Mental Healthline Call Operator

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Worthing; On-site; GBP 27,000 - 31,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Worthing is seeking a Mental Healthline Operator to join its dedicated team. This role involves supporting callers experiencing mental health crises and requires excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work autonomously in a fast-paced environment. Successful candidates will benefit from extensive training and support. Flexibility to work varied shifts, including nights and weekends, is essential, and competitive pay rates apply. This is an opportunity to contribute to meaningful mental health services in the community.

Benefits

Robust supervision package

Ongoing training opportunities

Potential for flexible working hours

Qualifications

• Experience in working with people with mental health problems.
• Experience in urgent care/crisis settings preferred.
• Understanding of risk assessment and formulation.

Responsibilities

• Support callers and escalate to clinicians when necessary.
• Participate in staff training and development.
• Flexibility to work evenings, weekends, and nights.

Skills

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

Experience working with Mental Health needs

Ability to work autonomously

Comfortable in fast-paced environments

Tools

Carenotes

Microsoft Office

Job description

We are the NHS 111 Mental Health Option service. The service is a 24/7 mental health crisis line for anyone who may be in crisis and in urgent need of help with their mental health.

We are an ageless service operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We are currently recruiting for a Mental Healthline Operator to join our busy team. You will be joining a friendly, supportive and dedicated team of Clinicians and Call Operators responding to Sussex-wide callers who require support for their own or others Mental Health difficulties.

The team are fully office-based on site at Swandean Hospital, Worthing.

Main duties of the job

As a Call Operator you will be trained in a specific triage tool, to be utilised alongside your existing skills, to support callers and where necessary escalate to a clinician or signpost to services across Sussex.

We place a large focus on staff training, including a bespoke induction and plenty of on-going in-house training. You will benefit from a full and robust supervision package, with ample opportunities for group reflection, development and mentoring.

There is no appointment system so the work is fast-paced and varied.

About us

SPFT provides mental health and learning disability care for children, young people and adults across Sussex.

Working in Sussex:

• Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns
• Embrace the city life with great access to visit Brighton and London
• With easy access to Gatwick and Heathrow and excellent railway links across the UK there is plenty of opportunity for adventure

We'd love you to join our organisation that is rated 'good' overall and 'outstanding' for caring by the CQC. Our staff agree, in our recent staff survey 82% told us that they recognise that care for patients is our top priority.

Key staff survey results include:

• 70% highlighting flexible working opportunities as a key point for satisfaction at work
• 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work within their team
• 77% identifying the opportunities to show initiative in their roles

We support flexible working. We know that a positive work/ life balance brings about huge health-related benefits, which has a positive impact on the care we provide. Please speak to us about part time hours, if it works for you and works for the role, we'll do our best to make it happen.

Job responsibilities

To be successful in this role you will share our passion, desire and empathetic approach to supporting people of all ages with complex mental health needs, who are often experiencing crisis.

Requirements:

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Experience of working with people with Mental Health needs
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced and varied and demanding role
• Ability to work across the 24 hour period; to include evenings, weekends and nights.
• Shifts are E-7am-3pm, L1pm-9pm, L4 4pm-midnight Night 20.45-07.15 (Successful candidates will be required to work a full rotation of all shifts).
• Able to work autonomously
• Ability to travel and work from an office base in Sussex

Flexibility with working patterns to include some weekend and evening work is essential. This does bring with it increased rates of pay for unsocial hours as set out under the Agenda for Change (AfC) guidelines.

See attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details.

Person Specification

Knowledge/Experience

• Demonstrate current experience of working with people with mental health problems
• Experience of in working in urgent care/crisis settings
• Understanding of risk assessment / formulation and application
• Knowledge and experience in Child and Adult safe guarding procedures.
• Evidence of skills in change management and at organising and prioritising their workload
• Demonstrate ability to enhance care through evidence based knowledge
• Demonstrate professional development relevant to the specific care group.
• Computer literate. Sound working knowledge of various IT systems including Carenotes and Microsoft Office

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.

£27,485 to £30,162 a yearpa / pro rata for part time