Welcome from our Chief Executive

Our organisation is expanding and we're looking for people with the right values, skills and/or potential to join us. We need people with energy, expertise, enthusiasm to help us provide the very best possible specialist NHS mental health and learning disability care. This involves helping us achieve our strategy to improve the quality of life for the communities we serve through People, Prevention and Partnerships.

So what can we offer you in return?

We're an organisation which puts people first. We'll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. We'll help you learn, acquire new skills and gain further experience to support your career development. And we'll provide the opportunity for you to bring your fresh ideas to work about how we can do things differently and continue improving.

You will also be joining a health and care system committed to working together to do the best we can for the communities we serve. Above all, at Sussex Partnership you'll have the chance to make a difference to the lives of the patients, carers and families across our communities.

If you like the sound of that, then come and join our team.

Job overview

High Weald Lewes & Havens Specialist Older Adults Mental Health Service are looking for a Band 6 Community Mental Health Nurse to join their team.

A rare and exciting opportunity has arisen for a Registered Mental Health Nurse to join our team.

Experience is preferred but not essential, as well as some understanding of the challenges of working with older people in a community mental health setting.

Main duties of the job

The applicant must be caring, compassionate and a good communicator with a commitment to working in our service. You will need to be flexible and adaptable as modern mental health services are constantly changing in response to best practice.

The post will involve working with Older People with complex mental health needs as well as physical health care needs. You will be expected to support the client as well as being able to support their families and carers. You will also need to be able to work cohesively with other care providers, both within Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and other agencies outside of the Trust.

You will undertake duties as a Lead Practitioner and coordinate their care accordingly. You will provide interventions for referred service users using evidence based, client centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions. You will also promote and further develop your role within the clinical area.

You will be required to have strong communication and people skills, and be able to demonstrate a desire and ability to meet community service demands in an ever changing landscape. You will be working closely with existing current team members in identifying best use of resources in a needs led service utilising patient focused evidenced interventions.

Working for our organisation

As a mental health trust Sussex Partnership places a huge focus on the wellbeing of our staff, as well as ensuring our reward packages reflect the immensely important work they do.

As a nurse in our team we can offer you:

• Excellent starting salary
• NHS Pension contributions
• 27 days holiday allowance plus bank holidays
• Flexible Working patterns
• Child care vouchers
• Excellent training and development opportunities
• NHS Discounts
• Employee Assistance Programme

If you are looking for the opportunity to work within a busy but rewarding Specialist Older Adult Team in High Weald Lewes and Havens, then we would love to hear from you.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The role of Community Nurse is to work in partnership with service users in the designated care group with complex health presentations, developing their care plans and recovery plans to enable them to lead fulfilling lives. They will demonstrate an understanding of clinical interventions relevant the care group to include education, care plans and discharge planning, working closely with carers, families and partner agencies to facilitate this. The post holder will work at all times to promote the safety and the well being of service users and their families/carers. The post holder will assess, plan and implement care, and provide specialist nursing advice and carry out specialist nursing procedures. They will provide clinical supervision to staff and students and act as a mentor for student nurses.

Person specification

Qualifications
Essential criteria

• Registered Nurse with current registration [mental health/LD/Adult], appropriate to the job role
• Completion of Mentorship Course/ENB equivalent
• Evidence of continuous professional development

Experience/Knowledge
Essential criteria

• Significant post qualifying experience in the relevant care group
• Experience of working alongside people with complex health problems in the designated care group
• Experience of providing a range of clinical interventions to people in the designated care group with a variety of health problems
• Experience of working consultatively with professionals
• Experience of conducting clinical assessments including risk assessments
• Experience of partnership working within and across various statutory and non statutory teams and agencies
• Experience of working within the CPA process
• Understanding of Clinical Governance
• Previous experience of working in the community

Sussex Partnership NHS FT is committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. Our workforce is currently under-represented from Black and Minority, Ethnic and disabled communities and we would welcome applications from these communities.

We regret that we are unable to advise candidates if they have not been shortlisted. If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date please assume that you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.

In the event of an excessive number of applicants the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy earlier than indicated.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust takes its responsibilities for the safeguarding and protection of children and young people and vulnerable adults very seriously and expects this of all its employees and bank workers. The Trust works with adult and children's social care to ensure that the integrated service has systems in place to equip staff and bank workers with the knowledge and skills to recognize abuse, and take action to safeguard and protect vulnerable adults and children and young people. It is expected that all staff and bank workers familiarise themselves with the appropriate structures and policies and with the Sussex child protection and safeguarding procedures and the Sussex multi-agency policy and procedures for safeguarding vulnerable adults and undertake the relevant essential training and further training appropriate to their role.

Successful candidates are normally offered salaries at the bottom of the relevant salary range. However, where previous or equivalent NHS experience in a similar role can be demonstrated and evidenced, this may be taken into consideration when setting the starting salary.