Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, and Essex. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.
The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.
Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video
Job overview
A band 7 clinical lead provides advanced clinical expertise and leadership within the Psychiatric Liaison Service, supporting safe, high-quality mental health care in acute hospital settings. The post-holder offers senior oversight, complex assessments, and clinical decision-making during busy periods or staffing gaps. They guide and supervise junior staff, promote effective collaboration with acute hospital partners, and contribute to service improvement and clinical governance. This role requires strong leadership skills, expert knowledge of crisis and risk assessment, and a commitment to delivering compassionate, patient-centered care.
Main duties of the job
1. To provide a comprehensive mental health liaison service to acute hospital departments, ward teams, and individual clinicians, particularly in assisting them in developing care plans and making difficult decisions in cases where patients exhibit complex psychosocial needs and/or challenging behaviors.
2. To ensure team members can do the same.
3. To be responsible for the development and implementation of high standards of clinical care, ensuring the service provided is needs-led, compliant with national guidance, and viewed positively by service users.
4. To be responsible for undertaking comprehensive clinical assessments of service users, including risk assessment, risk management planning, ongoing care planning, signposting, or onward referral. To ensure that staff members are undertaking the same, doing so through formal and informal supervision, appraisal, and regular clinical discussion.
5. To lead and facilitate regular clinical reviews with the team.
6. To be responsible for organising and prioritising one's workload and that of others in the day-to-day work allocation. To delegate clinical and other tasks appropriately to team members.
7. To deputise at the request of or when required in the operational lead’s absence.
8. To teach other junior staff, pre-registration students, acute trust preceptees, and non-nursing staff in formal and informal settings.
Working for our organisation
Our Values 2025-2030
Working with our colleagues, patients, and carers, we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.
They are:
9. We are kind.
10. We are respectful.
11. We work together with our communities.
These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.
Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period.
High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London
This post also attracts payment for the High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,714 to a maximum of £5,941 pro rata for part-time).
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
12. To participate in the development of an effective team and the development of productive working relationships throughout the Trust.
13. Coordinate the day-to-day running of the service, particularly staff rostering and delegation of clinical tasks.
14. To ensure clinical compliance with best practices in clinical ‘specialty,’ whether working age or older age adults across the entire service.
15. To actively promote integrated health professionals working internally and externally.
16. To facilitate the development of a positive and ‘supportive’ team culture by taking responsibility for dealing effectively with potential conflict.
17. To actively participate in and contribute to working parties and groups within the Trust to develop and improve service delivery, protocols, and guidelines.
18. Participate in the audit process, linking it to the clinical governance agenda.
19. To advise, encourage, and share knowledge utilising the latest research and practice development through literature and peer reviews, including regular review of NICE guidance. Reporting new evidence-based literature to the team manager and team ensures that team practice is updated to reflect best practices.
20. To directly line manage a few staff and to report directly to the service manager.
Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer to this when completing your application.
We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Please apply as soon as possible as some posts close early to limit the number of applications.
Certificates of Sponsorship
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.
Use of AI
Please see attached document regarding acceptable use of AI during the recruitment process.
Person specification
Skills Essential criteria
Essential criteria
21. Demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly and effectively within a team and stakeholders
22. Demonstrate the importance of good record keeping and working in line with local policies, procedures, and guidelines.
Experience Essential criteria
Essential criteria
23. Substantial Band 6 experience within working age and older adult Mental Health setting.
24. Managerial or leadership role
25. Experience of providing Clinical Supervision
26. Substantial Band 6 experience within working age and older adult Mental Health setting.
Qualification Essential criteria
Essential criteria
27. Relevant graduate qualification with recognised professional body
28. Student assessor/supervise
Desirable criteria
29. Psychiatric Liaison Service or inpatient/crisis experience
30. Managerial or leadership training
Knowledge Desirable criteria
Essential criteria
31. Knowledge of Mental Health Act legislation and safeguarding procedures and policies
32. Knowledge of risk management, ability to monitor and assess risk and act accordingly to ensure safety.
Desirable criteria
33. To guide the team to ensure safety benchmarks are met regarding delivery of interventions in line with NICE guidance and working towards the Psychiatric liaison accreditation network (PLAN)
Benefits
We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:
34. A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
35. A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
36. Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
37. Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.