Senior Liaison Flow Practitioner

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job overview

The post holder will be part of the Mental Health Psychiatric Liaison Team which is a model of psychiatric liaison serving the Newham University Hospital including the Emergency Department and the Inpatient Wards. The service is commissioned to carry out the following:

· Provide a single multidisciplinary mental health and drug assessment service

· Provide expert advice on the management, treatment and diagnosis of patients to acute hospital clinicians

· Provide support to acute hospital clinicians

· Provide training to acute hospital clinicians

· To improve health outcomes for patients

· To reduce length of stay for patients

· To reduce readmissions to the Emergency Department,

· To reduce re-attendances to the Emergency Department

· To improve the experience of patients who receive care in the acute hospital

· To reduce direct admissions to care homes

· To improve the Royal London Hospital staff awareness, skills and knowledge in mental health and drugs and alcohol.

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The post holder will work across Newham’s Crisis pathway services where needed. The Service forms part of Newham’s crisis pathway and operates a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service for people aged 16 years and above who present with a suspected mental health, self-harm or drug and alcohol problem. The service will maintain focus on identifying, assessing and care planning for older people.

The post holder will be expected to be self-motivating and autonomous with the ability to demonstrate accurate formulations of mental state, risk and need for people over the age of 16 years taking into account medical and social factors and referring on to other disciplines in the team or other agencies as appropriate within the given timeframes for the service.

The post holder will provide advice on mental health issues and participate in carrying out training programmes for clinical teams on the management of a wide variety of mental health problems.

The post holder will be expected to maintain the highest degree of customer service at all times and will work in collaboration with the teams and organisations who come into contact with the service.

Working for our organisation

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. Have a wide base of clinical skills, knowledge and experience appropriate to the needs of individual patients over the age of 16 years and to the clinical settings in which they are required to be seen. Where clinical knowledge requires more specialist input e.g. 16 and 17 year old or drugs and alcohol the post holder will be expected to refer on to the relevant department.

2. Carry out specialist assessments across the crisis pathway and develop, implement, evaluate and document specialist management plans and care plans as appropriate to the individual patient’s needs and behaviours.

3. Provide a consultation-liaison service to clinicians and clinical teams within the acute hospital. This will include giving specialist advice on a range of care, treatment and patient management issues including psychiatric emergencies.

4. Demonstrate a high standard of record keeping and documentation with adherence to trust policy and an understanding of professional guidelinesand application of confidentiality.

5. Work with colleagues to develop and promote the philosophy of the psychiatric liaison service, framework of care delivery and strategic objectives, taking responsibility for specific areas of policy and strategy delivery.

6. Work with colleagues to develop clinical expertise and high standards of nursing practice, as defined by the Nursing & Midwifery Council Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives (2009).

7. Deliver care that is evidence based, reflecting current best practice and research.

8. Actively participate in structured regular management supervision provided by your line manager in accordance with Trust policies and procedures. You may also be expected to take responsibility for the supervision of nurses and others in non-mental health settings working with patients with mental health problems.

9. Demonstrate clinical excellence and high standards of nursing practice to other colleagues.

10. Demonstrate a sound understanding of the legal and ethical issues in caring for the mentally ill. In particular, demonstrating sound understanding of the Mental Health Act (2007), Mental Capacity Act (2005), deprivation of liberty safeguards and their application in a non-mental health setting.

• Demonstrate the ability to receive and give complex clinical details clearly and appropriate to the situation, with patients, carers and colleagues.

· Demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly, sensitively and with compassion in situations that are emotional, contentious and/or hostile.

· Demonstrate a high level of interpersonal skills, self-awareness and empathy in all communications

· Demonstrate an ability to negotiate and problem solve in contentious and/or antagonistic situations where agreement cannot be reached e.g. in situations where the Mental Health Act may be needed to be used.

· Demonstrate the ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues within the psychiatric liaison team, Barts Health staff and East London Foundation Trust staff.

· Take responsibility for agreed clinical, managerial and strategic projects associated with the provision of the psychiatric service. This will include planning, implementing, reviewing and revising these projects as necessary.

· In the absence of the Team Manager; take responsibility for the immediate management of the team and patient care provided, to agreed local and professional standards.

· In the absence of the Team Manager, take responsibility for the co-ordination of all activities within the clinical area or equivalent sphere.

· Ensure the promotion of health and safety regulations in relation to the well-being and interests of the patients, staff and all visitors who come into contact with the team environment.

· At all times follow the Nursing & Midwifery Council Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives (2009) and ensure that all staff within their sphere of responsibility also follows the code as laid down.

· Supervise monitor and appraise the performance of junior staff within the sphere of designated responsibility, and report to the team manager.

· Assist the shift co-ordinator and senior management to exercise day to day control of the budget for the service.

· Act as change agent to promote innovation and high standards of practice in line

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

East London NHS Foundation Trust has achieved its third consecutive ‘Outstanding’ rating from the Care Quality Commission; the first Community and Mental Health Trust to achieve this rating for a third time. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other reasons to apply

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 job share, part time or another flexible pattern.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £8,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

AI in applications

If you use AI or other tools to assist in writing your job application, make sure you add your own personal touch especially in the supporting information section. AI can make writing easier, but it doesn’t fully understand the position you’re applying for and might generate false or misleading information. Applications written only by AI often sound generic and may not show your real skills, knowledge, or experience. It’s important to write your supporting statement in your own words. East London NHS Foundation Trust does not recommend relying only on AI, as it could negatively impact on your chance of success in the application process.

We carefully check applications to make sure no one has an unfair advantage, and we verify all references. At the interview, you’ll be asked about your experience, so be honest and ensure everything in your application is accurate. Please remember that using AI during the interview is not allowed.

What Next?

If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!

As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..

If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.

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