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This post provides continuity of care with clinical duties in the Cambridge and Peterborough forensic community mental health teams and inpatient consultant responsibilities at the George Mackenzie House, Low Secure Unit, Fulbourn Hospital. The post is based in Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge with duties in Cambridge and Peterborough.

Working alongside forensic consultant colleagues, the postholder will provide clinical leadership to the forensic community mental health teams and exercise consultant responsibility for the treatment and risk management of a case load of patients registered with the service. The community services in Peterborough and Cambridge are known as the North and South services respectively.

The postholder will provide specialist forensic psychiatric evaluations and advice concerning individuals referred by agencies including general psychiatric services, other hospitals, prisons, probation and multi-agency public protection panels. The postholder will develop good links with other forensic service providers, criminal justice and voluntary agencies.

The community forensic service caters for adults with mental disorder (mental illness and personality disorder). It has recently been expanded to include a small caseload of patients with learning disability and/or autism.

Working alongside two existing inpatient forensic consultants, the postholder will be the Responsible Clinician for a caseload of patients at the low secure facility, George Mackenzie House, Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge.

The postholder will be supported by non-consultant medical staff which includes SAS and training grade doctors (CT and ST).

Forensic Psychiatry in CPFT

The postholder will be part of the forensic psychiatry staff. Forensic mental health services managed by CPFT are of two main forms: services in hospital and services in the community (there is also the OPD pathway based at HMP Whitemoor).

George Mackenzie House is the CPFT 20 bed low secure unit providing inpatient treatment for men and women. The non-secure ward, Mulberry Ward has three forensic beds acting as ‘step down’ beds for the low secure unit as well as forensic admission beds from the community.

George Mackenzie House is part of the East of England Secure Services Provider Collaborative which also covers services in Norfolk, Essex, and parts of Hertfordshire. The Northside Clinic in Norwich and Brockfield House are the neighbouring NHS medium secure providers.

CPFT provides community forensic mental health services based in Peterborough (North) and Cambridge (South). Both community teams are multidisciplinary with community psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists, support workers and forensic psychologists.

The main purpose of the forensic community service is to assess and provide specialist treatment to people with mental disorder in the community who pose or could pose a significant risk of causing serious harm (usually physical) to others. Most, but not all, individuals registered with the service have been convicted of serious violent offending. The ethos is the safe management of risk through effective treatment and care.

Men and women from the locality who require low secure psychiatric inpatient care are detained at the Trust’s secure unit, George Mackenzie House

Key Clinical Responsibilities

The postholder will provide consultant clinical leadership to the forensic community and inpatient teams. The consultant will contribute to the assessment of patients referred to the service for diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders and support multidisciplinary team members who carry out assessments. The postholder will facilitate accurate diagnosis, assessment of risk and interventions to improve the mental health and risk management of those referred.

Treatment needs to be delivered in a timely and consistent manner in accordance with the recovery model. The postholder will provide or oversea ongoing treatments to patients which are evidence based and supported by NICE guidelines.

The postholder is required to maintain Section 12(2) and Approved Clinician status and have a comprehensive knowledge of the relevant legislative frameworks. The consultant will hold RC responsibilities for inpatients detained at the George Mackenzie House, Low Secure Unit and for community patients subject to statutory supervision such as s.41 of the MHA’83 and community treatment orders.

The postholder will undertake and supervise others undertaking secure hospital access assessments.

The postholder is expected to play a key role within the provider collaborative arrangements, facilitating the repatriation of patients, and helping to reduce the need for hospital admission and length of stay.

The postholder is expected to be committed to a multidisciplinary approach to care, contribute actively to multidisciplinary and formulation meetings, and work in close collaboration with team members, care coordinators, other CPFT services. Supportive and good working relationships are essential.

The North and South forensic community services have well established multidisciplinary teams and have close working relationships with the forensic inpatient service. Many professional staff work across both the forensic community and inpatient services so that continuity of care is optimised, and patient care is progressed in a timely manner.

The postholder will be expected to contribute to the collection of clinical information to ensure further service developments and to enable audit. The postholder will participate in clinical governance activities.

Consultants are actively involved in planning and developing services, and there will be opportunities to engage in quality improvement work.

As a consultant, the postholder will be a member of the Medical Advisory Group for CPFT.

The postholder is encouraged to undertake relevant research and there are links with the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University.