Band 6 Older Adult Hospital Liaison Practitioner

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Band 6 Older Adult Hospital Liaison Practitioner - Swindon
Closing date: 16 August 2026

Job summary
The Mental Health Liaison Team provides a comprehensive service to patients/service users, carers and clinical colleagues based within the The Great Western Hospital.

The Team is made up of Specialist Practitioners who are skilled in assessing the mental health needs of people being treated for physical health problems and symptoms.

The role involves:

• Offering an assessment service to older adults usually aged over 65 years old, although this is not definitive as will be specific to the patients individual needs, with a range of undifferentiated mental health and psychological problems, and psychiatric illnesses, including dementia.
• Utilising physical health knowledge in order to support formulation and treatment.
• Providing a mental health consultation liaison and advice service.
• Assisting and supporting general hospital colleagues in making decisions about treatment and care in complex situations.
• Providing formal and informal education and clinical supervision to registered and unregistered staff.
• Representing mental health services within the General Hospital.
• Providing a communication structure between the general hospital, secondary mental health services, primary care and non-statutory services, as a means of ensuring the highest possible standards of patient care.

Main duties of the job
Liaison and Consultation

• Be responsible for the full assessment of care needs of patients presenting with a range of undifferentiated mental health and psychological problems. As a result of this assessment, you will be responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care, without direct supervision.
• Provide a comprehensive consultation-liaison service to clinical teams, assisting them to formulate appropriate plans of care and make decisions in cases where patients may be exhibiting complex needs and/or challenging behaviours.
• Initiate and participate in the teaching and educational programmes of all grades of nursing and non-nursing staff. You will also provide teaching and develop learning opportunities for pre and post-registration nursing students.
• When appropriate, maintain a small caseload of patients, providing a broad range of treatments and clinical interventions, as appropriate to the individual's needs.
• Be responsible for participating in specific clinical projects and undertake all the necessary work to complete these, including facilitating meetings, liaising and/or negotiating with other staff.
• Participate fully in appropriate quality assurance initiatives, with the emphasis on developing patient/service user-focused services.
• Promote a positive attitude and encourage a supportive culture in relation to mental health and psychiatric illness across the general hospital.

About us
We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200 miles, to more than 1.8 million people.

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.

Details
Date posted: 31 July 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year pro rata
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 342-SWN046-0726
Job locations: Victoria Centre, Downs Way, Swindon, SN3 6BW, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
Clinical Practice

• Utilise a range of clinical skills appropriate to the individual patient's needs and the clinical setting in which they are being cared for, including interpretation of physical health investigations and treatment pathways.
• Undertake specialist psychosocial assessments.
• Prompt referral on to secondary mental health services, social services and voluntary groups, as appropriate.
• Flexible, needs-based follow-up of individuals who require assessment following an earlier attendance after an episode of self-harm.
• Concise, effective liaison and feedback to clinical staff within the general hospital regarding advice on appropriate management strategies for individuals referred.
• Utilise a range of follow-up options and sources of help and support for patients, as appropriate.
• Effective liaison and communication with patients, relatives, carers, primary health care and secondary mental health services.
• Role model clinical excellence and high standards of nursing practice to other staff.
• Demonstrate and apply a sound understanding of the legal and ethical issues in caring for people with mental health problems. In particular, demonstrate a sound understanding of the application of the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act and their use within a non-mental health setting.

Management

• Following negotiation, take responsibility for agreed clinical and managerial projects associated with the provision of the Mental Health Liaison Service.
• In the absence of the clinical team leader, take responsibility for the overall management of the service, to the agreed local and professional standards.
• Ensure the promotion of the health and safety, well-being and interests of patients, staff and visitors that come into contact with the service and its environs.
• At all times practice within the boundaries of the NMC The Code: Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives.
• Supervise, monitor and appraise the performance of registered and unregistered staff within sphere of responsibility.
• The post-holder will be designated to regularly take charge of the clinical service in the absence of the person who has continuing responsibility.
• You may also be required to undertake a range of management duties in the absence of, or at the request of, the designated team leader.

Audit and evaluation

• Participate in appropriate audit projects, including data collection, as a means of contributing to the ongoing evaluation and audit of the Mental Health Liaison Service.

Education

• Actively participate in the identification of own learning and education needs and demonstrate achievement against personal development plans (PDPs).
• Participate in the mentoring and education of a range of students placed with the team.
• Act as a mentor and preceptor, when appropriate.
• Participate in the planning, development and delivery of multi-professional education programmes and training sessions for a range of clinical and managerial staff.
• Provide clinical supervision to colleagues and students, as required.

Clinical governance

• Promote and encourage user and carer feedback regarding the service.
• Participate in and undertake appraisal and clinical supervision.
• Adhere to relevant trust health and safety and clinical policies as appropriate.

This is a needs led service, and as such the pattern of work will be flexible. The successful candidate will be expected to provide a service that includes some weekend and bank holiday working.

Most challenging part of this role
The post holder must have the ability to make autonomous clinical decisions, often in crisis situations, and be able to communicate these decisions to patients, carers, relatives and the appropriate clinicians in a clear, prompt and caring manner with full regard for the patients legal rights, dignity and confidentiality. The post holder must be able to confidently hold a high level of risk regarding discharge decisions of high risk patients.

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
Core Profession
Essential

• Post qualification experience required
• Older Adult Mental Health Experience required
• Experience in an acute mental health setting required
• Registered Nurse (mental health) (preferred) or Social Worker or Occupational Therapy. Must have current professional registration.

Desirable

• Experience in Hospital Liaison
• Experience in crisis team

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details
Employer name: Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Address: Victoria Centre, Downs Way, Swindon, SN3 6BW, United Kingdom
Employer's website: Apply through our website

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: MHL Team Manager, Jessica Mullan
Email: jessica.mullan@nhs.net
Telephone: 01793327907