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NELFT NHS Foundation Trust

About

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health and community services for over 4.9 million people living in the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham, Havering, and across Essex and Kent.

We work to ensure our patients, their friends and family, feel confident that their health needs are well met. With an excellent reputation for research and development, our skilled health professionals are at the cutting edge of evidence-based innovation, opening up the possibilities for better ways of working and delivery of care.

Contact

Address: Trust Head Office; West Wing; CEME Centre; Marsh Way; Rainham; Essex; RM13 8GQ
Contact Number: 0300 300 1530

Find out more

Jobs Website

Open

Ref: 395-RR110-25 Vacancy ID: 7574539

Leaving Care Mental Health Practitioner

Accepting applications until: 19-Nov-2025 23:59

Vacancy status: Open

Accepting applications until: 19-Nov-2025 23:59

Location

Site: Mellmead House
Address: 4 Orchard Close
Town: Wanstead, London
Postcode: E11 2DH
Major / Minor Region: London

Contract type & working pattern

Contract: 12 months (Fixed Term)
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week

Salary

Salary: £47,810 - £54,710 per annum plus HCAS
Salary period: Yearly
Grade: (NHS AfC: Band 7)

Specialty

Main area: Mental health

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 five 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

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Deliver specialist mental health assessments and evidence-based interventions.

Collaborate with social care professionals, personal advisors, and health colleagues to provide holistic, trauma-informed care.

Act as a clinical lead, offering guidance and reflection to personal advisors.

Ensure continuity of care across local authority and NHS services.

Contribute to service development and quality improvement initiatives.

Use of 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.

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.

They are:

We are kind.
We are respectful.
We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

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 efforts to 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 [email protected].

Correspondence with us

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

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

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.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Degree in Social Work or equivalent including a recognised mental health qualification

Experience

Essential criteria

The post holder should be working at the level of capability set out in the Professional Capability that accords with a senior practitioner/ advanced practitioner.
Experience of research in evidence-based practice and leading on the evaluation and improvement of services
Experience of seeking and acting on feedback from people who use mental health services and carers to improve the patient experience
Experience of providing consultation, mentoring, and developing colleagues and liaising with other service providers
Substantial post-registration experience in community mental health, CAMHS, or working with care leavers.
Skilled in trauma-informed practice, safeguarding, and risk management.
Confident working across organisational boundaries and in multidisciplinary teams.
Strong communication, leadership, and organisational skills.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Good working knowledge of all relevant Mental Health and Social Care legislation and Codes of Practice
Good working knowledge of directorate and corporate procedures and joint working practices relating to Mental Health
Good knowledge of local and national policy and initiatives in social care and mental health
An understanding of The Children Act 1989 and related Acts such as the Care Leavers Act 2000. Including an understanding of and appreciation of the values of corporate parenting
Good working knowledge of models of mental disorder treatments, and approaches to mental health based interventions including complex understanding mental health dynamics
Understanding of data quality and validation issues and ability to ensure accurate inputting of data and information to maintain its integrity and store it safely and correctly

Skills

Essential criteria

Ability to work within an integrated partnership environment and to contribute to working groups and the dissemination of information consistently across the Directorate
Ability to manage a complex case load and act as lead professional
Ability to assess and effectively manage the performance and development needs of leaving care staff
Ability to act as a mentor and demonstrate teaching skills
Effective negotiating and interpersonal skills
Ability to identify ways to overcome issues that threaten delivery of services, escalating risks where appropriate and dealing with emergency situations
Ability to contribute to research and monitoring of the service’s functioning and effectiveness
Ability to travel across a wide geographical area in a timely and flexible manner at various times of the day
Computer literate with good written skills for report and assessment writing and presentation.