Senior Primary Care Mental Health Nurse

Please be aware that, due to current allocation constraints, Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) are being prioritised for registered roles at this time.

Our Trust cares for more than 100,000 patients at any one time across our community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex and parts of Bedfordshire and Suffolk.

We want you to be part of our journey of transformation, where our patients and their families are at the heart of everything we do and to achieve our vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care.

You’ll be part of a Trust where you will be supported to be your authentic self and be the best you can be, where we will help you to grow, develop and thrive.

The Trust is recognised by the University of Essex and is a top provider of apprenticeships for people looking to be an assistant practitioner, senior health care support worker (CAP). Our trailblazing CAP apprenticeship won a national HSJ Award.

We are also recognised as a Veteran Aware Trust and holder of gold accreditation from the Ministry of Defence Employment Recognition Scheme. Our services are highlighted as an exemplar of good practice, producing the best care for more than 3.500 armed forces veterans in the past seven years.

We have been shortlisted and won national awards. We are an inclusive organisation and Level 3 Disability Confident Leader Trust.

We are constantly innovating and looking for new ways to deliver care, such as using technology to enhance patient care and working with partners to launch new services such as the Basildon Mental Health Urgent Care Department, virtual hospitals and falls response cars.

Join us and you’ll do the best work of your life – and make a difference to other people’s lives. What we do together, matters.

Job overview

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner (Band 7 )to join the Primary Care Mental Health Service covering the Braintree and Maldon locality in Essex. This is a full-time, 12-month fixed-term position working 37.5 hours per week.

The successful applicant will ideally be a Non-Medical Prescriber with experience working within community mental health services. Based within GP practices, you will work closely with Primary Care teams to provide triage, assessment, treatment, follow-up and brief interventions for patients across the locality.

The role requires autonomous practice and confidence in assessing and managing individuals presenting with common mental health disorders.

Excellent assessment, risk management and communication skills are essential, strong knowledge of local mental health and community support services. The successful candidate will act as a key gatekeeper for referrals into secondary mental health services, offering specialist advice, consultation, education and support.

You will assess and manage patients with common mental health conditions, signpost to appropriate services, and support the development of integrated care pathways. Working collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams, improving access to mental health care and achieving positive outcomes for service users across the locality.

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Ability to work under pressure and ability to contain and manage the stress of others and oneself

Robust clinical judgement

Ability to work autonomously and take an appropriate level of responsibility

Participate in Patient Safety investigations, complaints and any relevant investigations in line with Trust policies.

Mentorship and supervision of students

Develop innovative practice to deal creatively with service demands for referrals, allocations, monitoring of KPI’s and clinical caseload management

To hold a UK driving licence, essential to drive to Primary care network bases and trust sites.

Work in conjunction with the GP, Primary Care team and Consultant Psychiatrists to ensure that patients are supported in the most appropriate clinical practice environment from a Multi-disciplinary perspective.

Triage and Assess patients and facilitate them receiving the most appropriate support for their needs ensuring people are not passed around the system.

Manage and deliver effective and safe services which support the key elements of Clinical/Practice governance.

Provide and undertake detailed Physical Health investigations such as ECGs and offer basic interpretation of the results.

Non medical prescriber

To have knowledge of Systmone patient Documentation system.

Working for our organisation

Valuing you. Recognising your dedication. At EPUT, we look after you.

• Receive supervision and support to help you fulfil your potential.
• Join an inclusive EPUT community and connect with others through engagement events and equality or champion networks.
• If you need help, we provide mental health and wellbeing services, occupational health advice and counselling.
• We run recognition awards to recognise staff's hard work and dedication.

Benefits

• 27 days holiday, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days after 10 years’ service.
• Excellent pension of up to14.5% of your pensionable pay.
• Staff discounts include Blue Light Card, NHS discount offers, and staff benefits.

• Work bank: You can use the opportunity to supplement your income and develop your skills by working bank shifts.
• Flexible working: available from day one for most roles.
• Job share: Applications for job shares are welcomed.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner will play a key role in delivering high-quality, integrated mental health care within Primary Care, ensuring patients receive timely assessment, intervention, and access to the most appropriate services.

Key responsibilities include:

• Providing comprehensive mental health assessments, triage, risk assessment, care planning, treatment, and follow-up for individuals experiencing common mental health disorders.
• Acting as a gatekeeper for referrals into secondary mental health services, ensuring patients are supported through a seamless pathway of care and are not unnecessarily passed between services.
• Working collaboratively with GPs, Primary Care teams, Consultant Psychiatrists, Community Mental Health Teams, and partner agencies to support recovery and wellbeing in the community.
• Delivering evidence-based psychological and non-psychological interventions in line with NICE guidance and best practice.
• Signposting and referring service users to appropriate internal, external, statutory, voluntary, and community-based services to meet identified needs.
• Providing specialist advice, consultation, education, and support to enhance the assessment and management of mental health presentations.
• Undertaking physical health monitoring and investigations, including ECGs, and supporting the integration of physical and mental healthcare.
• Supporting safe clinical practice and ensuring compliance with Trust policies, Clinical Governance frameworks, Care Quality Commission standards, and the NHS Constitution.
• Managing medication safely, including monitoring effectiveness, side effects, concordance, and providing education and support to service users and carers.
• Providing professional and clinical leadership within multidisciplinary meetings, safeguarding processes, and complex case discussions.
• Supervising, supporting, and developing junior staff where appropriate, contributing to workforce development and service improvement.
• Delivering training and educational programmes to Primary Care teams to improve knowledge and understanding of mental health and wellbeing.
• Contributing to the ongoing development of integrated care pathways, service redesign, quality improvement initiatives, and the achievement of service performance targets and KPIs.
• Maintaining accurate clinical records, incident reporting, risk management documentation, and activity data using electronic patient record systems, including SystmOne.
• Promoting patient independence, recovery, and positive health outcomes through person-centred care.
• The above is not an exhaustive list of expected clinical or managerial duties to be undertaken.

Please be aware that, due to current allocation constraints, Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) are being prioritised for registered roles at this time.

Important note: please ensure that as part of your application, you include professional references with business contact information covering your last three years of employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee, you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post; the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Important Notice: Recently the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) which amended on 22 July 2021 and come into force on 11 November 2021 that anyone directly employed to work in a Care Home or who are required as part of their role to be deployed to a CQC registered care home are required to have had both their COVID vaccinations, unless they are exempt. This is therefore a requirement of this role and will form part of our pre-employment checks.

Please note - staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered ‘suitable alternative employment’ to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.