About this role
Job summary
Are you an experienced mental health practitioner looking to shape the future of crisis care?
We are seeking motivated, highly skilled, and enthusiastic registered mental health practitioners to join our new Crisis Access Hub as a Part time Shift work 0.6 WTE 22.5hrs a week Band 7 Senior Clinical Practitioner. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in a major transformation of urgent and crisis mental health services across Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth.
As a senior clinician within a new front-door service, you will be at the centre of crisis decision-making, ensuring people receive the right support, from the right service, at the right time. You will work closely with a wide range of partners across mental health services, NHS 111, ambulance services, acute hospitals, primary care, social care and VCSE organisations to provide expert clinical guidance and facilitate seamless access to care.
Main duties of the job
The Crisis Access Hub provides telephone and digital screening, triage, prioritisation and onward routing. While the service does not deliver face-to-face assessments, home visits or treatment, you will undertake comprehensive clinical reviews and, where referral information is insufficient, lead enhanced triages through telephone or digital contact with patients, carers and professionals. This will enable you to gather additional information, clarify presentation and risk, and make informed decisions about the most appropriate pathway of care.
In this senior role, you will provide expert clinical decision-making, support and supervision to Band 6 Clinical Practitioners, coordinate referral flow during shifts, and play a key part in ensuring the service achieves its ambitious 1-hour screening target. You will also contribute to service development, quality improvement, audit, and the ongoing evolution of the service.
If you are passionate about delivering timely, person-centred crisis care and want to help design and develop a new model of service delivery, we would love to hear from you. This is a unique opportunity to influence practice at a system-wide level and be part of a service that is transforming access to urgent mental health support.
About us
Unless expressly stated in the job advert this role is not subject to sponsorship, please be advised that all offers of employment are subject to evidence of right to work in the UK.
We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.
We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.
This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services as we invest a further £120m to upgrade and modernise our estate by 2027.
We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.
We offer flexible working, career development and a variety ofbenefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.
Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.
Job description Job responsibilities
Career Progression pathways and development opportunities:
We are committed to getting thevery bestout of our staff andsupportstaff in their career aspirations. We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles across different specialties. For this role, we offer career pathways to Team Manager, Clinical Service Lead, advanced clinical practice, crisis pathway leadership, liaison psychiatry, hometreatmentand urgent care leadership roles. In addition, we offer ongoing training and development in clinical supervision, quality assurance, audit, performance improvement, safeguarding, health inequalities, crisis pathwayredesignand leadership practice.
Main duties of the role:
Provide expert clinical oversight and decision-making for complex, urgent and high-risk referrals received by the Crisis Access Hub.
Support Band 6 Clinical Practitioners through clinical advice, case discussion, coaching and escalation support to ensure safe and consistent decision-making.
Coordinate and oversee referral management during shifts, helping to prioritise workload, maintain patient flow and respond to emerging operational pressures.
Ensure screening outcomes, rationale for decisions and risk management plans are accurately documented in line with Trust standards and professional requirements.
Escalate significant clinical, operational, safeguarding or capacity concerns to the Team Manager and support the implementation of mitigating actions where required.
Monitor performance against key service standards, including the 1-hour screening target, and contribute to actions that improve responsiveness and patient experience.
Participate in clinical audits, quality improvement initiatives, incident reviews and learning activities to support continuous service development.
Foster effective working relationships with partner organisations, including NHS 111, acute hospitals, ambulance services, community mental health teams, Home Treatment Teams, primary care, social care and VCSE partners.
Contribute to the development of clinical pathways, operational processes and standard operating procedures to support a consistent, high-quality access model across South West London.
Act as a clinical role model, promoting evidence-based practice, professional standards and a patient-centred, least-restrictive approach to crisis care.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in job applications
If you have used AI to support the preparation of your application, please briefly indicate how it was used within your supporting statement or application form.
Please remember, your application is your opportunity to tell us about your skills, experience and motivation for the role. We encourage applicants to complete their application and supporting statement in their own words wherever possible. We recognise that AI tools can be helpful in supporting accessibility, and for improving spelling, grammar and structure.
Applications that rely heavily on AI-generated content can become generic and fail to accurately reflect an applicant's individual experience. Applications that clearly demonstrate your own voice, reflections and experiences are often the most effective and help us better understand your suitability for the role.
Please be aware that information provided in your application and supporting statement may be explored further during the selection process. It is important that all applications accurately represent your own knowledge, skills and experience.
Person Specification
Training & Qualifications Essential
RMN with current NMC registration or relevant professional registration Evidence of continuing professional development. Post-registration training relevant to crisis work, risk assessment, safeguarding, or urgent care.
Desirable
Additional training in telephone triage, liaison psychiatry, home treatment, brief interventions, AMHP pathway knowledge, quality improvement or leadership.
Experience Essential
Substantial post-qualifying mental health experience, including experience at Band 6 or equivalent. Experience working with people in acute mental health crisis within the crisis pathway. Experience making autonomous risk based decisions under pressure. Experience of telephone-based clinical decision-making, referral screening, triage, duty work or crisis pathway navigation. MDT and multi-agency working experience.
Desirable
Experience in HTT, crisis, liaison psychiatry, SPA, urgent care or NHS 111 mental health pathways. Experience supervising junior staff. Audit, service improvement or pathway redesign experience.
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.
Certificate of Sponsorship Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details Employer name South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust
Address Springfield University Hospital
Springfield Drive
London
SW17 0YF
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.swlstg.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)