Senior Health Practice Manager - Mental Health
Location: Widnes

The opportunity

• A salary of £49,995 to £54,075 plus £5,000 car allowance
• A four-day working week, with 37.5 contracted hours
• Hybrid working, with attendance at our Widnes head office at least once a month
• A national remit across England and Scotland
• The opportunity to shape our organisation-wide approach to mental health support
• A leading role in developing specialist pathways, practice frameworks and scalable models of support
• The chance to promote trauma-informed, psychologically informed, recovery-focused and rights-based practice
• The opportunity to build mental health knowledge, confidence and capability across our workforce
• Infrequent national travel to visit services

Could you use your specialist mental health expertise to shape national practice and help people with complex needs receive safe, compassionate and rights-based support? We are looking for a Senior Health Practice Manager, Mental Health to provide specialist leadership across Community Integrated Care. Reporting directly to the Head of Health Practice, this role is an advisory practice-development role that will shape our organisational approach to mental health support, developing innovative frameworks, standards and practice models that strengthen quality, culture and workforce capability across England and Scotland.

This is a role for a credible and forward-thinking mental health professional who wants to influence support beyond individual services. You will use evidence, data and professional insight to help us deliver a consistent approach that balances safety, independence, human rights and quality of life.

Who you'll be supporting and more about the role
Your work will benefit people with complex and varied mental health needs. This may include people experiencing severe or enduring mental illness, trauma, behaviours of distress or other complex presentations, as well as people with learning disabilities, autism, acquired brain injuries or forensic backgrounds.

As Senior Health Practice Manager, Mental Health, you will provide specialist consultation, professional scrutiny and constructive challenge to operational and senior leaders. You will help services understand complex presentations, manage associated risks and make informed, proportionate and person-centred decisions.

Your key priorities will include:

• Shaping our organisational vision, strategy and standards for mental health support
• Developing specialist pathways, practice frameworks and scalable support models
• Advising on complex mental health presentations, behaviours of distress and associated risks
• Supporting evidence-based assessment, support planning and therapeutic approaches
• Promoting positive risk enablement and least restrictive practice
• Helping teams balance safety, independence, autonomy, human rights and quality of life
• Strengthening trauma-informed, psychologically informed and recovery-focused practice
• Translating mental health evidence, legislation and professional guidance into practical social care approaches
• Providing professional scrutiny and constructive challenge where practice or decision-making requires improvement
• Contributing specialist expertise to audits, service reviews, regulatory activity and improvement programmes
• Ensuring learning from incidents, safeguarding concerns, adult protection matters and restrictive practices leads to organisational improvement
• Designing competency frameworks, learning pathways, training programmes and practical resources
• Providing consultation, coaching, mentoring and reflective-practice opportunities
• Supporting services during periods of complexity, instability, transition or escalation
• Using data and professional insight to identify risks, trends and improvement priorities

You will collaborate with Quality colleagues, Regional Managers, Heads of Operations, Service Leaders, People Operations and Learning and Development. You will also build relationships with NHS mental health services, social work teams, commissioners and other professional partners, helping people experience more coordinated support across health and social care systems.

Success will mean services receive timely and effective specialist advice, colleagues become more confident in supporting complex mental health needs, and learning is translated into stronger practice. You will help embed person-centred, trauma-informed, recovery-focused and least restrictive approaches consistently across England and Scotland.

About you
You will be an experienced and professionally credible Registered Mental Health Nurse who can combine specialist knowledge with the ability to influence practice across a large and geographically dispersed organisation.

Essential qualifications and experience include:

• A recognised mental health nursing qualification
• Active registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council
• Expected understanding of mental health, capacity and adult protection frameworks in England and Scotland
• Evidence of continuing professional development relevant to specialist mental health practice
• Substantial post-registration experience in mental health settings
• Experience supporting people with complex presentations, risk, crisis or safeguarding needs
• Experience working with people who may have severe mental illness, trauma, behaviours of distress, neurodivergence, learning disabilities, forensic histories or acquired brain injuries
• An understanding of how mental health legislation, clinical evidence and therapeutic approaches can be applied within social care settings
• Knowledge of clinical governance, quality assurance, professional accountability, incident learning and restrictive practice reduction
• A strong understanding of mental capacity, human rights, positive risk enablement and least restrictive practice
• Experience developing guidance, standards, frameworks, learning resources or practical tools
• Experience providing specialist advice and constructive challenge to leaders, managers or multidisciplinary teams
• Experience designing or delivering training, coaching, mentoring, consultation or reflective practice
• Experience using audits, reviews, incidents, safeguarding themes or performance information to drive improvement
• Experience working with NHS services, social work, commissioners or other external partners

You will be able to interpret complex mental health evidence and professional guidance and turn it into accessible, proportionate and practical approaches. You will exercise sound judgement in ambiguous or high-risk situations, while keeping people's rights, strengths and quality of life at the centre of your advice.

This position requires someone who can influence through expertise and partnership rather than relying on direct line-management authority. You will be comfortable providing respectful challenge, facilitating learning and bringing colleagues together around shared improvement priorities.

A qualification or formal development in leadership, coaching, education, quality improvement, psychological practice or organisational development would strengthen your application.

Above all, you will be compassionate, collaborative and values-led. You will remain calm when supporting services through complexity or crisis and will bring the professional integrity, resilience and pragmatism needed to help teams turn specialist knowledge into better everyday support.

If you are ready to use your mental health expertise to influence national practice, strengthen workforce capability and improve outcomes for people with complex needs, apply through our website to submit your application.

Please note, if you are interested in this role, we welcome your application as soon as possible. Depending on the volume of applications received, the vacancy may be closed before the expected advertising end date.