Job summary
- Main area
- Nursing
- Grade
- Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 380-WK0332
- Employer
- Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Laurel House, Canterbury
- Town
- Canterbury
- Salary
- £47,810 - £54,710 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 19/11/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Rough Sleeper Mental Health Practitioner
Band 7
We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We offer a range of ongoing benefits to our valued workforce. From an active health and wellbeing programme to regular recognition events, we work hard to provide varied benefits that make a difference to your work-life balance.
Would you like to work flexibly? In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you.
Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement.
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Job overview
Please note, at this stage, the role is open only to internal staff (including NHSP and Agency staff currently on placement within our organisation) and staff substantively employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB). Any individual who is at risk of redundancy will be given priority, provided they meet the essential criteria.
Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust has an exciting opportunity for an experienced mental health professional to come and work with the new East Kent Mental Health Rough Sleepers Service.
The team work closely with the borough councils to enhance the homelessness services for vulnerable rough sleepers and those at risk of sleeping on the streets. The project provides the opportunity to tackle the ongoing needs of vulnerable rough sleepers who have fallen out of services, or who will not engage with traditional pathways of support and housing, often with chaotic lives and a history of offending, drug and alcohol use and being excluded from mainstream services.
With estimates ranging from 40%-80% of the rough sleeping population living with mental illness, it is a major contributory factor to people not being able to find or maintain a home. As rough sleepers average age of death is 43, we cannot let this need go unmet.
Main duties of the job
- Carry out regular outreach alongside homelessness staff to identify unmet mental health needs and make appropriate referrals.
- Visit vulnerable people in our supported accommodation, housing first flats, or general needs accommodation, to assess if they have the right level and type of support around their mental health needs.
- Identify where people need to be fast tracked into primary care services.
- Advise colleagues across the Mental Health Rough Sleeper Service and to our housing related support services regarding good practice.
- Take part in two monthly rough sleeper counts in the early hours of the morning.
- Attend operational groups and panels to agree best use of housing resources available to meet the needs of rough sleepers.
Working for our organisation
We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway. Our teams support adults with a wide range of mental health needs. Because we cover the whole county and both hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the 1.8 million people of Kent and Medway. Rated ‘Good’ by the CQC, we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 in the community each year.
Our vision is simple: We are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It’s why we’re passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. And everything we do is guided by our values caring, inclusive, curious and confident.
Join us - if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that’s doing well together.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).
We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
Please see the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities of the role.
Person specification
Training, Qualifications and Registration
Essential criteria
- Registered RMN/OT or Social Worker
- Educated to degree level or equivalent in Occupational Therapy or Social Work
Desirable criteria
- Management qualification
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant post registration experience
- Previous experience of recovery focused service provision with individuals who have complex mental health needs, substance misuse and offending behaviour.
- Previous experience of working in a community team
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working in with marginalised groups
- Experience of working in a primary care environment
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Specialist knowledge of dual diagnosis issues and experience of working within the mental health or substance misuse field, including with alcohol users.
- Strong leadership skills including negotiating and influencing skills
- Knowledge and understanding of Adult safeguarding
- Working knowledge of Mental Health Act 1983
Desirable criteria
- Understanding of the requirements of Quality Improvement Methodology including QSIR.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Sarah Rodger-Smith
- Job title
- General Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07930828201
- Additional information
Jane Berwick Service Manager for Ashford and Canterbury Mental Health Services [email protected] - Tel: 07584887254
Mariama Bah Independent prescriber with Rough Sleepers Team. [email protected] - 07880252581
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