Senior Liaison Mental Health Practitioner in Leeds

Are you looking for mental health jobs in Leeds, York or with one of our regional services operating across the country? We have a range of NHS Job opportunities, placements and specialities in our clinical, research, and professional support teams across Leeds and York.

At Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT), we strive to provide high-quality mental health and learning disability services as an employer of choice. We can only achieve this by putting our staff and the people using our services at the centre of everything we do. This starts with the people we employ. We recruit based on values and qualifications (where required) and believe lived experience is an advantage. We look for potential, not perfection, and this means that together, we are as diverse as the communities we care for.

Simply put, we seek out people who care, act with integrity and have the right skills. We want to add to our incredible colleagues, students and volunteers who share these principles, with people like you, who find empathy comes easily and who treat everyone with respect without thinking. Search our latest jobs to start your journey with us.

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Main area Liaison Psychiatry Hospital Mental Health Team Grade 6 Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 22.5 hours per week Job ref 173-57726-LPS

Site Liaison Psychiatry Hospital Mental Health Team Town Leeds Salary £39,959 - £48,117 pa pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 13/11/2026 23:59

Job overview

Due to the retirement of a colleague who has worked in the service for many years, a rare opportunity has arisen for a part time band 6 senior clinician in the department of Liaison Psychiatry, within the Older People’s Service.

Liaison Psychiatry services, sometimes called Psychological Medicine services, aim to support the delivery of integrated healthcare within the acute hospital. Liaison Psychiatry teams have specific skills, knowledge and expertise in assessing and treating patients who may have complex problems that cannot improve without addressing both their physical and mental health or psychological needs. Patients with mental health or psychological difficulty in the general hospital often have complex needs associated with longer lengths of stay, higher re-admission rates, and poorer health outcomes. We provide a specialist Liaison Psychiatry service to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) which aims to minimise the extent to which psychological or psychiatric symptoms prevent patients from getting the best possible outcomes from medical care.

This opportunity is perfect for an experienced registered professional who has an interest in this specialist and rewarding area. Applicants should express a strong interest in Liaison Psychiatry in their application.

This is a part time position, 22.5 hours per week

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will work within a well-established and supportive multidisciplinary team, based at Beckett Wing, St James Hospital and working into St James Hospital, Leeds General Hospital and Chapel Allerton Hospital.

Our teams strongly value teaching and continued learning and so we offer a commitment to your ongoing development, as well as a culture of continuous reflection, learning, and improvement. You will be provided with a comprehensive and supported period of induction which is tailored to your needs. We also have established twice-monthly teaching sessions, regular reflective practice sessions, and offer regular supervision and shadowing opportunities.

Our core working hours are Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, but our out of hours service is supported by the older people's team on weekdays between 5pm-9pm and weekends/bank holidays 9am-5pm. This means there is a requirement for some evening and weekend working.

Informal enquiries and discussions are highly encouraged, please contact Clinical Team Manger Cassie Hartley on 07929858660. Alternatively, you can contact the team directly on 0113 20 67147 and any of the team members will be happy to talk to you about the role.

Working for our organisation

The Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) is the main provider of Mental Health and Learning Disability services in Leeds. We also provide specialist inpatient services in York and some highly specialised services across the country. As a teaching trust with strong links to local universities, we are a centre of excellence for teaching, research and development.

There are many benefits of working for LYPFT including fantastic employee wellbeing support, 27 - 33 days annual leave, flexible working and remote working arrangements, the NHS Pension Scheme, coaching, support and opportunities for career development and training and education support alongside a range of exclusive discounts and payment schemes including for cars, extra leave days and more NHS Discount Offers.

We also have a bank department, offering variety of roles in nursing, allied health professions, healthcare support worker and administration clerical. Permanent employees are automatically added to bank.

Applicants should be aware that individuals requiring a visa to work in the UK, the Trust only provides sponsorship for registered healthcare practitioner roles(this does not include Healthcare Support Workers). This is an essential requirement, and the Trust is unable to offer you a role if you do not meet Trust requirements for sponsorship and Home Office requirements for a visa.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The role involves providing biopsychosocial assessment, risk assessment and short-term psychosocial interventions to patients admitted to a general hospital bed. You will develop robust clinical formulation and subsequent management plans that safely and effectively meet the needs of the patient and ward team. You will hold and autonomously manage a small caseload and also support the provision of new patient assessments and more intensive input for patients who require full MDT oversight or input due to a higher level of need.

