Triage Manager/Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner

Main area: Psychological Therapy

Grade: NHS AfC: Band 6

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week (9-5pm, One 12-8pm shift per week)

Employer: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Site: Lambeth Talking Therapies, Town Lambeth

Salary: £44,806 - £53,134 per annum Incl. of HCAs

Salary period: Yearly

Closing: 01/07/2025 23:59

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond. We are committed to providing high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment. The Care Quality Commission rates our services as ‘good’. We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience.

By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers. The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values: We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special. As a Trust, we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview: This is a great opportunity for an experienced Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP) to further develop the Access team provision within Lambeth IAPT. This is a busy role with several different components and high administrative and clinical demands. The successful applicant will be proficient in the delivery of telephone triage assessments, CBT-based guided self-help interventions, and have experience of working with common mental health problems within primary care. You will also be responsible for training up new members of the triage team, running group supervision for the clinical support workers and assistant psychologists and offering clinical and case management supervision for trainee PWPs.

Main duties of the job:

• Hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Low Intensity CBT Interventions and be BABCP registered (or BPS).
• Have 6 months of experience as a Qualified PWP by the time they are in the post (Sept).
• Be a highly organised and motivated individual who can effectively manage their own time and caseload along with the other requirements of this post.
• Support the wellbeing of the triage and TF team including organising and facilitating training and TF meetings.
• Support the Access team by providing triage supervision, which includes generating management plans.
• Make projections for our monthly/quarterly triage capacity and planning.
• Offer evidence-based guided self-help interventions to people with common mental health disorders.
• Take an active role in the induction and training of new members of step 2 and access team, including the delivery of monthly clinical supervision groups for the access team.
• Undertake weekly clinical supervision of trainee PWP’s and monthly case management supervision.
• Attend meetings with the rest of the Senior Management Team and within these meetings be willing to contribute to service discussions and demonstrate problem solving skills.
• Demonstrate a proactive and enthusiastic approach to managing challenges and feedback from the triage team.

Working for our organisation: We are committed to ensuring our staff get the most out of their benefits package and understand the importance of a healthy work-life balance. There is an extensive range of excellent benefits for you and your family. We want you to feel like you are part of a close-knit team at SLaM. It’s important to us that you are valued and appreciated and that is why we have a comprehensive benefits package on offer.

Some of our benefits are highlighted here:

• Generous pay, pensions and leave.
• Work-life balance, flexible working and support a range of flexible options, such as part-time working and job sharing.
• Career development through mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes.
• Car lease benefits from competitive deals to lease cars.
• Accommodation benefits from keyworker housing available on selected sites.
• NHS discounts with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands through Health Service Discounts website.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

Key Responsibilities:

1. CLINICAL
• To offer telephone triage assessments on the suitability of new referrals, informed by knowledge of the mental health difficulty and risk factors.
• To adhere to the service’s protocols, referring clients on to the relevant health and social care service or back to the referrer as appropriate or stepping-up the persons treatment to high intensity psychological therapy or specialist services within the borough.
• To provide assessment and provision of high quality Low-Intensity interventions, e.g. psycho-educational groups and workshops, Guided Self Help, computerised CBT, pharmacological psychoeducation, drawing from CBT theories and techniques. This work may be face to face, via telephone/web and/or in group format.
• Conduct accurate and timely assessment of risk to self and others, including child safeguarding and vulnerable adult issues. Prepare risk management plans and initiate appropriate action where indicated.
• Provide a service that is comprehensive and accessible to a broad range of patients who have common mental health difficulties and who are over 16 years of age, that is equitable and non-discriminatory in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and disability.
2. TEACHING, TRAINING AND SUPERVISION
• Undertake appropriate clinical, managerial and professional supervision on a regular basis in accordance with the relevant professional guidelines and Trust policies.
• Attend and fulfil the requirements of the IAPT approved supervision training.
• Provide case management and clinical supervision to Low intensity trainees in the IAPT team.
• Responsible for overseeing UCL assignments for trainees, which includes giving feedback on assessment and treatment sessions as well as signing off Clinical Practice Outcomes.
• Identify training needs across the triage team and improve the systems in place alongside the Access leads.
• Deliver triage training to all new members of staff.
• Attend locally organised and national training appropriate to the work role.
• Delivering monthly group supervision to the clinical support workers and assistant psychologists.
• Plan and facilitate triage facilitator meetings.
3. PROFESSIONAL
• Take personal (unprompted) responsibility for achieving agreed clinical activity relating to the number of therapy contact hours per week, assessment, discharge and recovery targets.
• Proactively take responsibility for attending clinical case management supervision, line management supervision and clinical skills groups.
• Participate in the appraisal process on a minimum of an annual basis. Participate in the setting and review of objectives for the post and respond to agreed objectives.
• Participate in activities of continuing professional development (CPD) on an annual basis.
• Promote and contribute to the development and maintenance of a healthy therapeutic culture within the Lambeth IAPT amongst colleagues and Service Users.
• Complete all requirements relating to data collection and record keeping in line with SLaM and Lambeth IAPT policies, in a thorough and timely fashion. Ensure the maintenance of standards of practice according to Trust guidelines, and keep up to date on new recommendations/guidelines set by the department of health.
4. MANAGEMENT AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
• Make projections for our monthly/quarterly triage capacity and planning.
• Ensure that clinically supervised staff maintain appropriate clinical records in keeping with SLaM and Lambeth IAPT policies.
• Ensure clinically supervised staff maintain outcome data as per service operational policy.
• Participate in audits of clinical activity and evaluative research as required.
• Attend senior management meetings if and when necessary.

Person specification:

Qualifications: Holds a recognised qualification to work as a psychological wellbeing practitioner (e.g. Post Graduate Diploma in Low Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Interventions) BABCP or BPS PWP Registration.

Experience: Significant experience of working within an IAPT service including screening, triaging and assessing and managing risk. Experience in offering and delivering evidence-based IAPT low intensity interventions as a qualified PWP. Experience of working in a service where agreed targets are in place and evidence of being able to meet these targets. Experience of offering supervision for triage (or self supervising triage), qualified or trainee PWPs and/or staff mentoring experience. Experience of working within a service development role.

Knowledge: Demonstrates an understanding of anxiety and depression, and how they may present in Primary Care. Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of relevant NICE Guidance and the stepped care model. Knowledge of working with diversity and of working with black and minority ethnic groups (BAME). Knowledge of local and Trust-wide mental health services and the protocols/pathways existing between them.

Skills: Demonstrate excellent time management and organisational skills such as diary management. Able to work autonomously and to manage conflicting demands between clients, the team, the health care system and broader contexts. Ability to prioritise workload and carry out work efficiently and effectively. Fluent in languages other than English.

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights.

We aim to put this commitment into practice by embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice. Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment. We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity.

Please note: All applications for this post will need to be made online. Read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria. The closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible. Once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. Should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful. Priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees. Should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process. We are a smoke-free Trust. SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion.