SPA (Single Point of Access) Practitioner

ABL Health Ltd; Swindon; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A community health service provider in Swindon is seeking an SPA Practitioner to deliver person-centred care to children and families. This role involves offering meaningful telephone consultations and guiding families to appropriate mental health services. Collaboration with various stakeholders to ensure well-coordinated support is essential. The ideal candidate will have a passion for improving children's mental health access and outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Provide telephone consultations to referrals with timely, relevant guidance or signposting.
• Assess presenting needs, hold supportive conversations, and direct families to services.
• Collaborate with professionals to ensure informed journeys for families navigating support.
• Engage under-served communities to increase awareness and referrals.
• Work directly with families to provide guidance on managing mental health challenges.
• Coordinate care with schools, healthcare providers, and community organizations.
• Build partnerships to improve access and encourage early referrals.
• Monitor access metrics and respond to safeguarding concerns.
• Participate in community engagement and provide on-call support.
• Contribute to a service focused on high-quality care for children and young people.

Job description

Overview

The SPA Practitoner will play a pivotal role in delivering responsive, person-centred care to children, young people and families across Swindon. Working within a Single Point of Access model, this role will provide meaningful telephone consultations to all appropriate referrals, ensuring each contact receives timely, relevant guidance or signposting to local mental health and wellbeing services. This role replaces the previous signposting-only approach and requires individuals who can assess presenting needs, hold supportive conversations, and direct children, young people and families to the most appropriate services across the local landscape. Working closely with other professionals in education, health and community services, the SPA Navigator will ensure a smooth and informed journey for families navigating emotional wellbeing support.

Responsibilities

• Provide telephone consultations to referrals with timely, relevant guidance or signposting to local mental health and wellbeing services.
• Assess presenting needs, hold supportive conversations, and direct children, young people, and families to the most appropriate services across the local landscape.
• Collaborate with professionals in education, health and community services to ensure a smooth and informed journey for families navigating emotional wellbeing support.
• Undertake targeted outreach to engage under-served communities, especially those identified within the local CORE20PLUS5 population, to increase awareness of and referrals into the SPA and support early access to mental health services.
• Work directly with children, young people, and families to provide guidance, education, and support in managing mental health challenges; ensure interventions are well-documented and outcome-focused.
• Collaborate with schools, healthcare providers, social services, and community organisations to coordinate care and promote a holistic approach to wellbeing; advocate for children's mental health needs and reducing stigma in the community.
• Engage with underserved groups, build partnerships with local networks, faith groups, and youth organisations to improve access, encourage early referrals, and strengthen preventative approaches.
• Monitor local access metrics, respond to safeguarding concerns, and contribute to service improvements; stay up to date with best practice through training and supervision.
• Participate in community engagement to raise awareness of available support and provide on-call support as part of a rota.
• Contribute to a dynamic and impactful service focused on high-quality, accessible care for children and young people.

Qualifications

Not specified in the description.

About the Organisation

ABL is an exciting fast-paced, growing community health organisation. As an experienced, CQC registered provider of community health services, we are passionate about delivering evidence-based, innovative, effective and relevant health care services in partnership with individuals, communities and stakeholders.