Senior Practitioner

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Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

Do you have a real passion for making a difference to children and young people?

Would you like to be part of shaping an innovative keyworking support service for children and young people (CYP) in North East London?

We are looking for a Band 7 Senior Practitioner to support the new keyworking Service for children and young people (CYP) aged 0-25 years, who have learning disabilities and / or are autistic. The service will work with those who have the most complex needs and are either at risk of admission or an inpatient.

Candidates must have direct experience of working with families with children or adults who have complex needs with an ability to support families and young people to navigate through care systems and pathways. They must have an ability to empower parents/carers and individuals and to work in a co-productive style.

We expect candidates to have a level of personal authority with the confidence to champion the needs of our children and families, challenging the system to improve outcomes for our patients. You will drive forward actions / packages agreed by Education, Health, and Care Teams to avoid admission and to develop packages of support to ensure safe and stable support within the community instead.

Main duties of the job

• To provide specialist advice and support, supervision and training to the team to ensure the implementation of the NHS 10 Years plan on Key working,
• Support the Service Manager with delegated managerial tasks such as appraisals and 1:1's.

• Provide robust clinical and/or professional supervision and leadership to the team
• Support the Service Manager to develop outcomes focused services,
• Manage a team of case managers who will be responsible for the care and support co-ordination of children and young people on the Dynamic Support Registers.
• Support and inform the Care (Education) and Treatment Review (C(E)TR) process for children and young people on the caseload.
• Have thorough working knowledge of relevant legislation, national standards, guidance, research, departmental policy and procedures
• Maintain up to date records of cases using management information systems
• Assist in undertaking specific development tasks as agreed with the Service Manager.
• Prepare work for formal supervision under the direction of the Service Manager and keep them informed of potential difficulties.
• Chair and attend case and other reviews/meetings as required.
• Liaise, and work jointly, with colleagues and staff from other agencies, as appropriate, and liaise with other agencies on behalf of service users.

(The above list is not exhaustive)

Working for our organisation

Starting with NELFT
NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focusing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

High Cost Area Supplement - London
This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £4,313 and a maximum payment of £5,436 per annum).

Certificates of Sponsorship
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points based system.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification for further details on this vacancy.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
• Registered Nurse (RMN Mental Health, LD, RGN) or AHP or Dip SW, CSS or CQSW, or a CCETSW validated equivalent from another country.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Extensive experience of directly working with children, young people and their families with complex, acute mental health conditions and challenging behaviours who may be autistic and/or have learning disabilities.
• Experience of managing staff to deliver a service, including managerial and clinical supervision, appraisal, recruitment, performance management, competences compliance / development.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Thorough knowledge of Health & Social Care legislative framework, priorities, policies and guidance e.g. Care Act 2014, the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act, NHS Long Term Plan.

Desirable criteria

• Excellent working knowledge of Care Programme Approach, DSR and CETR processes.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to conduct comprehensive assessment of needs and formulate appropriate plans including discharge planning and crisis management. Undertaking complex risk assessments when necessary.

Desirable criteria

• Well-developed interpersonal skills used to build effective working relationships, resolve difficulties and to support staff, service users and carers on an ongoing basis.

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

In the event of a high number of responses to any advert, NELFT reserves the right to close the vacancy early. If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date then please assume you have not been successful on this occasion.

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

• Senior Practitioner JD & PS (PDF, 508.5KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)