Perinatal Community Mental Health Practitioner - Maternity Secondment

Job overview

We are pleased to offer a secondment opportunity for a Perinatal Practitioner to join the Dorset Perinatal Community Mental Health Service for a 14‑month period.

We welcome applications from professionally registered clinicians across a range of disciplines, including Mental Health Nursing, Occupational Therapy, and Social Work.

The service provides specialist mental health support to women experiencing difficulties during the perinatal period. This role offers an excellent opportunity for professionals with a strong interest in perinatal mental health to develop their skills and gain valuable experience within our dedicated Perinatal Services.

We are a supportive, friendly, and motivated team who will warmly welcome you into our service. This role provides an excellent opportunity to further develop your skills and knowledge within a specialist service, alongside regular support and supervision within a high performing multidisciplinary team.

We are proud that our perinatal service has one of the highest staff retention rates in the South West and consistently attracts high calibre professionals.

The Community Perinatal Mental Health Team provides coverage across pan Dorset to ensure services are accessible to women and families throughout the county, with two main bases at Dorchester (Forston Clinic) and Bournemouth (Alumhurst Road).

This particular role will focus on providing care and support within the east locality of Dorset.

Main duties of the job

As a Perinatal Practitioner, you will join a dynamic and supportive team, delivering specialist care to women experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties during pregnancy and up to two years postnatally.

You will play a key role in providing high-quality, evidence-based care, including assessment, treatment, and ongoing monitoring of maternal mental health. The role offers the opportunity to deliver a range of therapeutic interventions across community settings, including one-to-one support and group work, to improve outcomes for women, babies, and their families.

Working collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, you will liaise closely with a wide network of professionals, including Community Mental Health Teams, Midwifery Services, Health Visitors, and Children’s Social Care, ensuring coordinated and holistic care.

You will also contribute to the continued development of an innovative perinatal service, maintain accurate clinical records, and engage in regular supervision, training, and quality improvement initiatives.

This role is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, funded by the Trust.

This is a fixed term role and for those with current NHS service, the role will be offered on a secondment basis only.  Please obtain permission to be released on a secondment before submitting an application.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For the main duties and responsibilities for this role please read the attached job description and person specification.  When completing your application please ensure your supporting statement reflects the criteria set out in these documents by showing how your experience and skills apply to this post.

We understand that AI can be a useful tool when completing your application. However, we are seeing an increasing over-reliance of AI tools, which can negatively affect your application as it reduces a candidate’s individuality, and makes it difficult for us to gain a clear and authentic understanding of your experience, skills, and in turn your suitability for the role.

All submissions must be truthful and if you do use AI, it should only be used to enhance your application and not create your supporting statement in its entirety. Your supporting statement should be in your own words and must accurately reflect your personal experience and achievements.  Where we have concerns that AI has been used to generate content that misrepresents your experience and suitability for the role, we may withdraw your application.

As part of our vision to have a skilled, diverse and caring workforce, Dorset HealthCare offers support for people getting into work. We offer an employability service to support individuals with application writing, interview skills and other employment support. If you would like or know of anyone who would value this support, please do contact [email protected]