Consultant Psychiatrist - Wantage Community Hospital

Job overview

Are you ready to take the next step on your career and be our leading Consultant Psychiatrist for our Adult Mental Health Team based at Wantage Community Hospital?

This is a part time 8PA position where you will join an established Community Psychiatric Team serving adults of working age in Wantage. You'll contribute to the continued development of integrated community mental health services.

This role offers scope to provide senior clinical leadership and expert psychiatric input to the multidisciplinary team, shape local pathways and contribute to service development across the interface between secondary care, primary care and community partners, Deputy Team Managers, Service Manager and consultant colleagues.

The role includes consultant responsibility for patients under the care of the team, while also offering the opportunity to influence safe, effective and recovery-focused community care across the wider service.

This is a unique opportunity to 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 senior clinical leadership and expert psychiatric input to the team, including complex case formulation, risk assessment and decision-making in high-risk or diagnostically challenging presentations.
• Provide senior medical input and clinical leadership to AMHT. You will have responsibility for those patients seen by yourself, together with those patients seen by medical staff directly under your supervision.
• Act as a senior clinical decision-maker within MDT forums and provide specialist psychiatric advice across the service, supporting recovery-oriented, trauma-informed and evidence-based care.
• Work alongside the whole AMHT team managers, service manager and the other consultant psychiatrists in the service to ensure the effective functioning and development of the service.
• Provide direct clinical supervision and line management to the trainees and speciality doctor and any senior trainee placed with the team. This will include 1 hour per week psychiatry supervision for each trainee in an accredited training post.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Wantage AMHT is based at Wantage Community Hospital. The team serves adults aged 18 to 65 across a primarily urban and rural catchment area, and a population of approximately 32,000. The team receives around 230 referrals per year, with referral patterns evolving following the development of the PCMHT. The team holds a whole-team caseload of approximately 190 patients requiring longer-term treatment and coordinated multidisciplinary care. The consultant hold 3 clinics a week, with an approximate ratio of 5 follow ups to one new assessment. The consultant will see approximately 1 to 2 new assessment per week, 10-14 follow ups and hold a caseload of approximately 150-200 patients.

Wantage Team works with adults presenting with significant clinical complexity, including severe and enduring mental illness, complex risk presentations and needs requiring coordinated multidisciplinary input. The Consultant Psychiatrist will provide direct assessment and treatment, while also offering senior clinical oversight of the wider caseload through MDT discussion, care planning and complex case review. The post offers a varied clinical role, including typically one to two new assessments per week, follow-up clinics and complex reviews within a secondary care CMHT model.

Current team leadership: Vacant Consultant Psychiatrist post (0.8 FTE) Team Manager (1.0 FTE)

The Consultant Psychiatrist will work closely with the Team Manager to provide joined-up clinical and operational leadership, supporting collaborative local decision-making, effective MDT working and high-quality patient care. Consultants work part-time across the week, covering 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, and provide senior leadership alongside the Operational Manager and non-medical Clinical Lead. AMHT staff are aligned as closely as possible to consultant catchment areas, specific geographical localities and GP surgeries, supporting continuity of care, familiarity with patients and strong links with Primary Care Networks.

AMHTs work closely with primary care, which remains the main source of referrals. Primary Care Hubs now receive most routine referrals, while AMHTs continue to triage appropriate referrals and allocate patients for assessment. Following assessment, the team may offer acute or longer-term treatment or support onward referral or signposting to other services and agencies where this best meets the person’s needs.

Primary Care Mental Health Teams (PCMHT) have been developed in line with the Community Mental Health Framework and the NHS Long Term Plan for Mental Health, with the aim of providing timely, accessible care closer to home. This model places community mental health services at the centre of local communities, improves access to advice and support, and aligns with the Health on the High Street agenda by making services more visible and accessible in familiar community settings.

The PCMHT offer includes access to wider support services that help people maintain their mental health and wellbeing, including housing, benefits, drug and alcohol services, Citizens Advice, and health and wellbeing support. Based within Keystone Hubs, PCMHTs provide space for individual and group interventions and support access through self-referral. The Hubs are intended to be welcoming, non-stigmatised high street venues used by the public, community groups and people seeking mental health support.

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).

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.