Mental Health Practitioner

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

Mental Health Practitioner

The closing date is 24 March 2026

Barrow Home Based Treatment Team is looking to welcome a Mental Health Practitioner to their team.

The Home Based Treatment team work in the community with people in acute mental health distress; they support people in their own home to avoid hospital admission and support early discharge from hospital.

The team are looking for a mental health practitioner that is highly motivated and enthusiastic. The successful applicant will need to be able to demonstrate excellent clinical skills, a good working knowledge of mental health and community services, excellent communication skills, and be able to manage change and support colleagues around learning and development.

You will need to be proactive, innovative and able to provide quality care, putting the service users and carers at the heart of everything you do. In return, we will offer excellent supervision, training, support, and an environment for you to develop and enhance your current skills.

The Barrow HBTT is a 12 hour service working shift pattern of long days, although happy to discuss flexible working patterns.

Anyone wishing to discuss this opportunity please contact Team manager Karen Ellis on .

Main duties of the job

You will provide a comprehensive assessment and triage service and, where necessary, signpost or facilitate onward care to a mental health pathway. Your referrers will include GPs, Police, self referrals and referrals from carers via the Initial Response Service, as well as direct referrals from our Acute Hospital colleagues and other LSCFT agencies. Service users will be triaged collaboratively and a decision will be made in consultation with the referrer.

This comprehensive, collaborative triage system will lead to clear onward facilitation of service users to the most appropriate care following assessment.

The post holder will provide evidence based mental health assessments and/or signpost to alternative service provision for people who require a specialist urgent mental health assessment. The post holder may offer follow up appointments within the agreed timescale for intervention as part of the ongoing assessment process.

About us

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under represented groups. If you'd like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT supports flexible working; we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi time.

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role.

Person Specification Education / Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse / Social Worker / Occupational Therapist

Knowledge

• Able to understand the difference between crisis planning and contingency planning and formulate explicit planning in these areas
• Knowledge, understanding and experience of the care pathways for psychosis and non psychosis and relevant interventions
• Understanding of how physical illness and substance misuse can affect the mental health of individuals
• Knowledge of Safeguarding procedures, Criminal Justice procedures, Mental Health legislation, guidance and processes
• Able to demonstrate high level problem solving skills, ability to prioritise work, flexibility, good time management skills and commitment to continuous development of service

Experience

• Strong customer service and negotiation skills
• Ability and skills in undertaking robust psychosocial urgent assessments of mental health service user needs
• Complete risk assessments which reflect the risk a service user may pose. Transfer the risk assessment into robust risk management planning.

Personal

• Demonstrate the ability to work sensitively in a non judgemental way with service users who are in crisis
• Able to work autonomously within the community
• Willingness to work a 24 hour pattern
• Transfer all identified needs into a robust care plan

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.

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

£38,682 to £46,580 per annum (subject to confirmation)