Senior Mental Health Practitioner - Duty Worker

Job summary

We are excited to be recruiting a fixed-term Band Senior Mental Health Practitioner to strengthen our countywide Duty offer within Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD).

This one-year pilot post offers an excellent opportunity for experienced mental health professionals to take on a role within our Duty system. As a member of the Countywide duty team, you will play a critical role in supporting locality mental health teams, triaging urgent and unallocated concerns, undertaking risk management calls, assessing clinical information and answering professional queries.

The post is countywide and will support children and young people experiencing emotional distress, relational difficulties, and emerging or ongoing mental health needs. You will work closely with multidisciplinary teams, external agencies, and families to ensure that children and young people receive timely, safe, and effective mental health support. Elements of the role can be undertaken remotely, and we welcome flexible working arrangements.

As a Duty SMHP, you will be responsible for triaging incoming contacts, supporting clinical decision-making for complex cases, and offering advice and guidance to both internal and external professionals.

We Offer:

• High-quality clinical supervision and ongoing professional development opportunities
• A collaborative and supportive multidisciplinary environment
• A role in an innovative and responsive pilot service with potential for long-term impact

Main duties of the job

• Uertake clinical triage of urgent referrals and queries
• Undertake and support comprehensive mental health risk assessments
• Provide clinical input and oversight for unallocated or high-risk presentations
• Offer consultation, advice and support to staff and external professionals
• Contribute to service development and provide reflective feedback on process and system improvements
• Maintain accurate and timely clinical documentation in accordance with professional and service standards

If you are a highly skilled and compassionate mental health professional with strong assessment skills, and are looking to play a role in shaping an essential service within CFHD, we would love to hear from you.

About us

Successful applicants will be employed by Devon Partnership Trust (https://jobs.dpt.nhs.uk/locations/working-here )

Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD) comprises an Alliance of NHS organisations working together to improve health outcomes for children and young people in Devon.

CFHD provides integrated care and treatment for children and young people across physical and mental health. We are working closely with other organisations and providers to ensure we deliver locality and county-wide based integrated access to all of our services, based on the i-Thrive Framework, in response to consultation with our service users and communities.

CFHD works closely with our local universities of Plymouth, Exeter & the Peninsula Medical School where we support students in clinical training placements and in addition support our own staff to undertake post graduate training.

Our children and young people say

We would like the people who work for Children and Family Health Devon to be understanding, patient and respectful. They should be trustworthy and make us feel safe and comfortable. It is important that they use their skills and experience to listen carefully in a non-patronising and non-judgemental way. When staff are positive and friendly, they help to create an environment that is informal and without pressure.

Our vision is to be a successful, vibrant, partnership that benefits the communities we serve.

Employer details

Employer name

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Address

Evergreen

Victoria Park Road

Exeter

EX2 4NU

Employer's website

https://www.dpt.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

---

Employer details

Employer name

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Address

Evergreen

Victoria Park Road

Exeter

EX2 4NU

Employer's website

https://www.dpt.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

---