Clinical Practice Lead

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose

The Clinical Practice Lead will work with the First Response Service to provide 24 hour urgent access to mental health services for people of all age, (Children and Young People, Adults or Older People) have been identified as being in a mental health crisis.

The post holder will be responsible for ensuring compliance with quality and safety standards within their assigned clinical pathways/teams. They will ensure that all individuals receiving care and treatment from the service do so in line with Trust strategic objectives and are safeguarded from any harm.

The key responsibilities of this role are as follows:

• Workforce planning
• Lead on evidence based clinical interventions, making autonomous decisions, striving for excellence.
• Promote a recovery model that empowers users of services to be at the forefront of decision making and ownership of their care and treatment.
• Champion dignity, equality, diversity, choice and respect
• Prioritise demand and allocate/delegate accordingly
• Work flexibly across a range of sites - regular and frequent travel from base to and between settings.
• Lone working at times
• Quality improvement and audit
• Compliance with CQC standards
• Managing complaints and compliments
• Learning from experience
• Practice education

The post holder may be required to undertake regular clinical work which will be subject to an agreed job plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

• To work collaboratively with internal stakeholders
• Work closely with key external stakeholders including, Police, Social Services provision, Housing, Voluntary and non-statutory agencies and a wider Health and Social Care Community ensuring that people aged 18 and above, who use our services are signposted appropriately through the care pathway.
• Act as a point of contact for agencies seeking information or wanting to refer
• Present information, some of which may be contentious, to staff groups, service user groups, carers groups and other stakeholders using a range of techniques and media.
• Co-ordinate and investigate complaints and clinical practice performance issues; taking action as necessary ensuring that any clinical lessons learned are identified and disseminated to teams.
• Ensure that any learning from SUIs and RCAs is identified, disseminated and where necessary put into practice.

Analytical and Judgemental Skills

• Role model clinical leadership
• Practice in a way that actively minimises dependency and promotes recovery
• Communicate information in a way that makes it relevant and understandable for users of services.
• Promote a duty of care to users of services; encompassing safe and competent care
• Peoples wishes, feelings, values and beliefs should be taken into consideration alongside the views of those close to them.
• Take personal accountability for own practice; answerable for actions and omissions, regardless of advice or directions from another professional.
• Remaining professionally competent by participating in own and others clinical supervision
• Demonstrate specialist knowledge and skills, not only relating to the care of users of services, but also in depth knowledge of the roles and functions of other professionals across services.
• Establish and maintain internal clinical audits and develop a research element for the service.
• Produce evaluation data and reports in a timely manner

Planning and Organisational Skills

• Coordinate and participate in multi-agency forums ensuring that the development and delivery of integrated local services is in line with local need.
• Ensure that service delivery activity is delivered in accordance with agreed quality and performance standards and service level agreements.
• Ensure that services provide and facilitate education and learning from experience
• Work constructively with the multi-disciplinary team
• Oversee the day to day clinical practice
• Ensure that governance and assurance systems are in place for care pathways/clinical practice; providing expert professional advice with regards to clinical care, incidents and complaints.
• Ensure that services are delivered by practitioners with the appropriate knowledge, skills and competencies.
• Coordination of multi-disciplinary team working and engagement in service delivery in line with practice standards.
• Ensuring the safety and effectiveness of the service through the implementation of effective risk management, governance and assurance systems.
• Act as a role model
• Monitor and improve quality in line with NICE guidance
• Contribute to the ongoing operation and development of the service; data monitoring in the context of service evaluation.
• Promotion of the service locally and nationally as appropriate

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

• Promote, develop and role model high standards of clinical care
• Ensure a holistic approach to assessment, care and treatment, including physical health needs.
• Ensure effective care pathways are in place for transition between mental health and other services.
• Monitor, evaluate and action plan team members with regards to their clinical performance
• Work closely with other teams within the Trust coupled with the Voluntary, Statutory and independent sectors; implementing key success criteria for NICE regarding diagnosis, treatment and management plans.
• Participate in Safeguarding
• Provide expert advice pertaining to complex cases
• Responsible for maintaining Clinical Governance Standards
• Have enhanced clinical skills

Qualifications

Essential

• A professional mental health qualification to degree level or equivalent
• Post Graduate qualification relevant to specialism
• Evidence of commitment to life-long learning and continuing professional development

Desirable

• Management qualification
• Training to level 3 in Safeguarding children and young people: roles and competencies for Health Care staff

Knowledge

Essential

• Knowledge of key areas of professional mental health practice
• Specialist knowledge of mental health disorders
• Knowledge of clinical risk assessment
• Application of teaching theory into practice
• Ability to undertake bio-psycho-social assessment and formulating, robust care pathways
• Higher level communication skills, both written and oral
• Ability to engage challenging and/or acutely distressed patients in potentially hostile and/or antagonistic situations and use de-escalation techniques effectively
• Sufficient clinical knowledge to be able to make autonomous decisions, based on an analysis of complex presenting problems and signpost accordingly
• Management and organisational skills that enable a number of complex activities and clinical work to be undertaken, revising and adjusting these according to the needs of individual patients and the service.
• Knowledge of the Mental Health Act, the Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty
• Information Technology skills

Experience

Essential

• 5 years post qualifying work, including community mental health care (Children and Young People, Adults or Older People)
• Risk assessment/management
• Working with people presenting in mental health crisis
• Clinical leadership
• Evidence of working therapeutically with individuals
• Ability to interpret research and apply to practice
• Knowledge and utilization of counselling skills / cognitive behavioural skills, psychosocial interventions
• Experience in the management of clients with drug and alcohol problems/dual diagnosis
• Experience of carrying out assessments, identifying the appropriate care pathways and confirming diagnosis
• Other relevant post registration experience
• Understanding of research principles
• Teaching, training and/or supervision of clinical staff

Skills

Essential

• Excellent communication skills including the ability to engage with large groups who may be antagonistic and/or distressed. This will apply to persons who use the service and their carers/relatives and professional staff groups
• Able to produce well written reports
• Ability to communicate complex information across multi-agency teams
• Ability to support junior staff: professionally and academically, promoting their personal growth and developing their competencies
• Ability to develop a healthy culture of team working
• Able to identify and own problems and get involved in the solutions
• Ability to assess and manage all levels of risk
• Excellent clinical assessment skills
• Ability to manage change in a positive manner
• Supervisory skills
• Negotiation skills
• Ability to manage own time and that of the teams
• Ability to work flexibly
• Ability to be mobile across a geographical area
• Computer literacy
• Excellent clinical assessment skills
• Ability to manage change in a positive manner
• A *Standard / Enhanced CRB Check will be required for this role

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).