York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Lead Professional for Mental Health Care
The closing date is 26 April 2026
Are you passionate about driving high-quality mental health care across acute settings? Do you thrive on influencing practice, supporting staff, and leading meaningful change? If so, we'd love you to join our Safeguarding & Complex Needs Team as our Lead Professional for Mental Health Care Improvement. This is an exciting opportunity to play a central role in delivering the Trust's Complex Needs Implementation Plan and strengthening how we identify, assess, and support patients with mental ill health across all ages. This role requires autonomy, expert judgement, and the ability to influence and inspire others across the organisation.
Main duties of the job
* Provide specialist clinical advice on the identification and management of mental health needs.
* Lead service improvement initiatives, supporting prevention, early intervention and high-quality care.
* Support the Head of Safeguarding & Complex Needs in developing and implementing mental health pathways, policies, training programmes and quality standards.
* Work collaboratively with clinical and non‑clinical teams to embed best practice and ensure compliance with national legislation and guidelines.
* Deliver and oversee specialist training and safeguarding supervision for staff.
* Contribute to investigations, audits, reports, research, and service evaluations.
* Communicate effectively with colleagues on complex and sensitive matters, supporting a culture of continuous improvement and patient‑centred care.
You will be a registered member of a professional body with significant senior clinical experience supporting people with mental ill health. You will bring:
* Strong leadership skills and experience mentoring or training others.
* The ability to engage and influence staff at all levels.
* Sound knowledge of mental health legislation, policy and best practice.
* Excellent communication skills--including when managing sensitive, emotional or complex situations.
* A commitment to continuous professional development and service improvement.
* Strong organisational skills, resilience, and the ability to prioritise effectively in a busy environment.
About us
Trust Information Pack:
We offer a range of benefits to support our staff including:
* Access to the NHS Pension Scheme, providing generous benefits upon retirement, as well as a lump sum and pension for dependants.
* 27 days holiday rising to 33 days (depending on NHS Trust service).
* A generous relocation package of up to 30% of salary (capped at £18k) to support with relocation expenses for hard to fill positions where relocation would be an expectation to undertake the role fully. If you would like to discuss a potential relocation package, please speak to the recruiting department/manager.
* A variety of different types of paid and unpaid leave covering emergency and planned leave.
* Confidential advice and support on personal, work, family and relationship issues, 24/7, from our Employee Assistance Programme.
* NHS Car Lease scheme and Cycle to Work scheme.
* An extensive range of learning and development opportunities.
* Discounts on restaurants, getaways, shopping, motoring, cinema and finance from a range of providers.
For further information on the fantastic range of benefits we offer please visit the Trust's dedicated Staff Benefits pages.
Person Specification
Experience and Knowledge
* Significant experience as a senior clinician concentrating in the care of patients with mental ill health.
* Evidence of involvement and leadership in teaching and mentoring learners and training needs analysis.
* Experience of supporting and leading engagement processes and influencing thinking and opinions.
* Experience of supporting and providing leadership within strategic reviews/planning for service development.
* Ability to contribute to the design of, and to help maintain, complex processes.
* Ability to engage clinical and professional staff in all aspects of the role, demonstrating excellent influencing and negotiating skills.
* Sound Mental Health knowledge, acting consistently with legislation, policies and procedures and other approaches and promoting the value of those approaches to others.
Qualifications and Training
* Registered member of a professional body, such as NMC or HCPC.
* Evidence of continued professional development.
Skills
* IT skills including use of email and commonly used software.
* Determination to always achieve high standards and constantly strive to deliver improvements.
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.
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
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