Band 6 Mental Health Practitioner

Job responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:

• Receiving, appraising, and advising on the direct referrals for mental health problems from relevant General Practitioners/Medical Officers (GP/MO).
• Providing initial assessment and formulation of the mental health and treatment needs for referred patients, planning, implementing, and evaluating care with a high level of autonomy.
• Delivering up to date, evidence-based interventions for mental health problems based on guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Treatment Agency (NTA), which can include individual, group and tele-therapy.
• Ability to carry out comprehensive mental health assessments and make decisions about ways to positively manage risk.
• Ability to devise creative and effective care packages of support for adult mental health, communicating effectively with clients/patients and professionals, both orally and in writing.
• Effective time management skills with the ability to work under pressure, planning own workload.
• Ability to work flexibly in response to the developing needs of the service.

Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for role requirements in further detail.

To be eligible to be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submitting your application.

Selection Process

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

• The selection at sift stage will be based solely on your CV application.

Please ensure you demonstrate that you have the required skills,knowledge, experience, qualifications and memberships in the CV section of the application form.

Please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the Job Description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlined in the job advert.

At interview you will be assessed against the following Technical Skills:

• NHS Health & Wellbeing HWB2 Assessment & Care Planning
• NHS Health & Wellbeing HWB6 Assessment & Treatment Planning
• NHS Health & Wellbeing HWB7 Interventions & Treatment
• NHS Information & Knowledge NHS IK1 Information Processing

• At interview, a case study will also be required. The subject of which will be provided to candidates being invited to interview.

When choosing your Technical Skills examples, please make sure you use real life scenarios that relate to your own experiences. Whilst technology may help to enhance your written submission, presenting the ideas of others or those generated by technology, could result in your application being rejected.

Further Information

The sift will be completed within 10 working days of the vacancy closing date. Interviews will be held on a date to be confirmed.

There will be no reimbursement for any travel expenses for the interview.

Requests to work flexibly and/or part time will be considered, taking into account business needs.

Please note the salary will be pro-rata where part time hours are undertaken.

Please see the link to our YouTube channel for advice preparing your best responses with some hints and tips on answering behaviour-based questions. Hints and tips such as: Your behaviours can be based on situations from work, volunteering or home; match your situation to the behaviour requested and how to use your 250-word limit. https://www.youtube.com/@DMS_MilMed

NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework - https://www.msg.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/KSF-Handbook.pdf

All employees joining Ministry of Defence who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a 6-month probation period (unless otherwise advised) effective from the employment start date.

Access to the NHS pension scheme is available to the successful candidate.

If found successful for this position, you will be required to provide evidence of your immunity to Hepatitis B. Please note that evidence of your vaccination is not a proof of your immunity, but your serology levels will be required. Failure to provide sufficient evidence may result in the offer of employment being withdrawn.

To be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submitting your application.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments. Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.

There is no requirement to deploy as this is met by our uniformed personnel, but you will form the continuity of care required by our patients when based at home.

The post does NOT offer relocation expenses (move of home, excess fares or temporary transfer). Non-Standard move applicants will be eligible for the full package, subject to eligibility.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision,would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking.Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

This vacancy is part of the A Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact dbscivpers-sgdmsresourcing@mod.gov.uk.

Provide a CV

Essential

• Please copy and paste your full CV as your response to this question; you will not be able to upload your CV as an attachment.
• Please ensure to refer to the essential criteria where applicable as your application may be rejected should insufficient information to shortlist be included.
• Please use double spacing where possible.

Behaviour Statement

Essential

• Have you been dismissed for gross misconduct relating to bullying,harassment, discrimination or victimisation from any role in the past five years, or resigned or otherwise left a role but would have been dismissed for such gross misconduct because of an adverse decision, had you continued in that employment?
• Please respond with Yes or No as appropriate.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with people with mental health problems.
• Able to demonstrate an appropriate level of knowledge of mental health practice from previous experience.
• Knowledge of Community Mental Health Framework (CMHF) formerly care programme approach.
• Understanding and contribution to the Clinical Governance Agenda.
• Previous experience in similar role Risk assessment experience.
• Crisis resolution and risk management experience.

Desirable

• Experience in delivering National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended psychological interventions.
• Ability to run clinical and psycho-education groups.
• Experience of supervising staff or receiving supervision.
• Post graduate qualifications in an evidence based psychological therapy.
• Have at least 18 months post qualification experience.

Qualifications

Essential

• Training in Mental Health Nursing, Mental Health Social Work or Occupational therapy (Mental Health Experience).
• Evidence of CPD and professional portfolio in support of above registration.
• OR
• Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP) qualification plus sufficient post-qualification experience working as a qualified PWP to confer eligibility for Senior PWP designation.
• Current registration with British Psychological Society (BPS) or British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP).

Registration Details

Essential

• Please provide your membership registration number.
• You are required to be registered with the relevant professional body, as detailed in the advert, prior to submitting your application.
• Your application will not progress should you fail to provide a valid membership registration number.

Registrations and Memberships

Essential

• Registered with one the following regulatory bodies: NMC, HCPC.
• OR
• Registered with Social Work England SSSC, the CCW or NISCC.
• Please provide your registration numbers.

Knowledge, Skills and Competencies

Essential

• Ability to carry out comprehensive mental health assessments and make decisions about ways to positively manage risk.
• Skills in effective risk assessment and risk management.
• Ability to devise creative and effective care packages for common mental disorders in adult mental health.
• Ability to communicate effectively with clients/patients and professionals, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to work under pressure, managing own caseload and time.
• Prioritising own work load and using team resources effectively.
• Responding flexibly and appropriately to unforeseen circumstances and the developing needs of the service.
• Computer literate including competent use of email/internet, Microsoft office software and medical record systems.

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 (opens in a new window).