Safe Space Team Manager

Hammersmith, Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow Mind; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A community mental health service provider is seeking a skilled candidate to join their crisis alternative service, Safe Space. Responsibilities include providing practical and emotional support to individuals facing mental health crises, managing the team, and ensuring high-quality service delivery. Candidates must have a minimum of one year of experience in mental health services, strong communication skills, and the ability to manage challenging situations effectively. The role allows for flexible working across multiple locations and requires a calm, empathetic approach.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 1 year working in mental health services and with clients experiencing mental health distress and crisis.
• Experience managing challenging behavior and dealing with clients with complex needs.
• Evidence of continual professional development.

Responsibilities

• Provide person-centred, practical and emotional support to individuals experiencing mental health crisis.
• Oversee re-admitters and clients being discharged on a weekly basis.
• Create and maintain good working relationships with partner agencies.

Skills

Understanding of the Recovery Model in mental health

Experience of de-escalation

Good communication skills

Empathy and non-judgemental approach

Ability to deal with stressful situations

Capacity to work within an agreed shift pattern

Good IT skills including Word, Outlook, Excel

Education

Minimum of 1 year working in mental health services

Line management experience in a mental health setting

Understanding safeguarding adults and children processes

Job description

This role sits within our crisis alternative service, Safe Space, which is a core and out of hours service providing a safe and welcoming space for people who are feeling distressed and experiencing crisis. Our aim of the service is to keep individuals well in the community and prevent readmission into hospital. The service operates 365 days a year from 14:00-22:00pm across all of our boroughs. Staff within the service will provide person-centred, practical and emotional support, face to face or via telephone or virtual on a one-to-one basis to individuals experiencing mental health crisis or preventing crisis. The objectives of the service include:

• To improve the mental wellbeing of people experiencing mental health and social crisis in HFEH.
• To proactively work with keeping people well in the community to reduce re-admitters into hospitals by working with WL NHS teams (eg discharge, LPS, CATT, MINT and SPA)
• To provide a true alternative to A&E via a non-clinical drop-in service to support clients
• To provide support to clients accessing the service- for instance: signposting, de-escalation and crisis recovery planning.
• To contribute to an improvement in individual mental wellbeing.
• To remain a source of independent support for all clients.
• To treat service users with respect, dignity and personalised support
• To raise awareness of mental health services available with the goal to improve long term mental health and reduce social isolation
• To increase self-management skills of those accessing the service
• To reduce the use of police, ambulance and statutory mental health services whilst experiencing crisis via a drop-in service.
• To reduce the use of statutory crisis services by people experiencing mental ill health without positive outcomes for the individual.
• Guiding the team, responding to referrals and planning each shift in terms of staffing, activities and case allocation Understanding of risk and risk management Understanding safeguarding adults and children processes and legal requirements To work autonomously in a fast-paced environment and under pressure Oversee re-admitters and clients being discharged on a weekly basis Responsible lead for allocated site, attend and lead discussions with MDT teams Responsible for keeping allocated site to a high standard and reporting any health and safety concerns To facilitate daily briefings with team to ensure continuity and safety Understanding of safety planning and de-escalation Monitoring and management of team training, absence and wellbeing Working collaboratively with clients to understand their needs and developing flexible and realistic crisis support packages/person centred plans Promoting people rights and responsibilities Conduct monthly supervisions and annual appraisals of supervisees Work and manage the team in-line with targets and KPI s, ensuring that outcomes, outputs and impact are recorded Listening to clients and encouraging positive steps towards self-management of crisis and recovery, providing advice, information, practical and emotional support to clients To attend all mandatory training including safeguarding and GDPR and actively embrace own CPD Proactively recognising the indicators of deteriorating mental health and facilitate appropriate action, whilst liaising with relevant agencies eg CATT, Emergency Duty Teams, CMHTS, etc Maintain and ensure team compliance of accurate records, detailing interventions Abide by supporting governance such as Mind Policy and Proceedures, Understanding CQC standards and NICE guidelines around mental health Providing administrative support to the team Overseeing and provide shadowing to new staff members and volunteers Attend reflective practice, peer supervision and line management supervision Create and maintain good working relationships with partner agencies Provide guidance to support workers and volunteers To work with service managers and assist with reporting and monitoring

Qualifications

• Minimum of 1 year working in mental health services and with clients experiencing mental health distress and crisis
• Experience of line management within a mental health setting
• Experience of de-escalation
• Experience of managing challenging behaviour and dealing with clients with complex needs
• Evidence of continual professional development
• Understanding of the Recovery Model in mental health
• Understanding of the principles of trauma informed care
• Understanding of suicide prevention and safety planning
• Experience of managing safeguarding risks and understanding legal requirements for safeguarding adults and children
• Understanding of how to report and mitigate risks
• Understanding of the relationship between mental health and social issues and how these issues may impact on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing
• Understanding of relevant legislation and policies
• Understanding safeguarding adults and children processes and legal requirements
• Awareness of issues in mental health service provision
• A good understanding of mental health conditions
• Experience of working with vulnerable individuals
• Creative and flexible approach to working with individuals
• Ability to deal with stressful and difficult situations in a calm manner and de-escalate challenging situations
• Ability to prioritise and manage workload
• Ability to involve clients and carers in all aspects of work
• Empathy and non-judgemental approach
• Good communication skills
• Capacity to work within an agreed shift pattern
• Experience of delivering information and advice (housing, benefits, debt etc)
• Experience of non-clinical, therapeutic interventions like psychoeducation
• Good IT skills including Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint, with proven ability to input and extract information and produce reports
• Understanding of different databases such as Views, Salesforce and NHS
• Car driver with sole ownership of a vehicle and ability to travel to multiple locations (eg NHS sites and community sites) would be essential
• Ability to work out of hours and on weekends at multiple locations including NHS sites and community sites