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Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

About

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT).

Since then, EPUT has grown from strength to strength, providing many community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Luton and Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk.

We are a large employer in the East of England with more than 5,500 staff working across more than 200 sites. We also provide services in people’s home and community settings.

Our Vision

“To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care”.

Our Purpose

“We care for people every day. What we do together, matters”.

Our Values

We Care
We Learn
We Empower

Our strategic objectives

We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
We will help our communities to thrive.

Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory

Contact

Address: Trust Head Office; The Lodge; The Chase; Wickford; Essex; SS11 7XX
Contact Number: 01375 364513

Find out more

Jobs Website

Closed

Ref: 364-A-9832 Vacancy ID: 7851121

Mental Health Act Lead

Closed for applications on: 20-Mar-2026 00:00

Vacancy status: Closed

Closed for applications on: 20-Mar-2026 00:00

Location

Site: Brockfield House
Address: Kemble Way
Town: Wickford
Postcode: SS11 7FE
Major / Minor Region: Essex

Contract type & working pattern

Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday)

Salary

Salary: £55,690 - £62,682 Per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Grade: (Band 8a)

Specialty

Main area: Mental Health Act

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

· Provide strong leadership and management to the Trust wide Mental Health Act Administration Team, managing staff and financial resources as appropriate

· Responsible for the professional development of staff within the Trust wide Mental Health Act Administration Team.

· Responsible for ensuring that the Mental Health Act is administered within statutory guidelines and meets internal and external targets.

· Take the lead with senior members of staff from the Mental Health Act Administration Team that clinical staff are able to access an appropriate level of legal advice when they need to.

· Responsible for Human Resource issues within the Mental Health Act Administration Team as and when they arise, taking necessary action when required.

· Responsible for ensuring all staff within the Mental Health Act Administration Team have regular supervision from line management and annual appraisals, as well as being compliant with the Trust’s mandatory training requirements.

· Responsible for leading the selection and recruitment process for Mental Health Act Administration staff.

· Maintain a strong relationship with external bodies including the CQC, Mental Health Tribunal Office, Commissioning Groups, Department of Health, Ministry of Justice and Police.

· Accountable for the management of the Mental Health Act Administration budget including authorised signatory for both pay and non-pay following up areas of concern with Finance Department.

· Responsibility for budget setting making decisions to move funds within the budget to ensure resources are allocated appropriately including cost efficiency savings.

· Take the lead for ensuring that the Trust provides Hearing rooms that meeting the Tribunal room’s specification in conjunction with the Estates Department.

· Responsible for setting and monitoring Mental Health Act standards to ensure that the Mental Health Act Administration Team works effectively and that best practices developed, and make decisions to alter or amend the standards when necessary.

· Accountable for ensuring that relevant issues relating to the Mental Health Act are brought to the attention of the Executive Nurse.

· Responsible for identifying and managing any actual or potential legal risks to the Trust relating to the Mental Health Act and taking the decision to involve the Trust solicitors as appropriate to the particular issue.

· Offer support information and advice on all issues relating to the Mental Health Act both verbally and in writing to a wide range of audiences.

· Provide support to the Executive Nurse and the Associate Hospital Manager Chairman to enable them to carry out their delegated responsibilities of the Board of Directors.

· Ensure that there are robust systems in place for the Mental Health Act Associate Hospital Managers to provide a high quality service for Appeals and Renewal Hearings, ensuring that they are appropriately trained and their performance monitored.

· To maintain own knowledge base and keep up to date with changing requirements and legislation in relation to the Mental Health Act.

· To manage highly complex legal Mental Health Act issues when these require a higher level of expertise than can be dealt with in the Mental Health Act Administration Office, and to decide when it is appropriate to refer the matter to the Trust Solicitors.

· Provide highly specialist advice and information to all staff within the Trust in relation to the Mental Health Act.

· Ensure that there is an appropriate level of Mental Health Act e-learning training available to all staff.

· Ensure patients’ rights are protected by having systems in place to ensure that appeals against detention are heard in a timely manner reviewing systems and if indicated making a decision to implement changes when indicated to ensure the systems function correctly.

· To act as lead Mental Health Act Officer between the Trust and authorised Trust Solicitor deciding when legal advice should be sought regarding Mental Health Act practice issues.

· Take the lead in monitoring the practice of visiting patients legal representatives taking the decision where issues of concern arise to discuss with NHS Fraud, Executive Nurse and if required, reporting the matter to the appropriate legal monitoring body.

· To develop and implement a Mental Health Act policy and any other policies which impact across all areas within the Trust in conjunction with Mental Health Act training.

· Take the lead for identifying, developing and managing formal Service Level Agreements within external customers, i.e. acute hospital trusts.

· Take responsibility for new legislation, guidance and case law relating to the application of statute in Trust services and consider how this may impact on future policy and practice implementing any changes that may be required.

· Monitor Mental Health Act compliance identifying areas of good practice and non-compliance taking any recommended corrective measures as necessary.

· Prepare any discussion papers when a practice change has been developed and present to the appropriate forums discussing the issues and negotiating any planned changes where required.

· Analyse data in relation to Mental Health Act detentions for presentation to the Trust Board and any other forums.

· Ensure that reports to Trust Board and Committees are appropriate and meaningful.

· Take the lead for ensuring that any issues raised by the Care Quality Commission Mental Health Act Inspection Team are responded to and prepare the final action plans for approval by the Executive Nurse.

· Attend the Trust Mental Health Act & Safeguarding Committee and any other forums required.

· Oversee visits to the Trust from the Care Quality Commission ensuring arrangements are in place prior to the visit and preparation of the Trust response to the visits.

· Analyse reports from the Care Quality Commission highlighting any trends or concerns and present these to the appropriate forums.

· To meet regularly with the Associate Hospital Manager Chairman to discuss any Mental Health Act practice issues in relation to Associate Hospital Managers and any other areas pertaining to the Mental Health Act.

· Take the lead for the Mental Health Act Administration Office in deciding which areas of the Mental Health Act need to be audited based on risks highlighted by the Care Quality Commission inspections, Mental Health Act monitoring and any other monitoring which highlights a particular area of concern or a failure to meet the standards set.

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. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email [email protected] and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

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.

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level in specialist area.
Extensive expert knowledge of specialist areas, acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge or experience to master’s level equivalent
Highly detailed knowledge and understanding of the application of the Mental Health Act.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Highly developed presentation skills for conveying highly complex concepts of Mental Health Act.
Evidence of planning and delivering programmes and services to expected outcomes, on time and in budget.
Interpret policy and legal precedence, research best practice; interpret relevance and processes and practices that could be successfully implemented to achieve reform and quality governance.

Skills

Essential criteria

Ability to produce concise and accurate written reports
Developed communication skills for delivering key messages to a range of stakeholders both internal and external (including outside the NHS) to the organisation, some at very senior level.
Experience of working autonomously, of planning and adapting services to changing needs.