Senior Mental Health Practitioner

NHS; Warrington; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Warrington seeks a Senior Mental Health Nurse to deliver high-quality mental health care to children and young people. The role involves providing therapeutic interventions, engaging in multi-agency coordination, and ensuring effective care management. Candidates should have relevant postgraduate qualifications and experience in children's mental health settings. Supportive working environment with opportunities for ongoing professional development.

Qualifications

• EMHP/Postgraduate qualification or CBT Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma required.
• Registration with a professional body is essential.
• Experience delivering evidence-based therapies like CBT is important.

Responsibilities

• Provide high standards of client-centred care to children with mental health problems.
• Engage in routine outcomes measurement and contribute to clinical records.
• Deliver care coordination and risk management.

Skills

High-level interpersonal and written communication

Ability to coordinate multi-agency care plans

Knowledge of legislation and frameworks

Resilience and adaptability

Commitment to Trust values and service improvement

Education

Postgraduate qualification in Nursing, Social Work, or Occupational Therapy

Job description

Overview

Senior Mental Health Nurse/Senior Mental Health Practitioner role in the CYPMH team, Warrington. The post holder will provide high standards of evidence-based, client-centred care to children and young people with mental health problems within the THRIVE framework and provide interventions, advice, consultation and supervision to colleagues and partner agencies. The role supports ongoing development in line with national and local initiatives.

Responsibilities

The post holder will:

• Demonstrate an attitude that respects service users and their carers and promote the organisation\'s core values, adopting Recovery and THRIVE principles.
• Promote safe practices, value service user aims, work in partnership, offer meaningful choice and value social inclusion.
• Contribute to a team that promotes the Thrive model of service delivery and supports innovative and creative practice.
• Hold a caseload of both specialist and generic work, undertake assessments, treatment and consultation based on a conceptual framework and research-based evidence.
• Provide direct therapeutic interventions, including assessments, formulation and therapeutic input into children, young people and families referred to the service.
• Undertake risk assessments and care planning in line with the THRIVE framework; maintain risk management processes and engage with multi-agency teams and meetings.
• Be sensitive to the needs of children and young people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds; screen referrals to Children and Young People\'s services; participate in duty rotas; and maintain clinical records in line with Data Protection Act and professional standards.
• Deliver care coordination, ensuring effective assessment, care planning and risk management; involve children, families, referrers and other professionals; contribute to risk management and management of safeguarding issues.
• Provide consultation, advice and guidance to junior colleagues; promote multi-agency work; contribute to risk management within the multi-agency network.
• Engage in routine outcome measures, feed results into clinical records, and contribute to the trusts service user participation agenda.
• Collaborate with partners within THRIVE; participate in teaching, training and supervision; contribute to training placements and assess trainees.

Communication

• Communicate clearly and sensitively concerning assessment, formulation and treatment plans; monitor progress in multi and uni-disciplinary care; provide written and verbal professional opinions.
• Attend Child Protection Case Conferences as a representative of services for children and young people; communicate highly sensitive information to families and professionals; facilitate multi-agency meetings and reviews.
• Engage with families in crisis and challenging situations; maintain effective relationships with professionals; provide written reports on progress.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

• Participate in regular supervision, reflective practice and ongoing development.
• Provide training to other professionals to enhance mental health knowledge and skills; deliver training and presentations to agencies and promote specialist training programmes.
• Contribute to training placements and assess trainee competencies; work with partner agencies to develop joint THRIVE-based practice.
• Maintain professional registration and accountability for clinical practice and behaviour.

Management, Policy and Service Development

• Identify service priorities and advise managers on resource needs; contribute to evidence-based practice through audits and evaluations.
• Support recruitment processes and workload sharing; contribute to service developments.

Research and Service Evaluation

• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of evidence-based mental health knowledge and contribute to planning/evaluation of practice and outcomes; participate in audits, quality assurance and NICE-guided activities.

Continuing Professional Development

• Engage in regular clinical supervision and CPD to meet professional body requirements; participate in internal and external CPD activities and maintain best practices.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Essential: EMHP/Postgraduate qualification (or CYWP/PWP) or CBT Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma; professional registration where applicable; core professional qualification in Nursing, Social Work, or Occupational Therapy.
• Desirable: Senior EMHP/CYWP qualifications; PWP supervision qualification.

Values

• Continuous improvement, accountability, respectfulness, enthusiasm, support, high professional standards, responsiveness to service users, engaging leadership, strong customer service, transparency, discretion, and change orientation.

Skills

• High-level interpersonal and written communication; ability to coordinate multi-agency care plans; knowledge of legislation and frameworks; ethical practice; physical stamina for demanding caseloads; resilience and adaptability; ability to supervise and support others; commitment to Trust values and service improvement.

Knowledge/Experience

• Experience managing a caseload of children and young people with moderate mental health needs; experience in a children\'s community mental health setting; experience delivering evidence-based therapies (e.g., CBT); experience providing supervision; ability to work with diverse patient groups; capability to undertake case management and supervise students; knowledge of risk assessments and safeguarding; ability to work across diverse contexts and take clinical responsibility within a multi-disciplinary team.

Administrative and Other

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check required; UK professional registration required; employer details: Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, The Alders, 12 Birch Avenue, Warrington, WA2 9TN. Website: https://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/