You will also provide advice and education to our general hospital colleagues around topics/issues such as mental health presentations, risk management, legal frameworks, and available statutory or voluntary community services. You will work collaboratively with our general hospital colleagues to meet the needs of patients with concurrent physical and mental health or psychological needs. It is essential that applicants are confident working in a general hospital setting and can communicate and work effectively, proactively and collaboratively with a broad range of clinicians from different medical and multidisciplinary specialities.

You will also be expected to deliver teaching both internally and to staff at the general hospital. This may be in a formal setting, or as informal situations arise.

We recruit people based on their values and qualifications (where required) and believe that their lived experience is an advantage, this means that together we are as diverse as the communities we care for. Simply put, when we employ caring people who act with integrity and have the right skills, we can give those with mental health challenges, learning disabilities and neurodiversity high-quality care and support to live fulfilling lives, and make our staff feel purposeful, happy and valued.

All our information is available in accessible formats. Please contact the Recruitment team recruitment.lypft@nhs.net

Attached to this advert is our candidates guide to values-based recruitment and supporting guidance on how to make a successful application.

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Recruitment Team or see the attached candidate guide to reasonable adjustments.

To find out more about the key responsibilities and the specific skills and experience you’ll need, look at the Job Description & Person Specification attachments under the Supporting Documents heading.

So that you’re even more equipped to make an informed decision to apply to us, you’ll need to take time to read the Candidate Guide to Values Based Recruitment. This document provides you with information to help you apply.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Degree/diploma in nursing (Mental Health), Occupational Therapy, or Social Work

Skills

• Evidence of partnership working with a wide range of services and professionals

Experience

• Working at least 2 years at Band 5 (or above)

Knowledge

• Demonstrates high level of competence in the assessment, treatment and evaluation of interventions with service users and carers, using a person centered approach.

Values Based

• Tell us about a time when you spotted something small going wrong and did something to stop it becoming a bigger issue.
• Tell us about a time when you realised a colleague or someone you know needed a bit of support and you offered to help.
• Tell us about a time when you showed someone kindness or understanding.

Applications are welcomed from candidates who wish to apply for a position based on a smarter (Hybrid) or flexible working arrangement. Where candidates are successful at interview, flexible working arrangement requests will be taken into consideration and may be accommodated where the needs of the service allow.

Fixed Term Contracts for existing NHS Employees – temporary contracts for employees of LYPFT, or colleagues joining from another NHS Trust, will be offered on a secondment basis wherever possible. In the event this is not possible, an FTC would be issued and this would require a break in service of two weeks.

The purpose of a temporary is role could be for maternity cover, temporary funding or some other reason. At the end of which the need for the temporary work will cease. Temporary roles can stop, be extended and/or made permanent at any point during the period of work. Should the role become permanent then the post-holder will be informed of the process to be followed to convert the position to a permanent one.

All new employees are required to subscribe to the DBS Update Service.

Patient Safety is a priority at LYPFT with a focus on system-based improvement and creating opportunities for learning. We will ensure compassionate engagement with all those involved in an incident and all incidents are met with a proportionate response. LYPFT is committed to upholding its’ statutory responsibilities in relation to safeguarding adults and children. Please refer to job description for further information.

LYPFT is a member of the Disability Confident scheme and is committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process.

As part of the Trust's commitment to its Gold Standard Armed Forces Covenant status, members of the Armed Forces Community are entitled to a guaranteed interview subject to meeting the role criteria.

We welcome applicants with lived experience of providing unpaid care and/or support to a family member or friend with a disability, health condition, frailty, mental health problem, addiction or other health needs.

Please note that the Trust reserves the right to close the vacancy before the closing date if enough applications are received. It is in the candidate’s best interest to apply as soon as possible. In submitting an application form, you authorize Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the ESR IAT process should you be appointed to the post.

In applying for a role please ensure that you only declare qualifications that are relevant to the role itself. We reserve the right to check all declared qualifications on an application form, whether they are directly relevant to the role or not.

Please note: The Trust does not offer reimbursement of interview expenses.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

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