Senior Primary Care Mental Health Nurse

Job overview

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner (Band 7 )to join the Primary Care Mental Health Service covering the Braintree and Maldon locality in Essex. This is a full-time, 12-month fixed-term position working 37.5 hours per week.

The successful applicant will ideally be a Non-Medical Prescriber with experience working within community mental health services. Based within GP practices, you will work closely with Primary Care teams to provide triage, assessment, treatment, follow-up and brief interventions for patients across the locality.

The role requires autonomous practice and confidence in assessing and managing individuals presenting with common mental health disorders.

Excellent assessment, risk management and communication skills are essential, strong knowledge of local mental health and community support services. The successful candidate will act as a key gatekeeper for referrals into secondary mental health services, offering specialist advice, consultation, education and support.

You will assess and manage patients with common mental health conditions, signpost to appropriate services, and support the development of integrated care pathways. Working collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams, improving access to mental health care and achieving positive outcomes for service users across the locality.

Main duties of the job

Ability to work under pressure and ability to contain and manage the stress of others and oneself

Robust clinical judgement

Ability to work autonomously and take an appropriate level of responsibility

Participate in Patient Safety investigations, complaints and any relevant investigations in line with Trust policies.

Mentorship and supervision of students

Develop innovative practice to deal creatively with service demands for referrals, allocations, monitoring of KPI’s and clinical caseload management

To hold a UK driving licence, essential to drive to Primary care network bases and trust sites.

Work in conjunction with the GP, Primary Care team and Consultant Psychiatrists to ensure that patients are supported in the most appropriate clinical practice environment from a Multi-disciplinary perspective.

Triage and Assess patients and facilitate them receiving the most appropriate support for their needs ensuring people are not passed around the system.

Manage and deliver effective and safe services which support the key elements of Clinical/Practice governance.

Provide and undertake detailed Physical Health investigations such as ECGs and offer basic interpretation of the results.

Non medical prescriber

To have knowledge of Systmone patient Documentation system.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner will play a key role in delivering high-quality, integrated mental health care within Primary Care, ensuring patients receive timely assessment, intervention, and access to the most appropriate services.

Key responsibilities include:

• Providing comprehensive mental health assessments, triage, risk assessment, care planning, treatment, and follow-up for individuals experiencing common mental health disorders.
• Acting as a gatekeeper for referrals into secondary mental health services, ensuring patients are supported through a seamless pathway of care and are not unnecessarily passed between services.
• Working collaboratively with GPs, Primary Care teams, Consultant Psychiatrists, Community Mental Health Teams, and partner agencies to support recovery and wellbeing in the community.
• Delivering evidence-based psychological and non-psychological interventions in line with NICE guidance and best practice.
• Signposting and referring service users to appropriate internal, external, statutory, voluntary, and community-based services to meet identified needs.
• Providing specialist advice, consultation, education, and support to enhance the assessment and management of mental health presentations.
• Undertaking physical health monitoring and investigations, including ECGs, and supporting the integration of physical and mental healthcare.
• Supporting safe clinical practice and ensuring compliance with Trust policies, Clinical Governance frameworks, Care Quality Commission standards, and the NHS Constitution.
• Managing medication safely, including monitoring effectiveness, side effects, concordance, and providing education and support to service users and carers.
• Providing professional and clinical leadership within multidisciplinary meetings, safeguarding processes, and complex case discussions.
• Supervising, supporting, and developing junior staff where appropriate, contributing to workforce development and service improvement.
• Delivering training and educational programmes to Primary Care teams to improve knowledge and understanding of mental health and wellbeing.
• Contributing to the ongoing development of integrated care pathways, service redesign, quality improvement initiatives, and the achievement of service performance targets and KPIs.
• Maintaining accurate clinical records, incident reporting, risk management documentation, and activity data using electronic patient record systems, including SystmOne.
• Promoting patient independence, recovery, and positive health outcomes through person-centred care.
• The above is not an exhaustive list of expected clinical or managerial duties to be undertaken.

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.