Senior Mental Health Practitioner FPCC

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust; Brockworth; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free car parking

27 days leave + bank holidays

NHS pension

Job summary

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Band 6 Mental Health Practitioner for the First Point of Contact Centre in Gloucestershire. This permanent, full-time role is 37.5 hours per week and focuses on triage, urgent and crisis mental health support at a central access point.

You will supervise and mentor junior staff within a multidisciplinary team, handling a wide range of referrals with resilience and professionalism.

Qualifications

• Registered mental health practitioner status with a governing body.
• Significant post-qualification experience in mental health.
• Experience in first-line assessments including patient safety.
• Proven ability to work across teams and agencies.

Responsibilities

• Triage referrals at the point of contact and direct to the appropriate service.
• Provide mental health support and guidance to callers in distress.
• Manage routine, urgent and crisis referrals and signpost as needed.
• Support development of FPCC and collaborate with senior clinicians and colleagues.

Skills

Mental health triage

Crisis support

Multi-disciplinary working

First point of contact experience

Education

Registered Mental Health Practitioner

Job description

Main area Mental Health Urgent Care Grade Band 6 Contract Permanent: Secondment would be considered Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 327-26-719

Site First Point of Contact Centre, Town Gloucestershire Salary £39,959 - £48,117 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 11/10/2026 23:59

We love what we do and we think you will, too!

At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county .

We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care . We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you ’.

We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and w e are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality team s in all areas of the Trust .

Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.

It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us .

Job overview

This role is offered on a permanent basis . The hours are full-time, 37.5 hours per week.

Are you someone who thrives in a fast paced environment?

Do you have a passion for being the first point of contact for those in need of mental health support when they need us the most? Can you provide a voice of reassurance and support? If so, we are looking for individuals like you to make a real difference!

Using your experience, you will be duty clinician and supervisor to a shift that consists of Band 7 Clinical Leads, Band 6 Senior Mental Health Practitioners, Band 5 Mental Health Practitioners Band 3 Call Handlers, and students, supervising, mentoring and coaching to develop their skills and playing a key role in the development of the service.

Our First Point of Contact Centre (FPCC) is a priority one urgent response telephone service launched in 2019. Since then it has consistently demonstrated itself to be an integral part of our mental health services. We have improved access to mental health services for individuals who need it, whilst reducing demands on care and treatment delivery services.

We are continuing to evolve and build our team and the support we offer as part of the development of the National Mental Health NHS 111 response model. Which involves 24/7 working, including night shifts.

Main duties of the job

Forget caseloads and case management.

In the FPCC your skills and expertise will be in triaging patients at the point of contact, providing mental health support and identifying what service will best meet their needs moving forwards.

The spectrum of mental health needs varies significantly; you will have the ability to offer advice, guidance and support to those in mental health distress. This will have a routine, urgent or crisis response. Equally, you will have the ability to respond to urgent referrals with more acute needs and higher risks in the community.

You will be handling a wide range of calls, and thriving amid the challenges this presents. This requires an outstanding amount of resilience and emotional strength as you will be supporting unwell and distressed patients at their time of need, their families, carers, emergency services, and referrers who may need support. Your support will make a difference to lives and requires people who can be there for those that need it, sometimes in the face of adversity and trauma.

We’re currently recruiting and staff can chose to work short shifts or long shift.

Short Shifts/Long Day Shifts

• 7am – 3pm
• 9am - 5pm
• 2pm – 10pm
• 7am to 8pm
• 9am – 10pm

Night shifts -

• 21:30hrs – 07:20hrs

Flexible working options can be considered if this fits with the individual and service requirements

Working for our organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.

76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.

81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You’ll be part of the team that provides the first stage in the Trust’s care navigation system receiving requests using contact methods, including letters, e-mail and telephone.

We provide a central resource for referrers and Trust staff to ensure the effective receipt and subsequent processing of referrals into our services. We further provide effective signposting to services external to the Trust.

We accept routine, urgent and crisis referrals, each having a specific pathway to follow. Routine and urgent referrals are usually received by e-mail to our FPCC referral inbox. Crisis referrals are received via the telephone.

We provide an effective first point of contact, a link with primary and secondary services, partner agencies and organisations outside of the trust.

The service focus is to ensure callers or requests are directed to the appropriate person/resource in the Trust in the most effective manner. Where the request is for advice or a specialist opinion, the centre staff will link the request to either internal or external sources in a timely manner. The intention will be to leave the person making the request, feeling valued and satisfied with the outcome, before ending the contact. Where an immediate response for advice/specialist opinion is not available staff will work to an agreed response time, which will be shared with the person making the request.

You will have support from Senior Health Practitioners colleagues (Band 6), Clinical Lead B7's, and the Operational Manager to help your development and you’ll be able to share your knowledge and experience with our Call Handlers (Band 3) and Mental Health Practitioners (Band 5).

• The post holder will be part of the Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust First Point of Contact Centre (FPCC) and will manage and triage mental health referrals coming in to into the Trust.
• The service is a professional referral service accepting telephone, letter, or e-mail referrals from patients, carers, GP’s, Health Care Professionals within mental health working, police, ambulance staff, and some external agencies – this list is not exhaustive.
• The practitioners within the team are responsible for initial screening, triaging and the allocation of referrals to the appropriate service within the Trust or signposting to a relevant external service.
• The post holder will be responsible for triaging referrals, routine and urgent and crisis made to the Trust and directing them to the most appropriate service.

Full qualifications, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Please refer to the Additional Information attachment before submitting your application

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Practitioner status or Registered Practitioner with significant mental health experience (nursing, allied health, and social care professionals) registered with a governing body for example the NMC

Lenghth and Nature of Experience

• Demonstrable and significant post qualification experience in mental health or related areas
• Sound experience of first line assessments including assessment of patient safety
• Proven skills in multi-disciplinary working, with experience of communicating across teams, stat and non-stat agencies and GP’s.

Professional/Managerial/Specialist Knowledge

• Sound understanding of the requirements of primary care and secondary care
• A sound understanding of the Mental Health Act and other associated legislation
• Experience of using psychological treatments e.g. CBT/Anxiety management …
• A good understanding of other community/voluntary facilities that may be of help to people with a mental health problem.

When joining us, as well as becoming part of a team that makes a difference, we also offer:

• Free car parking at many of our sites
• 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service
• A broad range of training and development opportunities, including apprenticeships up to Level 7 qualification.
• A multi-professional preceptorship programme for all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners.
• Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when if you work unsocial hours
• Flexible, family friendly and agile working opportunities
• Recognition and long service awards
• Fast Track physiotherapy
• Access to discounts and salary sacrifice schemes; including Cycle to Work, Car scheme and discounts on travel, leisure and retailers.

If you are aged 16-30, you may be eligible for financial and pastoral support from the King’s Trust, with who we are in partnership with to support your first 6 months in role. We will pass on your details to the King’s Trust who will be in touch with you if you are eligible. If you would rather not be contacted, please let us know.

For more information please see the attached 'Additional Information for Applicants' document.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.