Consultant Psychiatrist - Assertive Outreach Team Oxford

Job overview

Are you ready to take the next step on your career and be our leading Consultant Psychiatrist for the newly established Assertive Outreach Team?

This is full time position based in Oxford where you will lead on delivering a specialised services to vulnerable adults with severe and enduring mental disorders following NHSE guidance to enhance intensive and assertive community mental health care.

Working alongside a newly formed team you'll be delivering a service to meet the needs of around 90 patients across Oxford city who have severe and complex psychosis, multiple comorbidities, high rates of hospital admission, present with significant risks and find it hard to engage with mental health services. Assertive engagement, evidence-based bio psycho social treatment plans, collating and sharing information with system partners, carers and families, risk formulation and safety planning will be at the heart of the service’s therapeutic approach.

This is a unique opportunity to build a service that will make a lasting impact to mental health care and patient recovery outcomes. We're looking for applicants who have full GMC registration and are on the Specialist Register or within six months of CCT. You'll need to be eligible for Section 12 Approval/Approved Clinician status or willing to apply for this once in post.

If you're a ready for a challenge and want to work for one of the UK's leading mental health Trusts, we would be delighted to receive your application.

Main duties of the job

• Provide clinical leadership and medical input to the team in delivering responsive, effective and inclusive mental health community services to the designated catchment area.
• Provision of evidence-based bio-psychosocial interventions to promote recovery and social inclusion, including integrative working with external agencies to ensure community engagement.
• Responsibility for those patients seen by himself/herself, together with those patients seen by medical staff directly supervised by them.
• Provide expert assessments informed by evidence for referred individuals with severe and enduring mental health difficulties and complex needs.
• Have responsibility for the clinical governance of the team as one of the clinical leads for the team.
• Actively liaise with other mental health teams to ensure continuity of care and appropriate information sharing.
• Provide RC responsibility for outpatients under the provisions of the MHA.
• Communicate and liaise with patients, families, relatives, carers and any other agencies as appropriate.
• Play an active role in training for team members as well as in the programme and wider Trust, including teaching medical students, Resident doctors and members of the MDT.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Oxford City Assertive Outreach Team is being created specifically to engage and support people with severe mental illness who find it difficult to access or remain connected with traditional mental health services. We will deliver person-centred, recovery-focused care through persistent engagement, strong therapeutic relationships, and community-based interventions. Our practice is trauma-informed, strengths-based, and multidisciplinary, with a commitment to reducing health inequalities, promoting social inclusion, and enabling individuals to live meaningful lives in their communities.

Core Operating Principles - Oxford City Assertive Outreach Team:

• Person-Centred and Recovery-Focused Practice: We work alongside individuals to identify and achieve their personal goals, strengths, and aspirations. Recovery is defined by the person, not by services, and interventions are tailored to individual needs, preferences, and circumstances.
• Assertive Engagement: We proactively engage people who experience severe mental illness and who have difficulty maintaining contact with conventional services. Engagement is persistent, respectful, flexible, and based on building trusting therapeutic relationships over time.
• Community-Based Care: Care is mostly delivered in community settings where people live, work, and socialise. Staff meet people in environments that are comfortable and accessible to them, reducing barriers to engagement.
• Trauma-Informed Practice: We recognise the prevalence and impact of trauma and seek to create emotionally and physically safe interactions. Staff work collaboratively to avoid re-traumatisation and aim to promote empowerment, choice, and trust.
• Relational Practice: Therapeutic relationships are the primary vehicle for change. We prioritise consistency, reliability, compassion, and authenticity in all contacts with service users, carers, and partner agencies.
• Shared Decision-Making: People are supported to make informed decisions about their care and treatment wherever possible. Care planning is collaborative and respects autonomy, rights, and individual preferences. People under treatment are enabled through our patient reported outcome measures systems to give systematic feedback regarding their care.
• Strengths-Based Approach: We focus on people's capabilities, resilience, and community resources rather than solely on symptoms, deficits, or risks. We support individuals to build independence and social inclusion.
• Whole-Person Care: Mental health needs are addressed alongside physical health, housing, employment, finances, substance use, learning disabilities/autism, anti-social behaviours, social networks, and other determinants of wellbeing. We recognise that recovery requires more than symptom management.
• Risk Management Through Engagement: Risk is best understood and managed through meaningful relationships, regular contact, and collaborative planning and formulation. We balance positive risk-taking with the need to promote safety for our service users and members of the public.
• Multi-Disciplinary Team working: The team brings together diverse professional expertise to provide coordinated, holistic care. Decisions are informed by multiple perspectives and shared responsibility.
• Health Equity and Inclusion: We actively address barriers related to ethnicity, culture, language, disability, gender, sexuality, age, homelessness, and social disadvantage. Services are delivered in a way that promotes fairness and accessibility.
• Partnership Working: We work closely with primary care, acute services, social care, housing providers, voluntary organisations, criminal justice agencies, carers, and families to support recovery and continuity of care.
• Evidence-Based Practice: Interventions are informed by current evidence, national guidance, and continuous quality improvement. Staff are encouraged to develop specialist skills and contribute to service innovation.
• Flexible and Responsive Care: Support is adapted to changing needs and circumstances. The team responds rapidly to periods of increased vulnerability while maintaining continuity during periods of stability.
• Co-Production: People with lived experience, carers, and community partners contribute to the design, delivery, and evaluation of the service. Their expertise is valued equally alongside professional knowledge.

We offer rewarding career development with protected SPA time as part of your job plan, encouraging you to take leadership courses to enhance your skills. We also offer a relocation allowance of up to £8,000 for external applicants (subject to eligibility criteria).