Senior Mental Health Practitioner

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About the Trust

We are proud to provide high quality mental health and learning disability services, both inpatient and in the community across five boroughs of Greater Manchester - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Tameside and Glossop.

Our vision is for a happier and more hopeful life for everyone in our communities and our staff work hard to deliver the very best care for the people who use our services. We're really proud of our #PennineCarePeople and do everything we can to make sure we're a great place to work.

Our ambition is to maximise people's potential and we aim to promote an inclusive environment and improve the diversity of our workforce so our people truly represent the communities we serve.

All individuals regardless of race, age, disability, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnership are encouraged to apply for this post. We would also encourage applications from individuals with a lived experience of mental illness, either individually or as a carer.

If you come and work for us we will offer a range of benefits and opportunities, including:

1. Generous annual leave entitlement for Agenda for Change and Medical and Dental staff.
2. Flexible working opportunities to support your work/life balance
3. Access to Continued Professional Development
4. Involvement in improvement and research activities
5. Health and Wellbeing activities and access to an excellent staff wellbeing service
6. Access to staff discounts across retail, leisure and travel

If you are Kind, Fair, Ingenious and Determined then we want you to come and join our #PennineCarePeople

https://www.penninecare.nhs.uk/values

Job overview

The Access Team is a busy and fast-paced service that provides a single point of entry and first level gate keeping into mental health services in Stockport. We screen and triage all referrals into the service. We undertake telephone triages, urgent and routine face to face assessments and onward referral to the most appropriate service, getting people the right care, at the right time and by the right service.

Main duties of the job

You will undertake comprehensive assessments of the health and social care needs of individuals who are referred to the service, in addition to comprehensive risk assessments. You will also coordinate assessment clinics and prioritise appointments. No one day is the same and you will need a flexible, creative and supportive approach within the team.

Following assessment you will be responsible for identifying appropriate management plans, follow up care, referrals and fast tracking of patients into specialist services.

As a senior mental health practitioner you will offer support and guidance to junior members of staff on the team.

Working for our organisation

The Team operates from Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

The Access Team works closely with Healthy Minds, The Transition Team and other internal and external providers; such as the Stockport Prevention Alliance, Open Door and the Safe Haven.

Staff are expected to participate in the overall development of the service, ensuring that the principles of Clinical Governance underpin all developments.

It is expected that you will deliver care in accordance with all Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust policies and procedures, the Mental Health Act and community care legislation.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Main Duties & Responsibilities

• To participate in the duty worker rotation
• To participate in the triage process of new referrals to the service.
• To carry out thorough assessment of service users' current mental health problems and individual needs, including a risk assessment.
• To develop individualised packages of care for service users with mental health problems, including signposting where necessary, within the stepped care model (NICE, 2003), Fair Access to Care Services and the Care Programme Approach.
• To identify the need for protection in line with safeguarding children and the Protection of Vulnerable Adult Policy and to comply with statutory obligations.
• To liaise and negotiate with other professions, statutory and independent agencies to ensure the best possible service is provided to service users and carers and to appropriately signpost to other agencies.
• To assist service users to effectively manage their emotional distress, using psychological evidence-based interventions.
• To promote medication concordance through medication follow-up, where appropriate.
• To evaluate systematically and record, outcomes of mental health interventions, adapting care on the basis of these evaluations.
• To provide education and appropriate self-help resources to patients specific to individual needs.
• To keep and store up to date written records and follow appropriate Pennine Care policies.
• To participate in audit of the primary care mental health service if requested.
• To provide supervision/mentorship to the junior primary care mental health workers and students.
• To utilise managerial and clinical supervision to ensure that care and treatment are tailored to service users, family and community needs; that learning needs are identified and acted upon to ensure professional and personal development.
• To work with individuals from diverse backgrounds in a culturally sensitive manner.
• To participate in improving access and liaison activities within the Stockport Community.
• To improve liaison with Stockport GP's and other agencies.
• To attend and participate in regular departmental and governance meetings.
• To take a lead role in project and developmental work within the department.

Please see attached job description and person specification to support your application for this post. Please refer to the essential criteria in the person specification which will highlight the skills, knowledge and experience you will need to demonstrate in your application, by way of example, to give yourself the best opportunity to be shortlisted.

