Mental Health Nurse

Job summary

Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to escape your current job role and work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? Now is the time to breakinto offender healthcare and develop your career.

We are currently looking for a compassionate, knowledgeable and motivated Mental Health Nurse to join our friendly team at HMP Exeter on a development pathway to become a B6 MH Nurse.

Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.

As part of our Mental Health team, you will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (inc pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward-thinking service, who encourage career and personal development to all staff to increase their clinical and interpersonal skills.

Main duties of the job

As a Mental Health Practitioner you will be providing specialist mental healthcare to offenders and working as part of the Mental Health In-Reach Team, plus wider mental health services. You will be required to work in a psychologically minded way with offenders in achieving their agreed goals and quality health outcomes.

Our Mental Health Team provide specialist interventions at primary and secondary care level including; referral management, screening assessment, triage, evidence-based interventions, care planning and risk assessing, plus one-to-one and group-work facilitation.

Our Mental Health Practitioners manage a mixed and challenging caseload and are required to perform robust assessment, screening and interventions to offenders with learning disabilities and mental health conditions. You will contribute to alternatives to inpatient admission and assisting with early discharge through the implementation of high intensity interventions and complex case management arrangements.

One of our key aims is to ensure continuity of care for an offender on ordinary location and reduce the length of stay, both in relation to prison inpatient services and external NHS/independent in-patient services. You will work closely with community mental health teams to ensure appropriate sharing of information, continuity of care and the Care Programme Approach for all offenders as necessary.

About us

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

We're Kind We're Fair We Listen We Care Job description

Job responsibilities

MH Nurse Developmental Role

We strongly encourage applications from newly qualified registered nurses, or those close to obtaining qualified status, who will initially be offered a preceptorship position (Agenda for Change Band 5) and then supported to be eligible to move into the Mental Health Nurse position (Agenda for Change Band 6).

We also encourage experienced Band 5 nurses looking for a career in offender healthcare, with a structured progression pathway.

Job descriptions and person specifications for both band 5 and band 6 are attached. Further professional development and training is strongly encouraged and supported.

Personal Development Plan

There will be a clear plan to support you in developing the competencies within the framework that will be agreed by your line manager. You will be supported and encouraged to take increasing autonomy over time.

Oxleas use a Personal Development Review (PDR) and Plan (PDP) process on an annual basis with all staff. In a preceptorship role, this structure will be used to support the agreement of a Personal Development Plan within the 12 weeks of starting your role with us. It will be reviewed more frequently than the usual PDR process, as agreed with your supervisor and manager every 6 months. Your Personal Development Plan will be agreed with your manager and supervisor who will support you in identifying areas of development and the associated activities and support required to work towards the competencies set out in the framework.

Summary of evidence

You will need to prepare a portfolio for documenting evidence of your skills and experiences to demonstrate your competence as a Senior Nurse. These competencies were derived from the NHSE and RCN competency framework.

Criteria for progression from Band 5 to Band 6

The developmental roles for newly qualified and experienced nurses have been introduced in Oxleas Forensic and Offender Healthcare to provide a framework that enables us to support colleagues to develop beyond their entry level role with a progressive and satisfying job plan. It is intended to support staff wellbeing, encourage the retention of quality staff and support individuals within the custodial setting with greater consistency of care.

It is expected that you will have the relevant post-qualification experience before applying to progress to Band 6.

A competency framework will be agreed with your clinical supervisor or line manager who will support you to achieve the competencies required of a Senior Nurse in Offender Healthcare.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:

All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.

You will need to provide:

Proof of right to work documentation

Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographicID

Proof of address documentation

Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.

Address History:

5 years address history will be needed.

Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.

Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited .

In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from:

If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website ( ).

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

RMN (or due to qualify in 2024) Willing to evidence & participate in appropriate continual professional development.

Qualifications

Essential

Experience of working within Mental Health

Desirable

Understanding and or experience secure environments (prisons or forensic services)

Skills

Essential

An ability to assess risk and care-plan effectively. An understanding of the 1983 Mental Health Act and subsequent mental health legislation as they pertain to nursing. Ability to demonstrate the safe and effective assessment, triage and care planning & interventions for complex cases.

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