Senior HTT Practitioner

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good'.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I'm going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you'll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

*** PREVIOUS APPLICANTS NEED NOT APPLY, PLEASE.

The Croydon Home Treatment Teams provide 24hr, 7 day a week, crisis assessment and intensive home treatment to patients with the aim of preventing in- patient admission where possible or if admission is required facilitating earlier discharge.

Our focus is to support service users to remain in their own home in order to aid their recovery during the crisis episode.

You will be a qualified Mental Health Nurse, Occupational Therapist or Social Worker. You will need to have post qualification experience in mental health and preferably within crisis services.

About the Team:

You will be working within a highly skilled multi-disciplinary team.

The rota for this role includes working weekends and weekdays between the hours of 8am and 10pm.

The post holder will also work for periods at the Acute Referral Centre (ARC) at the Maudsley Hospital; this will involve triage and gate keeping all crisis referrals into the centre and working some night shifts, approximately 8 - 10 per year. Band 6 practitioners work day shifts in the ARC on a rotation basis for up to 12 weeks at a time.

Main duties of the job

• A track record in working with and involving carers and service users in service development and delivery

When working in the borough HTT, practitioners undertake assessments and treatment as required. The person will lead in the assessment, co-ordination, planning, implementation, evaluation and delivery of home treatment for people in acute psychiatric crisis.

The post holder will play a key role in the current development of the team and help implement the acute care pathway's aims and objectives, as well as helping to ensure good links with referring inpatient and community teams, with a view to reducing the number and length of inpatient admissions. Effective gatekeeping assessment and the identification and delivery of the best treatment packages for people presenting to services in crisis will also be key.
The post holder will work as an experienced mental health professional (Nurse, OT or Social Worker) who, acting within their own professional boundaries will provide care for presenting service users from initial history taking, clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of care. The post holder will supervise junior members of staff and support the work of the senior team members of the team.

The post holder may be required to work across different Trust sites according to the needs of the Home Treatment Service Line.

Working for our organisation

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer; we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect, and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:
• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice.
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment.
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity.

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe'

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

Clinical:
- To provide rapid, crisis assessments for clients in a mental health crisis in order to ensure the right intervention is provided at the right time for service users presenting with mental health diagnoses and any comorbid conditions In addition, to support early discharge from the inpatient wards.
- To deliver a range of effective, service user-centred interventions aimed at crisis resolution and promoting recovery. Supporting service users to adopt recovery strategies that promote their wellbeing, healthy lifestyle, independence and self-care.
- To undertake thorough risk assessment of all service users in line with policy standards in order to manage risk safely and effectively.
- To ensure that care is carefully and meaningfully planned within the multidisciplinary team, delivered to a high standard and evaluated regularly.

- To rapidly and continuously evaluate the patient's changing condition and response to therapeutic interventions and modifies the plan of care for optimal patient outcome.
- To undertake the safe and effective discharge of patients and ensure the smooth transition of care from HTT to other services.
- To operate within the legal requirements of the Mental Health Act and be able to exercise independent judgement in the assessment of mental health conditions.
- To escalate and refer the needs of service users presenting with complex long term conditions (e.g. diabetes, asthma,)
- To ensure that Safeguarding issues are acted upon and reported appropriately in line with the Trust's Safeguarding Policies.
- Maintain relevant clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge, critically appraise and apply information in practice.
- Promote and deliver evidence based care for service users with mental health conditions in their own homes.
- To carry out physical observations in accordance with Trust and local policy, liaising with medical and senior nursing staff as appropriate.
- To administer or issue medication dependent on role with knowledge of its purpose, contraindications and side effects, relating that information to service users in a way they will understand.
- Support service users to adopt recovery strategies that promote their wellbeing, healthy lifestyle, independence and self-care.
- Actively promote health education that may include providing alternative materials to support service users and carers in making decisions regarding their care and treatment.
- To provide relevant support to carers and families in relation to their rights as carers and actively support their involvement in the care of the service user.
- To apply infection control measures.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Recognised Professional Qualification in Nursing (RMN), Social Work (Dip SW/CQSW) or Occupational Therapy

Desirable criteria

• Post registration qualification in specialty
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Experience

Essential criteria

• A range of relevant post registration experience in a mental health setting
• Experience of working with people in a mental health crisis
• Sound knowledge and understanding of current issues in specialty

Desirable criteria

• Experience of audit and research
• Experience of alternatives to psychiatric admissions
• Experience of delivering teaching Sound knowledge of psychopharmacology

Knowledge/Skills

Essential criteria

• Able to assess need and implement care plans
• Able to assess risk and provide a management plan
• Able to demonstrate clinical expertise
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, negotiation and influencing skills demonstrated by the ability to engage others

Desirable criteria

• Sound IT skills (including email and office packages)
• Able to lead a multi-disciplinary team service development

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity

Please note:

• That all applications for this post will need to be made online
• That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not successful
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
• That we are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe'

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

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.

Documents to download

• Band 6 Senior HTT Practitioner Job Description (PDF, 411.3KB)
• SLaM Staff Benefits (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Happy to Talk Flexible Working (PDF, 680.1KB)