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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

Open

Ref: 364-B-97 Vacancy ID: 8045379

Senior Community Mental Health Practitioner

Accepting applications until: 18-Jun-2026 23:59

Vacancy status: Open

Accepting applications until: 18-Jun-2026 23:59

Location

Site: Chelmsford & Essex Centre
Address: New London Road
Town: Chelmsford
Postcode: CM2 0QH
Major / Minor Region: Essex

Contract type & working pattern

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

Salary

Salary: £39,959 - £48,117 pa
Salary period: Yearly
Grade: (NHS AfC: Band 6)

Specialty

Main area: Mental Health Practitioner

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Please note that this role outline serves to provide an illustrative example of the duties and responsibilities you may be expected to undertake during the course of your normal duties. It is not an exhaustive list and you will therefore be required to undertake other responsibilities and duties that are considered to be commensurate with the band.

Core Clinical Function

· Provide and oversee the management and care of service users.

· Produce accurate and timely documentation, conduct and manage the maintenance of accurate and timely documentation/records on all service users in line with your professional code of conduct and Trust policy.

· Oversee the conduct/contribute to the assessment process, as well as the observation and ongoing assessment, providing accurate and timely feedback.

· Conduct risk assessment of the individual and of the potential hazards in the service user’s environment.

· Attend multi-disciplinary meetings i.e. referral/review/business.

· Report and document incidents as required.

· Conduct and oversee physical health care checks and act upon the findings.

· Act as a care coordinator/and or key worker

· If you hold a nursing qualification you will be responsible for administration of medications, assessment of side effects, review concordance and clinical effectiveness of medication regime in line with Trust policy, including

safe transportation and storage of medicines, checking receipt storage of medicines in medicine cupboard.

Provide education around the medication prescribed, side effects, actions and aids to compliance.

· Provide education and support to develop service users understanding of mental illness and training package for staff.

· Provide psycho-social intervention, education and support to develop service users understanding of mental illness with aim to prevent relapse and admission and training packages for staff.

· Provide practical support, guidance and education for services users, carers.

· Undertake, supervise and sign-off nursing needs assessments and where necessary contribute to Self-Directed Support assessments.

· Be competent in use of relevant screening and assessment tools and supervise lower banded staff to undertake this function.

· Provide comprehensive assessment, care planning, treatment and review of care in line with the requirements of the Mental Health Care Clusters.

· Provide formulation, delivery and review of the individualised evidence based care/care packages according to NICE guidance including non-medication strategies.

· Lead in the continuing development of a high quality service that is underpinned by evidence based practice, care pathways/packages and NICE and DH guidance.

· Identify, assess and manage clinical and non-clinical risks/hazards in your area through the completion of the relevant risk assessments.

· Implement the risk treatment plans for inclusion in the local and Trust’s risk registers through the Risk Management department.

· Undertake physical health checks of services users and act on the findings appropriately.

· Understand the eligibility criteria and assessment process for Self-Directed Support (SDS) to meet service user needs.

· Review SDS services in a robust and efficient manner, pro-actively promoting the approach of SDS.

· Understand and utilise Health and Social Care commissioned services, demonstrating an empathetic approach of Fairer Access to Care Services.

Core Non-Clinical Function

· Take part in service development and review.

· Ensure the service meets the agreed performance/contractual targets and adheres to local and government initiatives.

· Work closely with and assist Clinical Manager/professional lead with development and implementation of team operational policies.

· Deliver training where appropriate for other professionals.

· Promote strategy with the Trust.

ADDITIONAL DUTIES

In addition to the above duties you will also be expected to perform the below key activities in line with your job role;

- Complete mandatory training in line with Trust policy and procedures

- To participate in the staff appraisal process and to undertake for any staff you manage

- To keep yourself updated on all matters relating to Trust policy

- To provide management supervision where appropriate

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. 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

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

Education/ Qualifications

Essential criteria

RMN/Social Worker/Occupational Therapist

Desirable criteria

Qualification at degree level or equivalent

Knowledge

Essential criteria

2 years post registration experience in mental Health. Understanding of their responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983. Understanding responsibilities under the Care programme Approach, Mental Capacity Act, Clinical Governance, Risk Assessment and Child Protection Legislation.

Desirable criteria

Evidence of continuing professional/personal development Knowledge of community mental health services Evidence of co-ordinating care for a group of patients. Ability to analys and present complex information to professional colleagues. Evidence of personal leadership skills.

Skills/Experience

Essential criteria

Experience of ensuring that the values including Care, Compassion, Competence, communication, Courage and Commitment are adhered to daily, and any matters of concern are raised with the relevant Line Manager or through the necessary processes within the Trust. Basic Keyboard Skills. Ability to communicate effectively through verbal/written. Ability to inspire confidence in service users, carers and junior staff. Ability to set clear objectives/targets and prioritise workload and competing demands.

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

Shares the Trust’s Beliefs and models this in their attitude and behaviour: Ensures that the organisational values of open, compassionate and empowering are demonstrated by self and others every day and that any matters of concern are addressed in a timely way, either directly; or raised with the relevant Line Manager; or through the relevant processes within the Trust as appropriate. Ability to manage difficult situations sensitively by listening, showing tolerance, and remaining objective. Ability to identify barriers to change and develop strategies to overcome them. Ability to work within a multi-disciplinary team,

Additional Requirements

Essential criteria

Current driving licence Ability to travel across sites and across Trust boundaries to attend meetings, etc. Recognises and respects difference and doesn’t discriminate because of these differences. Genuine interest in working with client group. Ability to work autonomously seeking appropriate supervision when required.