Job summary
Merseyside Liaison and Diversion RECONNECT - Mental Health Practitioner
This pose is fixed term until 30/09/2025
We are looking for a Mental Health Practitioner to join our Reconnect team within the Liaison and Diversion Team.
Liaison and Diversion is a process of supporting people coming through the criminal justice system, and diverting people from this pathway where possible through engagement with service users with vulnerabilities. A significant part of the role is liaising with criminal justice system stakeholders and colleagues to provide advice, guidance and support.
RECONNECT is a care after custody service that seeks to improve the continuity of care of people leaving prison or an immigration removal centre (IRC) with an identified health need. This involves working with them before they leave to support their transition to community-based services.
This post is subject to Police Vetting and an enhanced with children's and adult's barred list Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check and full NPPV Level 2 Police Vetting.
We would encourage all applicants to contact the team to discuss the role. Please make contact on 07554574960 and ask to speak with one of our practitioners.
Main duties of the job
Liaison and diversion and RECONNECT is a process whereby people of all ages with mental health problems, learning disabilities, substance misuse problems and other vulnerabilities are identified and assessed as early as possible as they pass through the youth and adult criminal justice systems.
You will be expected to work in court, police custody suites and HMP Walton and Altcourse. this role includes working across as well as the wider mental health systems and urgent care division.
You will be a registered practitioner within mental health (Allied Health Professions: Mental Health Nurse; Social Worker; Occupational Therapist; Learning disability Nurse) with demonstrable extensive post registration experience. You will have experience in undertaking specialist mental health assessments and have a sound knowledge of the Mental Health Act/Capacity Act and criminal justice systems
About us
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To understand the full duties of this new role please refer to the specific job outline attached.
Please ensure that you evidence in your supporting information how you meet the person specification for both the generic and the specific job outlines.
Please note, this post is subject to Level 2 Police Vetting Clearance (Outcome determined by Merseyside Police)
If you are shortlisted we encourage all applicants to arrange an informal conversation with the team before attending for interview. You can also contact the team prior to submitting an application if you require any further information.
Person Specification
Qualification
Essential
- Appropriate professional qualification or experience at Degree Level e.g. RMN, AHP, Social Worker
- Evidence of post registration study / continuing professional development e.g. Mentorship in Practice
Desirable
- Working towards master level education
Knowledge/ Experience
Essential
- Significant demonstrable post registration experience in mental health
- Evidence of leadership and management skills.
- Evidence of experience of managing cases & case loads
- Evidence of supervising staff
- Ability to work autonomously across the organisation/boundaries and with other agencies
- Experience of working in partnership with other agencies and service users and carers
- Experience of audit/research and working knowledge of clinical governance.
- Experience in change management and policy formulation.
- Experience of using Incident Reporting Systems e.g. DATIX
- Experience of undertaking and involvement in Serious Untoward Incident Reviews
- Evidence of experience of working with a range of people with mental health problems in a variety of health care settings.
- A demonstrated understanding of Equality and Human Rights
Skills
Essential
- Able to communicate effectively both verbally and non-verbally.
- Being responsive and flexible, seeing change as an opportunity to improve services
- Ability to lead the process of standard setting and audit
- Leadership Skills
- Ability to work within a CBU management team, be able to generate own workload and ability to work to strict deadlines.
- Ability to build purposeful relationships with a range of both internal and external to the organisation.
- Demonstrate knowledge of ECC guidelines
- Demonstrate knowledge in the concepts of mentorship, preceptorship and supervision and ability to provide education and supervision to junior staff
- Demonstrate a good knowledge of professional Codes of Conduct and Staffs' responsibility to identify gaps in their knowledge base.
- Professional attitude.
- Possess excellent listening and negotiation skills and leadership skills.
- Excellent oral and written skills
- Excellent interpersonal and organisational skills.
- The ability to lead change management
- Ability to contribute to developing care excellence within the ward / team area.
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website .
Employer details
Employer name
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Liverpool custody suites, Liverpool and Wirral Courts, RECONNECT HMP Altcourse and Walton
LIVERPOOL
Liverpool
L20 3XX