Band 6 Intensive Specialist Practitioner – HMP Eastwood Park (3-Month Contract)

Overview and Purpose

Job Title: Specialist Practitioner – Intensive Pay Band: Band 6 Specialty: HMP Mental Health Services Base: HMP Eastwood Park, Falfield, South Glos, GL12 8DB Responsible to: Team Manager Hours: 37.5 hours per week Required Pattern: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Duration of Booking: 3 Months System Access: RiO/Smartcard Access Required

Job Purpose

This high-impact contract role is focused on providing appropriate, effective interventions and treatments to individuals with a range of mental health needs (severe and enduring) and their supporters within a secure environment. The goal is to enable and assist service users to meet their daily health, social care, and well-being needs in line with personal recovery goals.

The post holder will work autonomously to undertake emergency assessments, planning and delivering defined, intensive, specialist interventions in line with the CPA framework to service users who may be distressed and in crisis. A key focus is to plan, deliver, and review effective “wrap around” intensive interventions to manage risk and prevent hospital admission for those with the most complex needs.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

1. Comprehensive Assessment: Undertake the full range of activities required to deliver comprehensive mental health assessment, often in an emergency or crisis, including the use of standardised tools (e.g., CAST, KGV), mental state assessment, evaluation of risk, and social care needs.
2. Treatment Programmes: Be responsible for developing, delivering, and reviewing comprehensive and complex treatment programmes using appropriate frameworks in line with evidence-based practice, including strategies to manage risk.
3. Specialist Interventions: Plan, deliver, and evaluate defined, specialist therapeutic interventions, which may include individual or group therapeutic intervention, psychological treatments (such as CBT/DBT approaches), psychosocial interventions, motivational strategies, and medication management.
4. Care Coordination: Act as Care/Recovery Coordinator for service users as appropriate, providing defined interventions to individuals on other workers’ caseloads.
5. Crisis Management: Facilitate the development of comprehensive crisis plans, rapid access plans, and advance statements in collaboration with service users and carers.
6. Safeguarding and Risk: Be responsible for the protection of individuals from abuse and harm in line with local safeguarding policies, including coordinating and undertaking protective interventions.
7. Clinical Leadership: Undertake active clinical leadership and supervision within the team, covering for the manager and colleagues as required.
8. Record Keeping: Maintain the single health and social care record, ensuring both paper and electronic records are kept up to date in accordance with professional and organisational standards.

Person Specification (Essential)

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

• Qualification/Registration: Diploma level/Degree in a relevant health/social care profession (e.g., RMN, OT, Social Worker) with current, relevant registration (NMC or HCPC).
• Frontline Experience: Demonstrable substantial post-registration experience gained working in a range of front-line adult mental health services, undertaking assessment and delivering interventions.
• Therapeutic Skills: Ability to deliver key therapeutic interventions (CBT, Psychosocial interventions, Family Interventions, DBT approaches).
• Risk & Legal: Substantial experience of assessing risk and developing risk management strategies, alongside a detailed understanding of relevant legal frameworks/legislation (CPA process, Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act, and Safeguarding).
• Supervision: Substantial experience of supervising others and monitoring their performance.
• Communication: Highly developed verbal and written communication skills, able to engage effectively with people at all levels, even when a more assertive approach is needed.
• IT & Mobility: Substantially developed IT skills (including electronic record keeping systems) and mobile with the facility to move quickly across a geographically dispersed area.