Senior Practitioner

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

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in London is seeking a Senior Mental Health Practitioner to work within the police and court liaison service. The role involves supporting individuals with mental health issues through assessments and coordination with criminal justice channels. Ideal candidates will hold a Master's degree or equivalent and demonstrate robust experience in mental health care. The position offers competitive compensation ranging from £56,276 to £63,176 annually.

Benefits

NHS Discounts

Generous annual leave

NHS pension scheme

Qualifications

• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration or equivalent.
• Experience with mental health services.
• Experience in forensic/criminal justice environment.

Responsibilities

• Screen individuals with mental health illnesses.
• Provide ongoing assessments and case management.
• Collaborate with police, courts, and health services.

Skills

Compassionate interpersonal skills

Excellent communication skills

Ability to work under pressure

Cultural sensitivity

Education

Master's degree or equivalent experience

Approved Mental Health Professional

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a forward thinking and motivated senior mental health practitioner to work within the police and court liaison and diversion service across north and central London sites which are part of the North London Foundation Trust. The post holder will remain flexible working across the north and central London sites which include police custody suites, Magistrate's and Crown Court's and offer a clinical supervisory oversight function for a third sector community outreach partnership. Working alongside the Marine policing unit and Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) court orders are also part of the overall role.

The service currently runs 7 days per week which includes bank holidays and weekends covering across the hours of 7am - 10pm. The service provides provision at the following sites and practitioners are expected to work across all sites.

Highbury Magistrates Court and Wood Green Crown Court

Main duties of the job

The service is a coordinated and integrated approach by secondary care mental health services to identify, triage and engage those in police custody and courts that present with either existing or acute health or social vulnerabilities, and to provide earlier intervention within the non-custodial pathway. This service is for people of all age and vulnerabilities and offers a comprehensive pathway service for those entering and exiting the criminal justice system.

A team of autonomous mental health liaison workers are based within police custody suites and courts across Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey feeding into Wood Green Crown Court and Highbury Corner Magistrates Court. There is also a community link service across the aforementioned areas where staff are expected to provide a supervisory service. There is an expectation for staff to work across all services within the contract specification with support and supervision provided by the Clinical and Operational Leads.

The role is to screen individuals identified as having mental health ilness, and any other vulnerabilities, provide on-going assessment (including awareness and understanding of other factors including physical health, use of drugs and alcohol, learning difficulties and speech, language and communication issues), immediate case management and to formalize timely and sensitive sharing of information between police, court and mental health services.

About us

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.Our Five-Year Strategy:

We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.

With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all

We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.

Why NLFT?

We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.

We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.

NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme

Excellent internal staff network

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person specification for more information on the role requirements and duties.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Social Work England, Occupational Therapy
• Education and qualifications: Master's degree or equivalent demonstrable experience in relevant area
• Advanced professional skills based post-basic training / development and qualifications
• Approved Mental Health Professional

experience and knowledge

• Advanced professional skills based post-basic training / development and qualifications
• Significant experience and knowledge of working with people with mental health problems.
• Experience in acute adult, multi-disciplinary community mental health services.
• Significant experience of assessing risk and developing risk management plans
• Significant experience of undertaking autonomous assessments.
• Experience of care co-ordination, including health and social care assessment, risk assessment and carer planning.
• A good understanding of recovery principles, the care programme approach (including health and social care assessments) and the role of secondary mental health services in the delivery of care.
• Experience of giving written and oral evidence in a court or tribunal setting
• Good knowledge of resources and working practices across Health and Social Care, including substance misuse, learning disability, children's services and housing.
• Experience of working within a Forensic/Criminal Justice environment.
• Ability to be innovative in practice.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Compassionate - Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively with patients, carers and relatives about complex and sensitive issues remaining sensitive and empathetic
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including presentation of cases Ability to work under pressure and on own initiative
• Ability to treat Service Users with respect and dignity, being culturally sensitive as appropriate, and consider the needs of the whole person
• Able to negotiate and form collaborative partnerships with other agencies
• High standards in written and verbal skills with ability to compile and present written and oral reports
• Basic computer literacy and commitment to develop further
• Ability to manage highly pressured workload
• Ability to represent the Trust within the Criminal Justice System
• Self-reliant and resilient able to respond positively to challenging situations
• Willing to embrace organisational change
• Experienced and confident in positively managing risk

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.

£56,276 to £63,176 a yearPer annum Inclu HCAS