Senior Mental Health Practitioner

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Thank you for your interest in the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT). This is an exciting time to join us and be part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:

• Collaborate at every level by living our values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
• Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
• Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
• Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
• Ensure that research, quality improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
• Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do

We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.

The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/

As a values-driven Trust, we recruit through our values. Our selection processes focus on behaviours, attitudes, and examples that reflect our organisational values and commitment to compassionate, high-quality care.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role.

We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it's important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

Further guidance can be found in the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1.

North London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to fair and transparent recruitment and requires applicants to provide accurate information, as misleading details may affect their application or employment and may be verified in line with the Fraud Act 2006. For further information please visit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a forward thinking and motivated senior mental health practitioner to work within the Police and court services across north and central London sites which is part of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust. The post holder will remain flexible working across the north and central London sites which include police custody suites, Crown and Magistrate's Court's and British Transport Police stations over a total of nine sites. The post holder will provide an all age autonomous screening and assessment service at the respective sites; respond professionally to requests for information and assistance; utilise their discretion as an independent professional and understand the importance of partnership working within the police and court services. An excellent awareness of the care pathway for vulnerable children and adults is essential when undertaking the mental health practitioner role within Liaison and Diversion services.

The service is currently under a tender procurement process and subject to operational re-design

Main duties of the job

You will be able to undertake comprehensive mental health and risk assessments; develop effective risk management plans, provide brief interventions and be confident in signposting individuals whom come through the range of services and require follow up outside of the scope of Liaison and Diversion services. Knowledge of broader mental health services is important in delivering this role in an effective manner and there is an emphasis on working with other professional disciplines, sharing knowledge and skills whilst advocating for the service user. Understanding of relevant legislation is important within this role.

The post holder will have excellent awareness of confidentiality and information sharing guidelines at all times. This information may be both complex and sensitive and require excellent communication and negotiation skills to provide the service as an autonomous and independent senior practitioner within these environments. The applicant will be responsible for assessment of information in partnership with the criminal justice system and other agencies to determine the level of risk to people with mental health issues or other vulnerabilities.

Working for our organisation

The partnership between Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH) and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C&I) is going from strength to strength since it was originally established in 2021 forming the North London Mental Health Partnership.

The postholder will need to be comfortable working in an environment of complex matrix management arrangements and will at all times behave and align with our Trusts' values and cultural pillars:

• We are kind
• We are respectful
• We work together
• We keep things simple
• We empower
• We are proudly diverse

In order to meet the needs of the new Partnership services 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, Enfield and Harringay Trust and Camden and Islington Trust. 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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• In essence, this service is a coordinated and integrated approach by secondary care mental health services to identify triage and engage those in police custody that present with either existing or acute health or social vulnerabilities, and to provide earlier intervention within the mentally disordered offender pathway. This service is for people of all ages.
• The enhancement and development of relationships within criminal justice services and building strong links between Healthcare, Social Services and the Criminal Justice system itself is an essential part of the post holder's role.
• A team of autonomous mental health liaison workers are based within custody suites across Camden, Islington, and Haringey feeding into Wood Green Crown Court and Highbury Corner Magistrates Court with support and supervision provided by the Clinical and Operational Leads. Liaison and Diversion support is also provided to the British Transport Police based at three sites over central and north London.
• Their role is to screen individuals identified as having mental health problems, 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.
• Additionally, we are seeking to develop innovative approaches to working with mental health services, both locally and across London, for example, through attendance at community teams, linking with YOTs and CAMHS services, participating in service reviews and recording information that demonstrates and supports the benefits of liaison and diversion.

This is not an exhaustive list, please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information on the role requirements and duties.

Person specification

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

Essential criteria

• A professional qualification relevant to mental health practice
• RMN/Degree/Diploma in Nursing
• CQSW/Degree/Diploma in Social Work
• Occupational Therapy registration

Desirable criteria

• Second Degree-Masters

EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE

Essential criteria

• Significant experience and knowledge of working with people with mental health problems.
• Experience in acute adult or CAMHS, multi-disciplinary community mental health services.
• A good understanding of recovery principles, the care programme approach and the role of secondary mental health services in the delivery of care

Desirable criteria

• Experience of giving written and oral evidence in a court or tribunal setting
• experience of working within the criminal justice system

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Essential criteria

• 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 treat Service Users with respect and dignity, being culturally sensitive as appropriate, and consider the needs of the whole person
• Ability to manage autonomously within the criminal justice system as a silo worker

Desirable criteria

• Ability to manage conflicts within the criminal justice system achieving the best outcomes for those referred

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we reserve the right to close any vacancies before the stated closing date. Therefore, please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

In line with NHS protocols, only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview. We regret that it is not possible to contact all applicants for every vacancy. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume you have not been shortlisted for the next stage.

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome. Please ensure you hold the correct right to work in the UK at the time of your application. Some roles may not be eligible for sponsorship, and we want to make sure you have all the information you need before applying. To avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI guidelines: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

Please note, in order to progress your application your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers - North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of North London NHS Foundation Trust. As part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a "selfie" using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, fair, and supportive workplace for all. We actively welcome applications from individuals who are under-represented within our workforce and are dedicated to eliminating discrimination in all its forms.

As a Disability Confident (Two Ticks) employer, we guarantee an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role and are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

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 and Person Specification (PDF, 600.5KB)
• Functional Requirements (PDF, 258.2KB)
• L&D Band 7 job advert (PDF, 224.6KB)
• A comprehensive guide for candidates (PDF, 544.2KB)