Person specification

Education / Qualifications

Essential criteria

• RMN/RNMH/Social Worker equivalent
• Completion of Preparation for Mentorship / Practice Teacher / Fieldwork Educator qualification or willingness to complete
• Evidence of on-going CPD

Desirable criteria

• Degree - or working towards completion.
• Non-medical prescribing qualification
• Formal teaching qualification.
• Further training in brief psychosocial interventions.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Significant post registration experience.
• Proven experience of working with clients with complex needs.
• Experience of working with individuals who present to mental health services in crisis and have symptoms of mental health illness
• Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience of providing supervision to junior staff

Desirable criteria

• Primary care mental health work experience
• Experienced in the use of outcome measures such as CORE, PHQ9 and GAD7
• Experience of working with a psychological model of care
• Experience of triaging referrals.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Understanding of current mental health legislation, Safe Guarding and Child Protection Legislation
• Awareness of NICE Guidance in the treatment of mental health problems and knowledge of treatments and interventions appropriate for individuals with mental health needs
• Understanding of confidentiality and data protection issues.
• Knowledge of psychosocial assessment and risk assessment/management processes

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• Comprehensive mental health and risk assessment skills.
• Ability to construct effective packages of care and risk management plans
• Ability to deliver a range of evidence based interventions.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Comprehensive I.T Skills
• Ability to form productive working relationships with service users, carers and multi-disciplinary staff
• Good organisational and prioritisation skills.

Desirable criteria

• Skills in planning, delivery and evaluation of training
• Skills in the area of audit or research

A hints and tips document is attached below for guidance on completing your application form.

Disclosure Barring Certificate check

All of our new starters, who are appointed to a post which requires a Disclosure Barring Certificate check (DBS), will be recharged for the full cost of the check (DBS checks for volunteers are free of charge).

An enhanced DBS check costs £38 and a standard check costs £18 (plus an administration charge of £3.50). If you are a substantive member of staff, the full amount will be taken from your first month's salary.

If you are a member of staff on our bank, you will need to repay the full amount from your first salary.

We encourage you to register with the DBS update service at an annual cost of £13 (this is mandatory for bank staff).

Other important information

• We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and recognise the importance of ensuring our diverse service user population is reflected within our workforce. Unfortunately, we know that, at present, there is underrepresentation of our communities in our workforce. We welcome applications from people from diverse communities to help us grow, learn, be better and consider brilliant innovation diverse people bring.
• Priority will be given to applications from existing NHS employees who have an at risk status
• This post is on our terms and conditions (T&Cs). If you are an existing employee currently on transferred terms and conditions (i.e. you transferred from another employer and retained their T&Cs) and you are voluntarily applying for this post; if you are successful, you will be employed on our T&Cs
• You will be informed about the progress of your application following shortlisting. Only applicants who clearly demonstrate the criteria listed in the person specification will be shortlisted for interview
• We will notify you by email if you have been shortlisted or not. Computer access is available at your local job centre or library. Please make sure you check your spam filter/junk folder. If any mail goes to your junk folder please mark it as safe
• If you would like to be considered under the disability confident scheme, you will be guaranteed an interview if you meet the essential criteria on the person specification for the post
• If you require reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process please phone us on 0161 716 3181 at the earliest opportunity. We will support you to complete your application
• We reserve the right to close a vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date if a sufficient number of applications have been received
• Unfortunately we are not able to guarantee the transfer of lease cars, or cover the costs of early termination charges.
• We have a strict policy on unsolicited contact from recruitment agencies. Please do not contact our recruiting managers directly.

Vaccination

COVID-19 vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the virus when working in our healthcare settings. Whilst COVID-19 vaccination is not a condition of employment at this time, we do encourage our staff to get vaccinated. We will be checking the vaccination status of all new starters so that we can manage individual and environmental risks, and so that we can support those who may be undecided about vaccination. If you are unvaccinated there is helpful advice and information at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ where you can also find out more about how to access vaccination. There is a current Government consultation underway which will determine whether some new starters may need to be vaccinated.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job Description (PDF, 120.5KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 112.2KB)
• Policy Statement on Recruitment of Ex-Offenders (PDF, 117.0KB)
• Applicant Information pack (PDF, 505.6KB)
• Hints and tips for your application (PDF, 128.7KB)