Practitioner - Criminal Justice Mental Health Service

A Vacancy at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled Band 6 practitioners with an interest and/or experience in the criminal justice system to be an integral part of both a court liaison and diversion team and a police custody suite assessment team. You will be working with both adults and young people, within what is a very interesting and rewarding area of care that is continuing to develop further.

As a front-line service, each day can be different in what is often a busy and unpredictable environment.

The service ethos is to proactively intervene at the earliest possible opportunity in the Criminal Justice system pathway, so that those in need of support receive appropriate care and treatment in a timely fashion.

The people we provide services to come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do but because it makes us better at what we do. No matter your age, gender, ethnicity, disability, gender identity, religion or sexual orientation, if you are committed to generating the best possible outcomes for our service users then we want to hear from you.

As a Liaison and Diversion Practitioner, some of the responsibilities you can expect will include:

• Proactive screening of cases in police custody or at court.


• On-the-day triaging and assessment - including full mental state examinations, risk assessment and gathering of background history for individuals presenting with a wide variety of established or suspected needs. These can include anxiety, challenging behaviour, serious mental illness, personality disorder, neurodiversity needs speech and language difficulties, substance misuse and associated social issues within police custody.


• Responding to detainees who present with urgent and non-urgent clinical issues with appropriate interventions. Interventions may include onward referrals for a Mental Health Act assessment, advice, signposting or making onward referrals into primary, secondary or voluntary care agencies.


• Providing advice, information and support to custody/court personnel.


• Provision of written assessment summaries to police, court and other relevant agencies in the criminal justice pathway.


• Liaising with CAMHS, YOT practitioners or other relevant agencies whilst screening young people.


• Recording data for regular auditing and evaluation.


Some weekend/bank holiday working may be involved in the role.

To demonstrate strong assessment skills, solid problem solving and decision making and developing holistic and patient centred care plans whilst also being able to recognise when they may need senior clinical/managerial advice/support and to actively seek this in the clinical setting.

To facilitate appropriate signposting to/referring on, or interventions in close collaboration and liaison with other relevant agencies. Developing a good working knowledge and understanding of local services and pathways will be important in this role. Knowledge of clinical pathways will enable the applicant in the ambition of facilitating a persons diversion away from the criminal justice pathway at the earliest possible opportunity. (The term 'diversion' being used in its widest possible sense and includes urgent and non-urgent pathways).

Demonstrate effective communication with colleagues, partners and stakeholders and with people in vulnerable groups. The candidates approach will be inclusive, collaborative and helpful. Communication types include verbal, written and digital methods of communication. Competent digital skills will be needed for this role.

To actively promote relationships with colleagues that support open communication and collaborative working, taking personal responsibility for one's contribution to this process at all times.

To maintain a high standard of written communication that is mindful of the readership and takes into account the legal context. Written work will also involve recording appropriate events and observations to evidence interventions.

Proactively seek service user feedback about their experiences of liaison and diversion to inform and shape our service., Please note- this position is offered subject to a successful Police Vetting application that will enable you to enable work in police custody locations. As such, you will be subjected to a significantly higher level of vetting than is standard. This vetting is conducted by the Metropolitan Police and is essentially a detailed background check. One of the most essential criteria is that you are required to have resided in the UK for at least 3 years.


• comprehensive pay, pensions and leavers package which is dependent on the role and length of service.


• Work life balance, flexible working and support a range of flexible options, such as: part-time working and job sharing.


• Career development, There are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and we support your development through a number of programmes such as mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes


• Car lease, our staff benefits from competitive deals to lease cars


• Accommodation, our staff benefits from keyworker housing available which is available on selected sites


• NHS discounts, with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands though Health Service Discounts website.


• We are committed to get the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career aspirations. We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles across different specialties. For this role, we offer career pathways to Senior clinical Practitioner or Clinical Team Leader. In addition, we offer ongoing training and development in Leadership and MSC programme.


To work with colleagues, police, custody healthcare staff and other custody/court staff (inc Appropriate Adults) in order to provide a comprehensive and integrated vulnerability screening and assessment service.