Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Mental Health Practitioner

The closing date is 26 August 2025

Job summary

We are the South Cambridge Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT), providing 24/7 care for service users experiencing an acute mental health crisis, to support them to stay in their own home rather than being admitted to hospital. We are based in Cambridge, Essex and Hertfordshire.

We are looking for Senior Mental Health Practitioners to join our team. Whether you are a Mental Health Nurse, Occupational Therapist or Social Worker we have an opportunity for you in our team. We are a true MDT and no profession's voice is louder than another's.

These roles provide fantastic learning and development opportunities. You will gain experience working with service users with a wide range of presentations and diagnoses. Additionally, you'll develop your risk assessment skills, crisis management, assessment skills and delivery of brief psychological interventions.

You will have the opportunity to work with a wide range of clinicians who will support you to develop your skills and understanding of mental illness. We are eager for our staff to develop professionally and have previously supported people to do their non-medical prescribing training, AMHP training and to train in psychological therapies.

Main duties of the job

As a Senior Mental Health Practitioner, you will be working within our multidisciplinary team to contribute to our provision of dynamic solution focussed care. In the Crisis Team we value the different perspectives brought by each of our colleagues. We work with service users experiencing an acute episode of mental illness, so it is vital that we work collaboratively to co-develop a plan to support our service users and their families.

You will be visiting service users in their own home to complete assessments. You will work with the MDT to plan and deliver interventions and work with other supporting services where appropriate.

Another significant part of the role is the management of the inpatient beds. We work on a rota to support the management of the inpatient beds. This is a critical role to ensure that the bed flow is supported and pro-actively managed and requires problem solving and decision-making skills.

Other benefits from joining us are:

  • Annual leave allowance 27 days plus bank holidays (depending on NHS service)
  • Pension scheme
  • Full-time/Part-time or job share opportunities
  • Salary sacrifice scheme
  • Staff discount scheme
  • Professional leadership programs for experienced nurses through NHS Academy
  • Stress awareness training
  • Mindfulness training
  • Counselling service

About us

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.

To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share our vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.**Please note we reserve the right to close a post should it receive a sufficient amount of applications.**

Details

Date posted

12 August 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£38,682 to £46,580 a year per annum pro rota

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

310-ASMH-7339388

Job locations

Fulbourn Hospital

Cambridge

CB21 5EF


Job description

Job responsibilities

Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.

Screen referrals to the service and prioritise referrals effectively and safely

Provide holistic psychosocial assessment, and subsequent planning and implementation of individual packages of care and treatment.

Undertake clinical risk assessments, based on latest empirical evidence and compliant with local policies and procedures.

Undertake risk management; practising safely and according to individual service user needs.

Provide evidence based clinical interventions, making autonomous clinical decisions about own professional practice.

Responsibility for the development, planning and implementation of brief care and treatment interventions for individual patients.

Ensure that individual episodes of care are delivered in a timely, effective and integrated manner.

Promote a recovery model that empowers patients, carers and relatives to be at the forefront of decision making and ownership of their packages of care and treatment.

Act as the patients and relatives advocate.

Enable patients and carers to manage disability, loss and change.

To provide support, information and education to family members, carers and other professionals

To liaise effectively with referrers and professionals within CPFT, promoting good working relationships and continuity of clinical care

To supervise junior staff as required

To act as a role model and clinically expert practitioner within the service

Participate as an active member of the multi-disciplinary team, accountable for your practice, and work in partnership with other health care professionals, service users and others in the delivery of care.

Champion patients rights, including: dignity, equality, diversity, choice and respect.

Be conversant and proactive with Government legislation pertaining to the Mental Health Act, CPA, National Service Framework, NHS Plan and Clinical Governance.

Represent the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team at meetings.

When undertaking all of the above ensure good documentation is provided and entered within the appropriate systems of record sharing.

Participate in the teams support and training of students

The post will include flexible working patterns over a 37.5 working hours per week to incorporate cover for 24 hours, 7-day service, including on call if required to meet the needs of the service users & carers.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.

Screen referrals to the service and prioritise referrals effectively and safely

Provide holistic psychosocial assessment, and subsequent planning and implementation of individual packages of care and treatment.

Undertake clinical risk assessments, based on latest empirical evidence and compliant with local policies and procedures.

Undertake risk management; practising safely and according to individual service user needs.

Provide evidence based clinical interventions, making autonomous clinical decisions about own professional practice.

Responsibility for the development, planning and implementation of brief care and treatment interventions for individual patients.

Ensure that individual episodes of care are delivered in a timely, effective and integrated manner.

Promote a recovery model that empowers patients, carers and relatives to be at the forefront of decision making and ownership of their packages of care and treatment.

