Band 6 Specialist Practitioner - Weston-Super-Mare...

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 6 Allied Healthcare professional to join our team in North Somerset. In a great location not far from Weston Super Mare beach, free parking and flexible working including some home working days.

This post sits within the community primary care team and will afford rapid access to credible specialist mental health expertise for GPs, Primary Care staff and other referring agents who are requiring support and expert advice on meeting the mental health needs of the people within their caseloads.

You will have the opportunity to rotate into the innovative Mental health integrated team (MINT) team in conjunction with the community mental health framework. MINT have been developed to reinvent how we provide people with the wrap-around care and support they need, to address poor physical and mental health . The Primary Care Liaison Service will play a key role in supporting the MINTs to ensure that when referred, people are able to access the right support to achieve their personal goals by asking them ‘what matters to you?’

This will ensure that patients in Primary Care have their mental health needs more clearly assessed, defined, cared for and treated by Primary Care Health Care Professionals and that the pathways to best meet someone’s needs is optimised.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will prioritise assessments based on clinical need and risk, making evidence-based recommendations for care and treatment within and across multiple care pathways. To rotate through varied roles such as frontline assessment, telephone triage, duty working and MINT working.

A significant proportion of the role will involve working in conjunction with Primary Care colleagues to identify care and treatment options which enable service users to remain within their existing support / care pathways and maintain their community tenure.

To rotate into our innovative and rapidly expanding Mental Well being Integrated Network Team (MINT), This is a rotational post, with opportunities to work across a number of bases including the Coast Resource Centre in Worle, Long Fox Unit WSM and Windmill House Clevedon.

The Primary Care Liaison team will provide an accessible specialist clinical consultation service for GPs and Primary Care colleagues,

increasing awareness and providing education and training for this group to improve access to and understanding of the service.

The post holder will maintain close working relationships with Recovery and Intensive services, Community Mental Health Teams.

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

Working for our organisation

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust) : a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To provide information, proportional assessment and sign posting to patients and their family and carers presenting with mental health problems / needs in community settings.

To foster strong collaborative and trusting working relationships with the referring agent / Primary Care Health Care Professionals underpinned by an educative and solutions focussed philosophy whilst providing them with credible clinical expertise.

This may include :

The promotion and use of additional standardised assessment tools.

Promoting the importance of working with, strengths and aspirations of the person referred.

The provision of succinct formulations and recommendations (inclusive of risk management advice).

Assessment of or advice on the impact of culture and diversity.

Consideration of the respective Primary Care HCP’s confidence and capability in relation to the 10 Essential Shared Capabilities (best practice in Mental Health Care).

Best practice advice and support in a broad range of conditions for people with both functional and organic mental health needs.

Promotion and recognition of the needs of family and carer / s, including various support networks and third sector agencies.

Advice and support on evaluating risk from a positive risk-taking perspective.

Support and clarity on formulations within a bio-psycho-social model, including people with medically unexplained symptoms.

Identifying and ensuring specialist involvement where required.

Advice on interventions and treatments required to enable positive change.

Support and advice within Safeguarding and public protection procedures where the issues are complicated by mental health problems.

Second opinion on complex capacity assessments.

To facilitate the development of safe and effective mental health care practice within the primary care setting.

To assist the primary care and secondary mental health teams in the delivery of safe and appropriate care planning processes.

To provide a prompt response to all referrals following jointly agreed procedures and within agreed time frames.

To provide concise and effective liaison and feedback to clinical staff within secondary mental health services and Primary Care teams including advice on effective and appropriate management strategies for those patients referred to the service.

To ensure where needed that people experience a seamless transfer into AWP provider / treatment services.

To make effective use of the standard liaison approach and structure for assessments according to the SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation) format.

Following assessment, to provide short- term follow up of patients where appropriate.

To contribute evidence-based expertise to multi-disciplinary team care planning processes.

To provide effective communication with service users, relatives and carers, Primary Care and Secondary health services.

To advise on medication management issues.

Rotate into the Mental Health Integrated Network Teams in North Somerset.

To ensure the active involvement of carers during all stages of the assessment process.

To provide a prompt response to requests for information and advice.

To ensure appropriate communication, both verbal and written, at all stages of the consultation process.

To promote positive attitudes, mutual understanding and collaboration between non mental health staff and mental health services, users, carers, voluntary agencies, primary care and social services.

Opportunities to rotate into the Integrated Mental Health Hub (IMHT) in accordance with the Community Mental health framework.

To provide evidence-based specialist advice on how best to meet the mental health needs of the population for staff of other agencies, service users and carers.

To raise awareness of the effects of physical conditions on the mental health of service users.

To assist and participate in appropriate service development forums.

To provide mentoring / training for others in relevant practice areas, according to professional requirements, taking a collaborative approach to practice development and evidence-based care.

Demonstrate responsibility for developing own practice in line with professional qualifications and for contributing to the development of others, by making use of and providing, effective feedback, supervision, coaching and appraisal.

To adhere to the NMC professional code of conduct ensuring required skills and competencies required are maintained.

Monitor and maintain health, safety and security of self and others, undertaking assessments and taking appropriate action where required.

Develop own knowledge and practice, and contribute to the development of others, making use of available feedback, supervision and appraisal to identify appropriate areas of development for this work role, taking responsibility for accessing identified learning and training opportunities.

Lead, maintain and participate in practices which enable team working.

To maintain the single health and social care record, ensuring both paper and electronic records are kept up to date in accordance with professional and organisational standards.

To assist in the development and implementation of appropriate systems aimed at ensuring a consistent approach to assessment, communication and follow-up.

To make appropriate use of time and resources.

To participate in clinical audit and service evaluation programmes as required.

To participate in local arrangements where required to manage unexpected staff absences.

This post is open to newly qualified social workers. In line with trust policy, all newly qualified social workers will be recruited initially at Band 5 level, regardless of advertised role banding. All NQSWs are expected to successfully complete their ASYE within 2 years of employment, unless there are exceptional circumstances in which case it may be agreed to extend this for a further 2 years.

On successful completion of the ASYE, for which you will be given full support of an experienced Social Worker as well as Divisional Social Work Lead, and peer support from other ASYE candidates, you will then be eligible to progress to a Band 6 position.

If you have been appointed to an advertised Band 6 role this will be an automatic progression, following confirmation of your successful completion. If you have been appointed to a Band 5 you will then be eligible to apply for a subsequent Band 6 vacancy.

Person specification

Professional Registration

Essential criteria

• Professional registration
• Years Experience
• Achieved grade

We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with ‘lived-experience’ of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,– we are a ‘Disability Confident Employer’ offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

Click here to view our applicant guidance

Please apply to join us, we would love to hear from you. Any personal details you supply to us are kept safe in line with the General Data Protection Regulations.

Adverts normally close for application a few minutes before midnight on the closing date and we will let you know if we are offering you an interview by email via our recruitment system ‘TRAC’. We contact all applicants within 4 weeks after the closing date, so please check your emails regularly once you have submitted your application; you are welcome to contact us, via the TRAC system, if you have any queries about your application.

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