Job summary
- Main area
- Offender Healthcare
- Grade
- Band 6
- Contract
- Bank
- Hours
- Flexible working - 0 hours per week (Up to 37.5hrs p/wk, Please note bank hours are ad-hoc and not guaranteed)
- Job ref
- 277-BankMHPrac-B6-Kent
- Employer
- Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Kent Prisons
- Town
- Sheppey
- Salary
- £41,405 per annum pro-rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 01/07/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Bank MH Practitioner Kent Prisons
Band 6
Job overview
Bank Mental Health Practitioner Band 6
Thank you for taking an interest in our Mental Health Practitioner Bank Role. We hope that you find this overview useful and look forward to receiving your application.
Our healthcare departments operate across seven prisons each of which require a bespoke service responding to the prisoner and prison needs:
Prison |
Location |
Category |
Population |
Healthcare |
||
HMP Elmley |
Isle of Sheppey |
‘B’ Remand |
1,200 (male) |
24/7 Inc. Inpatient Unit |
||
HMP Swaleside |
‘B’ High Security |
1,200 (male) |
||||
HMP Standford Hill |
‘D’ Open |
500 (male) |
Standard |
|||
HMP Rochester/ HMP Cookham Wood |
Rochester |
‘C’ |
650 (male) |
24/7 |
||
HMP Maidstone |
Maidstone |
‘C’ |
500 (male) |
24/7 |
||
HMP E Sutton Park |
‘D’ Open |
100 (female) |
Standard |
|||
The seven prisons are located across three estates, Isle of Sheppey, Rochester and Maidstone, with the Isle of Sheppey prisons being with a few minutes’ walk from each other and East Sutton Park approximately 7 miles from Maidstone.
Please note this role is to join the Trust Bank and shifts are as and when required
Main duties of the job
Key Tasks and Responsibilities
As a Mental Health Practitioner you will be providing specialist mental healthcare to offenders and working as part of the Mental Health In-Reach Team, plus wider mental health services.
You will be required to work in a psychologically minded way with offenders in achieving their agreed goals and quality health outcomes.
Our Mental Health Team provide specialist interventions at primary and secondary care level including; referral management, screening assessment, triage, evidence-based interventions, care planning and risk assessing, plus one-to-one and group-work facilitation.
Our Mental Health Nurses manage a mixed and challenging caseload and are required to perform robust assessment, screening and interventions to offenders with learning disabilities and mental health conditions. You will contribute to alternatives to inpatient admission and assisting with early discharge through the implementation of high intensity interventions and complex case management arrangements.
One of our key aims is to ensure continuity of care for an offender on ordinary location and reduce the length of stay, both in relation to prison inpatient services and external NHS/independent in-patient services. You will work closely with community mental health teams to ensure appropriate sharing of information, continuity of care and the Care Programme Approach for all offenders as necessary
Working for our organisation
Oxleas – About Us
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
- We’re Kind
- We’re Fair
- We Listen
- We Care
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To provide specialist mental healthcare to service users and to work as part of the Mental Health In-Reach Team and wider MDT.
To deliver a range of specialist interventions at primary and secondary care level; to include
· Referral management, screening assessment, triage, and evidence-based interventions
· Care Planning and risk assessing
· One-to-one and group-work facilitation
· managing a mixed and challenging caseload
Key Principles of the health and wellbeing model for Prison Service:
Service user focus with health promotion at the heart of our care
Putting the right staff in the right place at the right time – specialist posts to ensure that experience is on hand to lead and support service users by employing specialist practitioners in neurodevelopmental long-term conditions, older adults, complex case practitioners and discharge coordinators.
Designing and delivering healthcare for the unique needs of each prison setting.
Being highly supportive of clinical and prison staff with training and support enabling the team to work smarter and as part of an effective MDT.
3. Key Task and Responsibilities
- To perform robust assessment, screening, and interventions to service users with mental health and neurodevelopmental and trauma needs.
- Ensure that all waiting time, assessment and interventions are delivered in a timely manner, and positively contribute to the achievement of the service’s performance targets.
- Ensure integrated and collaborative working with other specialist services, including continuity of care and through the gate arrangements and liaison.
- Work closely with community mental health teams (CMHTs) to ensure appropriate sharing of information, continuity of care and the Care Programme Approach (CPA) for all service users where necessary.
- To provide comprehensive and timely reports and mental health expertise to multi agency public protection panels (MAPPA), police, probation services, solicitors and court liaison teams as directed.
- Deliver active clinical leadership and supervision within the team, covering for the manager and colleagues as required. To receive supervision as directed (line management and clinical).
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Diploma level/Degree in relevant health/social care profession, eg RMN, RLDN OT, Social Worker.
- Current relevant registration with the NMC or HCPC
Desirable criteria
- Post registration training in one of the following areas: Learning disability, Personality disorder, Substance misuse/dual diagnosis, Psychological therapies
Experience
Essential criteria
- Two years substantive post-registration experience gained working in a range of frontline adult mental health services, undertaking assessment and delivering interventions
Desirable criteria
- Previous prison/secure experience
Skills
Essential criteria
- Good written and verbal communication skills
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
- Clare Denny
- Job title
- Recruitment & Retention Resourcing Officer
- Email address
- [email protected]
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