Senior Community Mental Health Nurse

Eput; Colchester; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lease car

Holiday entitlement 27 days + bank hol

33 days after 10 years

Pension up to 14.5%

Staff discounts

Relocation support

Job summary

EPUT is seeking a Band 6 Senior Community Nurse for the Crisis Response Team in Colchester. The role involves high-quality, evidence-based, holistic assessments of patients in the community, aligned with NICE guidance and Trust policies.

You will coordinate shifts and work across urgent care pathways to respond to crises. The role requires comprehensive care planning, driving capability, and collaboration with partner organisations.

Qualifications

• Post-graduate experience in mental health assessments.
• Experience in triage and care planning for mental health service users.
• Excellent written English required for documentation.
• Experience with STORM or equivalent assessment planning.

Responsibilities

• Provide comprehensive assessment and care planning in line with Mental Health Care Clusters.
• Triage referrals and allocate according to risk; ensure timely response.
• Document service user activity accurately in Paris system.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary team to deliver 7-day, 24/365 service.

Skills

Post-graduate experience

Mental health assessment experience

Excellent written English

STORM / mental health assessment

Job description

We can provide emotional and wellbeing support for anyone affected by the Lampard Inquiry. Find support

Main area Crisis Mental Health Assessments Grade Band 6 Contract Permanent: The scope is to include weekends and nights Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 364-B-227-A

Site Abberton Day Hospital, The Lakes MHU Town Colchester Salary £39,959 - £48,117 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 28/10/2026 23:59

Please be aware that, due to current allocation constraints, Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) are being prioritised for registered roles at this time.

Our Trust cares for more than 100,000 patients at any one time across our community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex and parts of Bedfordshire and Suffolk.

We want you to be part of our journey of transformation, where our patients and their families are at the heart of everything we do and to achieve our vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care.

You’ll be part of a Trust where you will be supported to be your authentic self and be the best you can be, where we will help you to grow, develop and thrive.

The Trust is recognised by the University of Essex and is a top provider of apprenticeships for people looking to be an assistant practitioner, senior health care support worker (CAP). Our trailblazing CAP apprenticeship won a national HSJ Award.

We are also recognised as a Veteran Aware Trust and holder of gold accreditation from the Ministry of Defence Employment Recognition Scheme. Our services are highlighted as an exemplar of good practice, producing the best care for more than 3.500 armed forces veterans in the past seven years.

We have been shortlisted and won national awards. We are an inclusive organisation and Level 3 Disability Confident Leader Trust.

We are constantly innovating and looking for new ways to deliver care, such as using technology to enhance patient care and working with partners to launch new services such as the Basildon Mental Health Urgent Care Department, virtual hospitals and falls response cars.

Join us and you’ll do the best work of your life – and make a difference to other people’s lives. What we do together, matters.

Job overview

You will work as a Band 6 Senior Community Nurse with the Crisis Response Team in providing high quality, evidence-based, holistic assessments to patients in line with your NMC professional code of conduct and Trust policies. You will assess, plan, implement and evaluate packages of care based upon individual service user needs, under the guidance of the Team Leader as per NICE guidance. The team works closely with the 2 other teams which form the Urgent Care Pathway – Hospital Liaison and Home First - to respond to urgent and emergency mental health crisis. Assessments can be completed within the community and ability to drive is essential. The Team have use of a lease car. The team also covers the 111 Option 2 telephone contact service and a part of your role will be to take calls from service users contacting this service.
As required by your manager, you will have responsibility for the day to day co-ordination of the shifts within the Crisis Response Team.
You will be expected to work collaboratively with key partner organisations, service users, carers, clinicians and other practitioners within the multi-disciplinary team in delivering services; providing a 7-day a week, 24-hours a day service for 365 days a year working shifts where appropriate and operationally required.
Shifts are 11.5 hours with an hour break time. Ability to work some night shifts is essential.

Main duties of the job

Please note that this role outline serves to provide an illustrative example of the duties and responsibilities you may be expected to undertake during the course of your normal duties. It is not an exhaustive list and you will therefore be required to undertake other responsibilities and duties that are considered to be commensurate with the band.
Core Clinical Function
Provide comprehensive assessment and care planning in line with the requirements of the Mental Health Care Clusters
Produce accurate and timely documentation on all service users in line with your professional code of conduct and Trust policy.
Triage of referrals received and to ensure a timely response and accurate allocation of referrals received according to risks.
Participate in the planning and ongoing review of service users either awaiting assessment or allocation for continuing care to ensure care provided is effective and safe
Provide practical support, advice, signposting and education to service users, carers and other disciplines.
Have an awareness of other statutory and voluntary service provisions to signpost service users for appropriate care.
Responsible for the recording of all patient related activity information onto Paris.
Carry out risk assessment of the individual and of the potential hazards in the service user’s environment.

Working for our organisation

Valuing you. Recognising your dedication. At EPUT, we look after you.

• Receive supervision and support to help you fulfil your potential.
• Join an inclusive EPUT community and connect with others through engagement events and equality or champion networks.
• If you need help, we provide mental health and wellbeing services, occupational health advice and counselling.
• 27 days holiday, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days after 10 years’ service.
• Excellent pension of up to 14.5% of your pensionable pay.
• Staff discounts include Blue Light Card, NHS discount offers, and staff benefits.
• £8K relocation package if you move to Essex to join us (subject to terms and conditions)
• Season ticket loans are interest-free to cover the cost of travelling to and from work via tram, rail, or bus.

Work that wraps around your needs

• Job share: Applications for job shares are welcomed.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Core Non-Clinical Function
Support the Band 7 Team leader in ensuring the effective provision of care, service developments of the Crisis Response Team
Promote the Nursing/Social Work/AHP Strategy within the Trust.
Take part in service development and review.
Undertake duties as assigned by senior staff to ensure the service meets the agreed performance / contractual targets and adheres to local and government initiatives
PROFESSIONAL DELIVERY FRAMEWORK
In addition to core clinical and non-clinical support the following are additional key activities identified as being necessary to the role in the delivery of your normal day to day activities.
Complete mandatory training in line with the Trust Policy.
Receive annual appraisal and conduct annual appraisals to lower banded staff.
Take all allocated annual leave.
Receive management supervision.
Comply with the CPD and practice hours requirements set out by Nursing Midwifery Council NMC/ HCPC / Medicines competency framework (This is the essential requirement for yearly registration)
Medicines competency framework. (where applicable)
Mentorship and supervision of students and lower banded staff.
Receive clinical supervision.

Person specification

Clinical

• Post Graduate Experience
• Assessing Experience in a Mental Health setting
• High quality of written English, as our assessments are viewable by the service user
• Expert learning in assessments and care planning, such as STORM

Please be aware that, due to current allocation constraints, Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) are being prioritised for registered roles at this time.
Important note: please ensure that as part of your application, you include professional references with business contact information covering your last three years of employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee, you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post; the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email [e-mail] and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Important Notice: Recently the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) which amended on 22 July 2021 and come into force on 11 November 2021 that anyone directly employed to work in a Care Home or who are required as part of their role to be deployed to a CQC registered care home are required to have had both their COVID vaccinations, unless they are exempt. This is therefore a requirement of this role and will form part of our pre-employment checks.

Please note -staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered ‘suitable alternative employment’ to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.