Assistant Practitioner - Drayton Park Women's Crisis House

Main area Assistant Practitioner - Drayton Park Women's Crisis House Grade Band 4 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (The post holder will be required to work shifts based on a 24hr shift pattern, e.g early, late, night shifts) Job ref 455-NLFT-7997929

Employer North London NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Drayton Park Women's Crisis House Town London Salary £33,262 - £36,027 per annum inclusive of Outer London HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 12/10/2026 08:00

Assistant Practitioner - Drayton Park Women's Crisis House

Band 4

Thank you for your interest in North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT).

As of 1 April 2026, NLFT has formally merged with Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust—marking the start of an exciting new chapter. This is a unique opportunity to join a forward-thinking organisation at a time of transformation, where we are strengthening access to mental health services, responding more effectively to complex and specialist needs, and advancing our work in education, research and innovation.

By bringing together our combined expertise, we are building a stronger, more collaborative Trust—one that delivers consistent, high-quality care and improved outcomes for the diverse communities we serve.

At the heart of our approach is The North London Way. We are committed to:

• Working collaboratively at every level, guided by our shared values
• Shaping a positive, inclusive culture where staff and service users thrive
• Empowering our teams with the skills, tools and autonomy to drive meaningful change
• Delivering excellence and continuously improving the quality of care we provide
• Embedding research, innovation and technology across our services
• Taking a trauma-informed approach in everything we do

We are proud to be an inclusive employer that values diversity. We actively welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly from our local communities, and are committed to creating opportunities for everyone—including apprentices, veterans and care leavers.

The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

As a values‑driven Trust, we recruit through our values. Our selection processes focus on behaviours, attitudes, and examples that reflect our organisational values and commitment to compassionate, high‑quality care.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role.

We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

North London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre-employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website.

We are looking for highly motivated Assistant Practitioners and clinical support workers to join the Drayton Park Women’s Crisis House and Resource centre.

The ideal candidates will be mainly working with supervision from senior staff to coordinate the residential stay, alongside colleagues, of a case load of women in mental health crisis. This will include offering one to one sessions, participating in risk assessments, collaborative planning, children and families liaison and referring on to a range of services for women.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will also take referrals and co assess women who are referred to the service in mental health crisis.

You would need to demonstrate a respect for women who use mental health services and work within an empowerment model, building on the strengths and expertise of women who use or have used services.

You are expected to have knowledge of trauma informed approaches and an understanding of how trauma impacts on mental health, physical health and social circumstances for women.

The ability to prioritise your workload whilst maintaining a degree of flexibility to accommodate competing demands of the service when they arise. You are expected to have knowledge of national and local policies in relation to women’s mental health, the violence against women and girl’s agenda and in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

You are expected to have excellent communication skills, demonstrating an ability to understand complex information and to converse with a wide variety of people from different contexts.

You need to have confidence in using computerised patient record systems and also have excellent written skills.

You will be able to use your initiative, within a team setting and be able to engage with the role after a short induction to carry out a role that is multi-functional and has a variety of duties competing for your time and energy.

Working for our organisation

The postholder will need to be comfortable working in an environment of complex matrix management arrangements and will at all times behave and align with our Trusts’ values and cultural pillars:

• We are kind
• We are respectful
• We work together
• We keep things simple
• We are proudly diverse

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached Job description and Person Specification for main responsibilities of the role.

For further information or to arrange a visit please contact Shirley McNicholas or Georgia Carson on 0207 607 2777

G.Carson@nhs.net or Shirley.McNicholas@nhs.net

You can also search on the internet under Drayton Park Women’s Crisis House for further reading.

The post is only open to female applicants and is exempt from the Sex Discrimination Act.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications

• Registered mental health professional qualification or Nationally recognised qualifications in relevant/identified posts (teaching, City and guilds, sports coaching) or Equivalent level experience
• Current Level 1/2 Safeguarding Children and Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults certificates or willingness to undertake
• Evidence of studies or learning about mental health, trauma or domestic and sexual abuse.

Knowledge and Experience

• Demonstrable experience working with individuals with mental health issues in a community, in-patient, or substance misuse care setting
• To demonstrate a sound knowledge base in relation to factors that cause mental health problems for woman and trauma informed therapeutic models.
• Demonstrable understanding and experience of assessment and management of risk and planning care needs
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of current Mental Health legislation and its application / use in practice
• To demonstrate an understanding of the interventions needs to meet the physical health needs of woman with mental health or substance addictions problems.

Skills / Abilities

• Excellent verbal, non-verbal and written communication skill
• Able to work on own initiative
• Able to work as part of a team and demonstrate the importance of a team approach
• Ability to maintain boundaries and form positive therapeutic relationships with service users and carers
• Competent using computers and keyboards for entering personally generated data, generating and responding to emails, conducting web searches etc.
• Motivated and enthusiastic about working in a trauma informed service

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we reserve the right to close any vacancies before the stated closing date. Therefore, please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

In line with NHS protocols, only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview. We regret that it is not possible to contact all applicants for every vacancy.

You must already have the right to work in the United Kingdom or fully meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship; however, we can only consider these where all UKVI requirements are met. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role satisfy the relevant UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points‑based system criteria, as applications that do not meet these requirements cannot be progressed. For more information about the criteria, as .

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

Please note, in order to progress your application your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of North London NHS Foundation Trust. As part of pre‑employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, fair, and supportive workplace for all. We actively welcome applications from individuals who are under‑represented within our workforce and are dedicated to eliminating discrimination in all its forms.

As a Disability Confident (Two Ticks) employer, we guarantee an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role and are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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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