Senior Mental Health Liaison Nurse

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 56,000 - 64,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health service provider in London is seeking a Senior Mental Health Liaison Nurse to work in the Emergency Department. This role involves providing direct support to mental health patients, coordinating care, and leading a multi-disciplinary team. Candidates should have significant experience in mental health services and be registered nurses with advanced qualifications. Competitive salary between £56,276 to £63,176 per year, and opportunities for professional development are included.

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse with evidence of continued professional development.
• Significant post-qualification experience in mental health services.
• Experience working within crisis mental health care.

Responsibilities

• Provide a senior single point of access for referrals to the MHLT.
• Lead on coordinating patients’ journeys through the ED.
• Maintain oversight of demand and acuity across the emergency floor.

Skills

Ability to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care

Crisis mental health care

Clinical supervision

Risk assessment and management

Education

Registered Mental Health Nurse

Educated to post-graduate/ master’s level

Job description

Overview

Go back South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Mental Health Liaison Nurse

The closing date is 07 October 2025

Here at the Lambeth Mental Health Liaison Service, we are excited to advertise our vacancy for 1.0w senior mental health liaison nurse within our team.

The primary function of this role is to work as a highly experienced mental health practitioner, carrying out front of house specialist assessments (i.e. the front door triage model) within the Emergency Department (ED) as part of the Mental Health Liaison Team (MHLT).

The Psych Nurse in Charge (PNIC) is responsible for ensuring all those who present to the ED with an acute mental health need receive timely and appropriate care, in the right place, at the right time, by the right person.

The PNIC will be expected to actively identify and triage those presenting to the ED with an urgent or emergent need for mental health care, psychological support and/or those with substance misuse problems. Working alongside the ED team they try to ensure appropriate medical clearance wherever appropriate. However, this does not explicitly mean that all face-to-face contact is completed by the PNIC; instead acting as a shift coordinator to ensure that all patients are prioritised in terms of need and allocated to the team appropriate to that need of the patient and the skill mix on shift.

Main duties of the job

• Be based on the emergency floor for much of the shift providing direct formal and informal support to the ED teams and visiting agencies.
• Offer face-to-face support directing referrals from the emergency floor to the most appropriate assessment pathway i.e. via the front door triage model, direct to the PLN's for full assessment or determining if further medical assessments need to be completed inline with our parallel assessment protocol.
• Work alongside the enhanced care team (ECT) in making decisions about enhanced observations for mental health patients.
• Act as part of the ED response team for patients detained on S136 or police referrals, and work to ensure timely throughput in department in line with the GSTT CODE10 protocol.
• Work alongside ED triage teams to evaluate fitness for assessment, and support visible parallel working. (see parallel working protocol)
• Through use of the front door triage model and from being visible and approachable able to assist referrers in signposting to other services - including UCC, GP, IAPT etc...
• Assist the PLN assessment team working as the Psychiatric Nurse in Charge.
• Take a lead role within the liaison service, providing support and guidance within the service but also within their specialist lead area, e.g. safeguarding.
• Provide clinical supervision with the band 6 (assessing) psychiatric liaison nursing team.

About us

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.

SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities, and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field.

The core philosophy of the Core24 Mental Health Liaison team is:

“We take a professional, honest, caring and open-minded approach. We encourage and support choice. We are prompt and will take time to listen, work collaboratively with you and stick to our word. We respect differences”

Job responsibilities

To provide a senior single point of access for staff to make/discuss referrals to the MHLT from the ED, ensuring they are allocated for further assessment in a timely manner.

To provide specialist, face-to-face screening at the point of referral, to all those who self-present to the ED with an acute mental health need.

Provide initial response to all police and ambulance arrivals in the department, for patients with a mental health need, and lead on co-ordinating the patients journey through the ED.

Complete a brief risk and mental state examination from the completed screening, making autonomous decisions around discharge and/or onward referral and signposting to primary care/ mental health services/ third-sector organisations if appropriate; providing brief psychoeducation and intervention where appropriate.

Acting as a senior clinician within both the ED and the MHLT; providing advice, clinical support, clinical supervision and senior review where necessary.

Promoting and devising risk management and admission plans, for those who may be transferred from the ED to a ward within the hospital.

Maintaining oversight of demand and acuity across the entire emergency floor, managing patient-flow effectively and proactively.

To provide senior clinical support in managing incidents of challenging behaviour in the ED, related to mental health/illness.

To liaise effectively with services and service providers both inside and outside of the organisation (including CMHTs, Police, Ambulance, Social Services, GPs and acute trust staff).

Participate in teaching and training of ED and other staff within GSTT, in line with the trusts Mental Health Strategy.

Person Specification

Qualification

• Registered Mental Health Nurse
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Educated to post-graduate/ master’s level
• Registered General Adult/ LD Nurse/ formal training or education in physical health
• Evidence of other advanced education related to Liaison Psychiatry

Experience

• Significant post-qualification experience in mental health services, both inpatient and community
• Experience working within crisis mental health care; of assessing and managing crisis within acute mental illness
• Experience of making autonomous decisions regarding discharge, sign-posting and admission of service users following a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of risk
• Experience of working with service users with harmful use of illicit substances and alcohol
• Experience of assessing and risk-managing violent self-harm
• Experience of service development, Quality Improvement and leading change.
• Experience of managing or leading a team/ colleagues
• Experience at working at band 6 level or above within liaison psychiatry, or band 7 level in a crisis mental health service
• Experience of teaching or delivering training

Knowledge

• A sound knowledge of risk assessment and risk management in mental health and acute care settings
• Knowledge of restrictive practice and restrictive interventions; the ability to reduce restrictive practice in clinical settings
• Knowledge of brief psychological interventions and their use in an ED setting; ability to deliver brief psychological interventions for the management of acute psychiatric distress
• Knowledge of relevant policies, research and codes of practice related to ED; an awareness of national targets, frameworks and pressures related to ED
• Knowledge of Core 24 service models and RCPsych guidance on liaison psychiatry services.

Skills

• Ability to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care to meet the needs of service users, appropriate to the setting of the Emergency Department

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

£56,276 to £63,176 a year inclusive of HCAS