Overview
Main area Mental Health Grade Band 6 Contract Permanent Hours 37.5 hours per week (Full and part time hours available) Job ref 152-M258.25
Employer Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust. Site St Ann's Hospital, Poole. Salary £38,682 - £46,580 p.a. Closing 24/09/2025 23:59.
Band 6
Job overview
We are looking for experienced professionally registered, Mental Health Nurses, Social Workers or Occupational Therapists with a genuine passion for supporting those in mental health crisis, to complete the recruitment to our Connection team. We value all our team and offer a financial recruitment and retention premium on this post.
Connection is moving forward and this is an exciting time to join us for the next stages of our service development; increasing face to face community assessment work, and working collaboratively with partner agencies to ensure people in mental health crisis receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time.
Based at St Ann's Hospital, with a sea view from the office, Connection is Dorset’s 24/7 open access mental health crisis service. Access Mental Health Dorset
This is a diverse role with new challenges each day: Direct clinical assessments, advice and support, supervise our fantastic mental health support workers, give clinical advice to other agencies and emergency services, co-ordinate urgent and emergency responses, and liaise with a range of internal and external services.
We are committed to professional development and support, offering internal and external training/education programmes and supervision.
Full and part time hours available. This is a 24/7 service with shift patterns including weekends, bank holidays and nights. All reasonable flexible working requests will be considered.
Main duties of the job
Telephone and face to face mental health assessments, brief clinical interventions and support, signposting and referrals.
Validating, de-escalating crisis and coaching people in distress tolerance and emotional regulation strategies. Using a range of brief interventions, you will empower patients, carers and families to manage distress and crisis effectively.
As well as telephone based work the role also include opportunity to complete urgent face to face assessments across Dorset when indicated.
Providing clinical information, advice and support to other professionals and emergency services. Supporting police and ambulance service in accessing most appropriate support for those presenting in mental health crisis.
The team is part of the Trust Access Mental Health services and works closely with a range of other teams and services, including Home Treatment teams, Liaison Psychiatry and the Retreats. Overnight, Connection covers the Home Treatment Team caseload and manages any referrals.
Supervising and supporting the Mental Health Support Workers within the team providing guidance and support.
Working for our organisation
At Dorset HealthCare we’re on a mission to empower people to make the most of their lives through our outstanding, joined-up healthcare services. We’re a dynamic, forward-looking Trust, running 12 community hospitals, specialist inpatient facilities and a wide range of integrated community and mental health services for a population of almost 800,000 people.
We do things differently here – it’s one of the reasons the CQC rated us ‘outstanding’ in 2019. It’s also why 95% of patients across our services say they have a good or very good experience of our services and 89% of staff feel they can really make a difference.
Our 7,000-strong workforce is at the heart of what we do and our success is a testament to our brilliant people. We\'re all about building a workplace for the future, we believe in equal opportunities and we celebrate diversity. We’re an inclusive workplace, where everyone is welcome, everyone can be authentic, and we are all encouraged to be the best version of ourselves.
Working with us you’ll be part of a strong team, challenge yourself, build a career, and teach us what we don’t know. And you’ll be working towards our vision to be better every day through excellence, compassion and expertise in all we do.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For the main duties and responsibilities for this role please read the attached job description and person specification. When completing your application please ensure your supporting statement reflects the criteria set out in these documents by showing how your experience and skills apply to this post.
As part of our vision to have a skilled, diverse and caring workforce, Dorset HealthCare offers support for people getting into work. We offer an employability service to support individuals with application writing, interview skills and other employment support. If you would like or know of anyone who would value this support, please do contact dhc.wideningparticipation@nhs.net
This role includes a £3,000 Recruitment Premium lump sum on commencement of employment and thereafter a further £1,500 Retention Premium per annum (pro-rata), paid in equal monthly instalments provided you remain in post and subject to review by the Trust.
Applications from candidates that require current Healthcare worker sponsorship to work in the UK are unfortunately ineligible to apply for this position.
Person specification
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND TRAINING
* Registered practitioner to degree/diploma level supplemented by post registration diploma level specialist training and/or short courses or demonstrable extensive experience in the relevant specialty
* Membership of the relevant Professional Body
* Learning and Assessing in Practice Qualification or equivalent practice assessors training
* Evidence of recent professional development in an up to date portfolio
* Non-Medical Prescriber (if professionally appropriate)
JOB SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE
* Experience working as a practitioner
* Experience of specialist working
* Experience of managing change
* Experience of developing specialist programmes of care for an individual or groups of patients/clients and of providing highly specialist advice
* Ability to prioritise and organise workload effectively
* Recent previous experience within a comparable role
MANAGERIAL / SUPERVISORY
* Experience of providing clinical supervision and mentoring to junior staff
* Experience of devising and delivering training
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
* Experience of using electronic patient / service user record systems
* Able to analyse data and produce reports using Microsoft Excel and Word
PERSONAL QUALITIES/ATTRIBUTES
* Experience of planning and organising complex activities, e.g. organise own time and that of junior staff and learners, planning off duty rotas and undertaking discharge planning involving co-ordination with other agencies.
* Knowledge and understanding of legislation relevant to practice
* Demonstrable leadership qualities and the ability to perform as a role model
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
* Demonstrable skills in written and spoken English to a standard which enables the post holder to carry out the full range of duties and responsibilities of the role effectively.
At Dorset HealthCare we want to offer all our staff the opportunity to work flexibly, putting health and wellbeing first, whilst continuing the delivery of excellent patient care. Flexible working looks different for everyone and we welcome applicants to discuss flexible working opportunities with the recruiting manager.
What working for us will provide:
* 27 days of annual leave, rising to 33 over ten years (for staff on Agenda for Change terms and conditions)
* Health and wellbeing services
* Flexible working options, including family-friendly hours
* Free training and one-to-one career coaching to reach your career goals
* Preceptorship programme for newly qualified nurses and AHPs
* Access to nine staff networks – have a voice and transform our Trust
* Relocation costs where applicable
* Salary sacrifice scheme opportunities – including childcare vouchers, car lease and cycle scheme, home technology equipment, and buying annual leave
* NHS discounts to save on your shopping, gym membership and more
Visit our careers website to learn more about our culture, staff stories, benefits, development programmes and opportunities.
What you need to do:
Before applying for this post, please do ensure that you have read the job description and person specification requirements. If you think you have everything we're looking for, then we'd love to hear from you, alternatively if you would like more information about the role please do not hesitate to contact us.
Regrettably, we are not able to offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you attempt to apply for a role that we do not offer sponsorship for, you will receive notification of this at the time of starting your application and you will not be able to proceed. At this point, we wish to thank you for your interest in working for us and apologise we cannot take your application any further.
Please note that from January 2021, to work in the UK candidates who are not UK or RoI nationals require sponsorship unless you have permission to work via another route. Further guidance can be found on the gov.uk website. It is vital that you provide full and accurate details of your current immigration status on the application form. Overseas applicants applying for entry clearance into the UK must present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided in continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants - GOV.UK
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Name Saranne George. Job title Service Manager. Email address saranne.george2@nhs.net. Telephone number 07918620216.
We encourage you to contact us for informal conversations about the role, we are able to organise a visit to come and meet the team.
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