Liaison Team, ensuring that the service provided is in accordance with SLaM's Trust Values and objectives.

You will be expected to conduct specialist clinical assessments and support care pathways for old age patientscurrently in Guys or St Thomas' Hospital (GSTT), including the emergency department. To promote the detection of conditions such as delirium, dementia and depression, which, when undetected, may lengthen a patients stay in hospital. To ensure appropriate investigation, treatment during the admission and aftercare following discharge from hospital for patients.

Main duties of the job

You must have excellent clinical skills, be able to demonstrate an ability to complete complex, comprehensive mental state examinations, thoroughly assess risk, formulate safe and effective risk management plans and document this clearly. You will be expected to offer senior clinical advice and support to colleagues both within the liaison service and wider hospital. You should have sound experience of management of mental health emergencies, and crisis care in a variety of settings.

You will be able work autonomously, carrying out bio-psycho-social assessments and making decisions about patient pathways and treatment with awareness of when to seek advice and support from senior colleagues.

You will hold a sound working knowledge of common mental health disorders, the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and DOLs. A comprehensive knowledge of the important interface between physical and mental health is essential. A strong knowledge of prominent physical health problems within the older adult population is essential.

You will join the team at an exciting time as we are continuing to develop our service in line with the CORE 24 Model for Mental Health Liaison Services.

About us

SLaM employ around 4,800 people across South London and other sites in the UK. It is a diverse team of talented individuals, spanning a wide range of specialties and benefiting from many world-leading healthcare experts. We deliver more than 14,000 training experiences each year for our staff, providing an extensive range of learning opportunities. Staff can benefit from exceptional professional development opportunities and we will work with you to build your career in mental health. In addition, our working relationship with Kings Health Partners allows those working at the Trust to get involved in academic research.

Job responsibilities

For more detailed job description, please see attached JD.

ClinicalTo assess patients and supervise a specialist liaison service to people with mental health problems over the age of 65 who are being treated within GSTT.To provide strong and decisive clinical leadership to all staff within the team and work effectively as part of a MDT.To respond to referral and requests for advice in a professional and positive manner.To provide face to face assessments and consultations with service users, carers and clinical and non-clinical personnel within the Trust and externally.To devise and deliver treatment and management plans for patients seen within the service.To liaise with and refer on to hospital and community based mental health services, both within the Trust and externally; working closely with the Older Adult directorate in SLaM.

To make decisions regarding whether a person referred requires admission to mental health bed, requires intensive support from home treatment team, or can be discharged, referred to their GP or referred on to community mental health services or other agencies. This is largely anautonomous decision with referral to and discussion with team colleagues for a second opinion where appropriate.The post holder will be expected to work autonomously most of the time but must work collaboratively and in an integrated way with all other parts of the Trusts services.To monitor the teams performance and to ensure that data entry is accurate and that the team meets the required performance targets and KPIs set as a Lambeth Liaison Service.

ManagerialTo be responsible for ensuring that the Liaison Team works closely with the old age in-patient wards, frailty unit and Emergency Department of GSTT.To be responsible for ensuring that services provided by the Older Adult Liaison Team are of the highest standard in terms of fair access, equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice.To be responsible for ensuring that procedures are in place within the Older Adult Liaison Team to support the receipt of referrals, assessments, allocation and closing of referrals that come through the system.To be responsible for ensuring that systems are in place to respond promptly, appropriately and in an open manner to complaints and enquiries about the work of the Liaison service.To ensure that clinical governance policy and procedures are implemented. To investigate serious incidents and complaints in accordance with the Trust policies.To undertake investigations into complaints and incidents, provide reports to the Clinical Service Lead as required and implement recommendations arising from these.

To be responsible for the effective staffing of the service through compilation of the e-Roster ensuring that staff with the appropriate skill and experience are on duty at all times.To ensure that arrangements are in place within the team for effective clinical assessment of all referrals, risk management and evaluation, making use of the professional skill mix within the team.To provide the Clinical Service Lead with regular feedback on the work of the Older Adult Liaison Team; represent the Older Adult Liaison Team at trust-wide operational meetings, providing feedback as required.

To work collaboratively with the Clinical Service Lead, and CMHT and HTT managers to ensure that the service meets the requirements of Core 24, PLAN standards, the MHA 2007, MCA and CPA

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse/AHP with live registration
• Evidence of recent continued professional development
• Evidence of other advanced education/ training relating to Liaison Services/ PLAN
• Management Course

Experience

• A sound understanding of how to assess and meet the needs of older adults with acute mental illness at a senior clinical level
• Experience in the management of psychiatric crises and emergencies for older adults.
• Experience of developing and facilitating specialist teaching for staff
• Experience of providing clinical supervision and appraisal and management of others
• Experience of conducting audits, Data reviews and QIPs
• Experience of managing conflict effectively

Skills

• Ability to make decisions on whether to discharge, refer on or admit service users following a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of risk.
• Outstanding skills in building and maintaining high standards of professional links and communication channels with a variety of personnel and agencies
• Experience with rostering

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

£54,320 to £60,981 a yearPro rata inclusive of HCAS

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time,Flexible working,Home or remote working,Compressed hours