An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 8a Hounslow Liaison Psychiatry Team Manager, based at West Middlesex University Hospital. This is a key leadership role within Hounslow Local Services at West London NHS Trust, providing visible, compassionate operational and clinical management to a highly skilled multidisciplinary liaison team.
The post is offered as a 12-month secondment for internal applicants and a 12-month fixed-term contract for external applicants. We are seeking an experienced, values-driven clinician with substantial band 7 experience in liaison psychiatry or an equivalent crisis pathway, who can lead a busy service, support staff wellbeing and deliver high-quality, recovery-focused care in close partnership with acute and community colleagues
Main duties of the job
The postholder will provide day-to-day operational and clinical leadership for the Hounslow Liaison Psychiatry team, ensuring safe, timely and person-centred responses to referrals from the Emergency Department and inpatient wards for people aged 16 and above. They will hold responsibility for performance against commissioned standards, including response times, quality indicators and activity targets, and will use data to monitor and improve service delivery.
Key aspects of the role include line management and supervision of multidisciplinary staff, budget management, workforce planning, service development and leading local governance and quality improvement work. The postholder will maintain a small proportion of frontline clinical activity to stay close to day-to-day practice, contribute to Serious Incident reviews and clinical governance, and work closely with Hounslow borough leadership, acute Trust partners and community teams to support seamless care pathways and effective cross-borough learning.
Job responsibilities
Responsibilities include:
* Operational and clinical leadership of the liaison team
* Line management, supervision, and performance management of staff
* Budget management and workforce planning
* Service development, governance, and quality improvement
* Front‑line clinical activity and participation in Serious Incident reviews
* Maintaining seamless care pathways with acute, community, and borough partners
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Educated to degree level
* RMN with current NMC registration
* ENB-998 / Mentorship in Practice or equivalent
* Management or leadership qualification or equivalent training
* Post registration psychotherapeutic training relevant to Liaison Psychiatry e.g. CBT, Brief Solution Focussed Therapy, CAT etc
* RGN trained or equivalent
* Evidence of recent and on-going relevant further professional development
Experience
* Demonstrable post qualifying experience in psychiatry, with evidence of relevant experience at Band 7
* Clinical experience of working in acute mental health service(s) assessing and managing patient's complex mental and physical health interfaces, including robust risk management
* Minimum of 1 years' experience in the line management of staff including recruiting, supervising and performance managing junior staff within own and/or other disciplines
* Experience of effectively managing budgets
* Experience of delivering key performance indicators
* Experience of designing and facilitating teaching and training
* Clinical experience of working in Liaison Psychiatry Services
* Quality improvement experience
* Audit and research skills
Knowledge
* Possess an ability to integrate the complex physical and mental health issues of the patient when assessing and developing a management plan, including risk management
* Sufficient clinical knowledge to be able to make autonomous decisions, based on an analysis of complex presenting problems and judgement about available options, with Consultant support/supervision
* Knowledge of relevant legislation e.g. Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act
* Possess an ability to supervise the team in their day to day clinical work
* Ability to devise, deliver and evaluate highly specialised, relevant and appropriately pitched training programmes to acute Trust and mental health Trust staff from a variety of disciplines in formal and informal settings
* Knowledge of NMC Code: Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and midwives
Skills & Communication
* Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with demonstrated ability to communicate at all levels with management, staff, patients, carers and outside agencies. This includes the ability to write coherent policies and procedures with cross-Trust relevance
* Ability to create and maintain relationships within the mental health and acute Trusts in order to facilitate the development of and ensure delivery of a high quality service which is valued by both organisations. This requires the ability to collaborate, motivate and negotiate with colleagues to continue strong leadership of the service
* Competence in advanced IT packages including keyboard skills
* Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings
Skills & Analytical
* Experience of investigating SI's and complaints and the ability to adequately investigate in a timely fashion in conjunction with relevant parties and to incorporate the recommendations into clinical practices, policies and procedures to ensure learning
* Ability to interpret research and evidence based practices and apply to clinical practice
Skills & Planning
* Ability to manage own time effectively through robust prioritising of own and others workloads
* Ability to plan strategies for the development of the service across the acute the mental health Trusts and develop business and project plans to facilitate this
Skills & Managements
* Excellent leadership and management skills and an ability to organise, prioritise, plan, further establish and develop the team
* Experience of effective management of resources and good track record with change management, efficiency savings and financial recovery plans
* Ability to enable the team to deliver on key performance indicators and put measures in place for improvement if not achieving
* Ability to identify and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviours
* Ability to provide quality assurance for the service working with the clinical governance teams of both Trusts
Skills & Autonomy
* Ability to take a lead for the speciality, interpreting and imparting specialist knowledge and policies to others
* Ability to use discretion in applying specialist knowledge and policy to local circumstances and situations, in liaison and collaboration with other seniors within the service
* Ability to perform as senior manager and work autonomously and flexibly in hospital and community settings
* Ability to frequently work under pressure and maintain intense concentration, particularly in unpredictable situations where there will be exposure to highly distressed and/or disturbed patients, often exhibiting challenging behaviours and the risk of physical violence
* Self‑motivated, able to work autonomously and independently with confidence when required
* Exercise initiative, flexibility, tact and self‑awareness
* Ability to meet deadlines
* Be aware of the limitations in own competencies and seek appropriate senior advice and leadership
Other Requirements
* Ability to articulate and interpret clearly the role of the profession of nursing based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy
* Commitment to Equal Opportunities
* Ability to be reflective and accept constructive criticism to further develop oneself
* Sickness (or attendance) record that is acceptable to the Trust
* Lived experience of mental health problems
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.
£63,665 to £70,887 a year per annum inclusive of 15% HCAS
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