Act as the patients and relatives advocate.

Enable patients and carers to manage disability, loss and change.

To provide support, information and education to family members, carers and other professionals

To liaise effectively with referrers and professionals within CPFT, promoting good working relationships and continuity of clinical care

To supervise junior staff as required

To act as a role model and clinically expert practitioner within the service

Participate as an active member of the multi-disciplinary team, accountable for your practice, and work in partnership with other health care professionals, service users and others in the delivery of care.

Champion patients rights, including: dignity, equality, diversity, choice and respect.

Be conversant and proactive with Government legislation pertaining to the Mental Health Act, CPA, National Service Framework, NHS Plan and Clinical Governance.

Represent the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team at meetings.

When undertaking all of the above ensure good documentation is provided and entered within the appropriate systems of record sharing.

Participate in the teams support and training of students

The post will include flexible working patterns over a 37.5 working hours per week to incorporate cover for 24 hours, 7-day service, including on call if required to meet the needs of the service users & carers.

Person Specification

Education/Qualifications

Essential

  • Mental Health Nurse Qualification or Social Work Qualification or occupational therapy Qualification
  • Current NMC/HCPC/Social work Registration

Desirable

  • Clinical supervision qualification
  • Post Graduate level education in psychological therapy
  • Non medical prescribing
  • Teaching (clinical practice) qualification/certificate or equivalent experience

Experience

Essential

  • Mental health care/treatment relevant to service
  • Working with people presenting with acute mental health difficulties
  • Multi-agency working/working across service interfaces
  • Working within a multicultural framework

Desirable

  • Teaching, training and/or supervision of clinical staff

Skills & Abilities

Essential

  • Assessing, formulating and working with people presenting in heightened state of distress
  • Communicating (oral and written) complex/highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
  • Clinical risk assessment and contingency planning
  • Able to meet the service needs for mobility across the geographical area covered
  • Able to demonstrate commitment to high quality care and service provision
  • Effective organisational and time management skills

Desirable

  • Brief psychological interventions/strategies for managing crisis
  • Evidence of ability to develop and lead new initiatives within the clinical care environment

Knowledge & Understanding

Essential

  • Evidenced based clinical interventions relevant to the service
  • Relevant specialist clinical courses/training
  • Models of care and treatment relevant to working with people in mental health crisis
  • Evidence of continuing professional development

Desirable

  • RiO and SystmOne PAS

Physical Requirements

Essential

  • Ability to travel promptly across a large geographical patch
  • Able to cover shifts over a 24 hour period, 7 days a week
Person Specification

Education/Qualifications

Essential

  • Mental Health Nurse Qualification or Social Work Qualification or occupational therapy Qualification
  • Current NMC/HCPC/Social work Registration

Desirable

  • Clinical supervision qualification
  • Post Graduate level education in psychological therapy
  • Non medical prescribing
  • Teaching (clinical practice) qualification/certificate or equivalent experience

Experience

Essential

  • Mental health care/treatment relevant to service
  • Working with people presenting with acute mental health difficulties
  • Multi-agency working/working across service interfaces
  • Working within a multicultural framework

Desirable

  • Teaching, training and/or supervision of clinical staff

Skills & Abilities

Essential

  • Assessing, formulating and working with people presenting in heightened state of distress
  • Communicating (oral and written) complex/highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
  • Clinical risk assessment and contingency planning
  • Able to meet the service needs for mobility across the geographical area covered
  • Able to demonstrate commitment to high quality care and service provision
  • Effective organisational and time management skills

Desirable

  • Brief psychological interventions/strategies for managing crisis
  • Evidence of ability to develop and lead new initiatives within the clinical care environment

Knowledge & Understanding

Essential

  • Evidenced based clinical interventions relevant to the service
  • Relevant specialist clinical courses/training
  • Models of care and treatment relevant to working with people in mental health crisis
  • Evidence of continuing professional development

Desirable

  • RiO and SystmOne PAS

Physical Requirements

Essential

  • Ability to travel promptly across a large geographical patch
  • Able to cover shifts over a 24 hour period, 7 days a week

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).

Additional information

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

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Fulbourn Hospital

Cambridge

CB21 5EF


Employer's website

https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Fulbourn Hospital

Cambridge

CB21 5EF


Employer's website

https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Team Manager

Sophie Price

sophie.price2@cpft.nhs.uk

01223219593

Details

Date posted

12 August 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£38,682 to £46,580 a year per annum pro rota

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

310-ASMH-7339388

Job locations

Fulbourn Hospital

Cambridge

CB21 5EF


Supporting documents

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