Job summary
- Main area
- Patient Flow
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 6
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 334-NCL-7892807-MU
- Employer
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Lewisham
- Town
- Lewisham
- Salary
- £47,951 - £56,863 Per Annum inclusive of HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 05/05/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Right Care Practitioner - Lewisham Directorate
NHS AfC: Band 6
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 provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already 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
An opportunity has arisen for a Right Care Practitioner in the Lewisham Integrated Discharge Team.
The Right Care Practitioner will work across community, rehab and inpatient services within the Lewisham Directorate. The primary purpose of this post is to support the Right Care Leads in reducing length of stay within inpatient and complex care services and creating capacity and flow across the whole mental health system.
The role requires excellent communication and organisation skills and the ability to work collaboratively with all relevant parties including external agencies. The post holder will support identification of internal and external barriers to flow, record information systematically and escalate accordingly.
Main duties of the job
To work in collaboration with a broad range of professionals to gain intelligence regarding inpatient demand and anticipated discharges and extended periods of leave.
To work closely with ward teams to support staff to be proactive about discharge planning from day one of admission.
To be integral to decision-making about patient care and discharge in liaison with all other health professionals
To assist the multidisciplinary team in diffusing difficult situations when discharge plans become complex or there is conflict with the carers / other health professionals and escalate to the Right Care Lead as necessary
To work closely with multi-disciplinary teams to standardise good discharge planning practice throughout the Directorate
For further details, please refer to attached JD.
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 is important to us that you feel 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, we offer comprehensive pay, pensions and leave package, which is dependent on the role and length of service.
· Work life balance, flexible working and supporting a range of flexible options, such as part-time working and job sharing.
· Career development, there are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and we support your development through several programs such as leadership, mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership, and other talent programmes
· Car lease, our staff benefit from competitive deals to lease cars
· Accommodation, eligible staff benefit from keyworker housing which is available on selected sites
· NHS discounts, with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands through Health Service Discounts website.
For a full list of our benefits please visit: https://www.slam.nhs.uk/media/421262/Working%20at%20SLaM.pdf
We look forward to receiving your application.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To communicate with all members of the multidisciplinary team when a concern is raised regarding a patients discharge, escalating to the Right Care Lead as necessary.
To ensure good communication with patients and carers about plans for discharge.
To be a visible presence on the inpatient wards to follow through with actions.
To liaise on a daily basis with the inpatient wards to understand any plans for movement, i.e., section 17 leave or discharge.
To work collaboratively with the health care professionals, patients and carers to ensure appropriate standards of care and communication are met.
To support advanced planning across 7 days.
To support forecasting by ensuring estimated discharge dates are recorded and updated.
To employ excellent clinical and communication skills with inpatient colleagues to achieve optimum utilisation of beds.
To ensure accurate bed state information is maintained in conjunction with the inpatients wards and Acute Referral Centre (ARC) including admissions, discharges, patients on leave or AWOL and anticipated Mental Health Act Assessments and CTO recalls.
To record patient flow data accurately ensuring all information is captured and updated from daily ward reviews, bed management, DCCM and Right Care Meetings.
To identify and escalate barriers to discharge to the Right Care Lead and any other relevant parties using initiative and sound clinical judgment.
To provide early warning of patient flow risks, considering potential solutions and taking corrective action as appropriate and / or escalating as required.
To carry out Home Treatment assessments, as required, to prevent delay in discharge.
For further details, please refer to attached JD.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree level qualification or significant equivalent experience.
- Evidence of willingness to undertake further personal development.
- Evidence of continuing professional development.
Desirable criteria
- Clinical qualification (RMN, OT, NVQ, Care Certificate)
Experience
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable experience of contact with patients with acute mental health problems and complex needs
- Experience of working with multidisciplinary teams.
- Experience of working in adult acute mental health settings.
- Experience of developing systems, processes and new ways of working to optimise patient flow.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of bed management or discharge coordination processes.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Understanding of current mental health legislation and safeguarding processes.
- Good knowledge of the Mental Health Act.
- Understanding of confidentiality / data protection issues.
Desirable criteria
- Understanding of capacity management and bed management procedures.
Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Comprehensive and proficient IT skills.
- Ability to form productive relationships with patients, carers, multidisciplinary staff and relevant stakeholders.
- Good organisation and prioritisation skills.
- Ability to work across professional / organisational boundaries.
- Ability to work under pressure
- Ability to think and work creatively to resolve problems.
Desirable criteria
- Working knowledge of delayed discharge criteria and barriers to discharge.
Other skills
Essential criteria
- Recognition of own limitations, strengths and weaknesses and an ability to seek advice when necessary.
- Able to gain easily the trust, confidence and respect of service users, their relatives and staff of a variety of levels and disciplines.
- Innovative, creative and willing to try new approaches.
- Able to work with attention to detail.
Desirable criteria
- Evidence of undertaking audit work.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Lucy Sangowawa
- Job title
- Right Care Service Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 02032280252
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