Job summary

About the role:

We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic, energetic and clinically confident Community Practitioner / OT to join our Community Perinatal Teams across the Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark teams.

You will have experience of general adult inpatient, Mother and Baby inpatient unit, community mental health services or Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). You will also have experience of working with women who suffer from moderate to severe mental illness in the perinatal period.

Main duties of the job

You will be familiar with Perinatal community standards, governance and performance structures and confident in partnership work with other agencies such as Children and Family Social Services, Midwifery and Obstetric teams, CMHTs, Health Visitors and the Voluntary sector.

You will display excellent clinical knowledge and skilled practice in women with mental health disorders in the perinatal period. You will provide consistently skilled judgments in clinical work. You need to have experience of working in a richly diverse inner city Borough and have the understanding of the opportunities challenges that this brings.

About us

About the team:

The Croydon Perinatal Service provides a Monday to Friday, 9-5 service to service users residing within the Borough of Croydon offering assessment, intervention and treatment to women who suffer from moderate to severe mental health disorders in the perinatal period.

Working closely with your colleagues in PMHT's, you will receive support and be part of the on-going Perinatal workforce training within SLaM and London wide. This is a great opportunity to supervise junior staff as well as implementing new ways of working using best practice and NICE guidelines.

About the location

You will based at Larkbarrow House, Bethlem Royal Hospital.

Details
Date posted: 04 November 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £45,953 to £54,254 a year pro rata per annum Incl. of HCAs
Contract: Secondment
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 334-CLI-8262825-A
Job locations: Larkbarrow House, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, BR3 3BX, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

• To be personally responsible and professionally accountable for a caseload as part of the perinatal community team and support/supervise the work of others as required.
• Co-ordinating care, communicating with other professionals involved in the care and ensuring regular CPA reviews are held as required. This will include communication with other teams for example Maternity Services, Primary care, CAMHS services, Childrens Social Care
• Independently carrying out assessment, care planning and care coordination with excellent interpersonal skills, ability to listen to others views, respect and value individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds.
• Leading pre-birth planning meetings when necessary, with community team members, midwives and health visitors and social care to coordinate, in order to provide coordinated, comprehensive and supportive care plans for women and their families in the antenatal and postnatal period.
• Recognising and addressing concerns about the physical health needs of service users with long term conditions (e.g. diabetes, asthma etc.); escalating these concerns as necessary to senior members of the multi-disciplinary team.

Person Specification
Qualifications

• Essential: Current registration (NMC / OT / SW)

Experience/Knowledge

• Essential: Community Care coordination experience
• Essential: Understanding and ability to use supervision to reflect on skills, attitude and knowledge and develop these by using evidence based practice.
• Essential: Significant relevant clinical experience - 2 year minimum working in Mental Health settings.
• Essential: An interest in working in Community Perinatal Mental Health Team
• Essential: Experience as a preceptor / mentor / supervisor
• Desirable: Awareness/knowledge of the issues surrounding social inclusion for women with mental health issues during the perinatal period
• Desirable: Knowledge of how mental health problems impact on their babies/child development
• Desirable: Experience of working with children and/or families

Skills/Abilities

• Essential: Able to provide quality care that is responsive to service user's needs, without close supervision
• Essential: Skills in clinical assessment/baseline mental health assessment
• Essential: Skills in risk assessment and risk management and crisis management
• Essential: Self-aware, self-confident and intrinsically motivated to do a good job and to motivate others
• Desirable: Skilled in supervision of others, and in providing critical and constructive feedback.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website. From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details
Employer name: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Larkbarrow House, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, BR3 3BX, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.slam.nhs.uk/

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Team Leader Emma Willey, Emma.Willey@slam.nhs.uk

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