Liaison and Diversion Practitioner - Police Custody in Bury St Edmunds

We are looking for registered health or social care professionals to work in a team in a fast-paced criminal justice environment. You will need to be a registered RMN, RLDN, OT or Social Worker. You should be able to demonstrate significant post-registration experience working in a mental health setting or relevant experience with service users with mental health issues.

For this post, you will work in police custody and complete triage assessments with people whilst they are detained there (from the age of ten). You will work closely with the police, and your assessment and information gathering will support that person across the offender pathway. Depending on a person’s criminal justice journey, this may include Courts and Probation and the wider health and social care systems in the community.

Whilst the team all perform the Liaison and Diversion Practitioner role, your colleagues come from a range of professional backgrounds including social workers, paramedics, midwives, health visitors, approved mental health professionals, physical health nurses and a learning disability nurse. In this role, your criminal justice knowledge will greatly expand, so we welcome applicants who have not worked in this area as we can provide training and your knowledge will develop as you work across the team.

We are looking for a full-time team member to join our team in Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre for a 12-month fixed term contract. Your primary role will be to complete holistic triage assessments for people who have been arrested and brought to police custody. You will possess excellent interpersonal skills that will enable you to challenge, motivate, influence, and inspire at all levels.

As part of a small team, you will work various shift patterns comprising of mostly 9-hour shifts, to enable the service to cover extended hours, seven days per week, 365 days a year. The working criminal justice locations include Police Investigation Centres (PIC’s), Courts and other supporting criminal justice/health environments in line with service need. However, this role will primarily work inside the PIC (custody). The service covers both Norfolk and Suffolk and may require some cross county working. It is essential that you can travel independently. Travel to other PICs could occur, mostly at Martlesham. You will also be required to complete remote telephone assessments depending on service needs at other PICs located further away.

Benefits

• NHS pension
• Comprehensive in house & external training programmes
• Career progression
• Starting annual leave of 27 days per annum increasing to 33 days per annum based on length of service (plus paid bank holidays)
• Staff physio service
• Gym membership
• NHS discounts and many more

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly, and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing their experiences and learning from each other. NSFT is committed to lifelong learning and continuous professional development (CPD) for its entire staff. There are a variety of definitions of CPD across the professions, but it is usually taken to mean learning activities which update existing skills. CPD is determined through appraisal with a personal development plan agreed between an individual and their manager, with the commitment of the necessary time and resources.