Job summary
Here at the Lambeth Mental Health Liaison Service, we are excited to advertise a permanent full time senior mental health liaison nurse position within our team.

The primary function of this role is to work as a highly experienced mental health practitioner, carrying out front of house specialist assessments (i.e. the front door triage model) within the Emergency Department (ED) as part of the Mental Health Liaison Team (MHLT).

The psychiatric nurse in charge (Psych NIC) is responsible for ensuring all those who present to the ED with an acute mental health need, receive timely and appropriate care, in the right place, at the right time, by the right person.

The PNIC will be expected to actively identify and triage those presenting to the ED with an urgent or emergent need for mental health care, psychological support and/ or those with substance misuse problems. Working alongside the ED team they try to ensure appropriate medical clearance wherever appropriate. However, this does not explicitly mean that all face-to-face contact is completed by the PNIC; instead acting as a shift coordinator to ensure that all patients are prioritised in terms of need and allocated to the team appropriate to that need of the patient and the skill mix on shift.

Main duties of the job
The Psych NIC will:

• be based on the emergency floor for much of the shift providing direct formal and informal support to the ED teams and visiting agencies.
• Offering face to face support directing referrals from the emergency floor to the most appropriate assessment pathway i.e. via the front door triage model, direct to the PLN's for full assessment or determining if further medical assessments need to be completed inline with our parallel assessment protocol.
• Work alongside the enhanced care team (ECT) in making decisions about enhanced observations for mental health patients.
• Act as part of the ED response team for patients detained on S136 or police referrals, and work to ensure timely throughput in department in line with the GSTT CODE10 protocol.
• Work alongside ED triage teams to evaluate fitness for assessment, and support visible parallel working. (see parallel working protocol)
• Through use of the front door triage model and from being visible and approachable able assist referrers in signposting to other services - including UCC, GP, IAPT etc.
• Assist the PLN assessment team working as the Psychiatric Nurse in Charge.
• Take a lead role within the liaison service, providing support and guidance within the service but also within their specialist lead area. i.e. safeguarding etc.
• provide clinical supervision with the band 6 (assessing) psychiatric liaison nursing team.

About us
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.

SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities, and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field.

The core philosophy of the Core24 Mental Health Liaison team is:

_"We take a professional, honest, caring and open-minded approach. We encourage and support choice. We are prompt and will take time to listen, work collaboratively with you and stick to our word. We respect differences"_

Details
Date posted: 24 September 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 7
Salary: £58,133 to £65,261 a year
per annum inclusive of HCAS
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 334-NUR-8240243-SG
Job locations: St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

• To provide a senior single point of access for staff to make/ discuss referrals to the MHLT from the ED, ensuring they are allocated for further assessment in a timely manner.
• To provide specialist, face-to-face screening at the point of referral, to all those who self-present to the ED with an acute mental health need.
• Provide initial response to all police and ambulance arrivals in the department, for patients with a mental health need, and lead on co-ordinating the patients journey through the ED.
• Complete a brief risk and mental state examination from the completed screening, making autonomous decisions around discharge and/ or onward referral and signposting to primary care/ mental health services/ third-sector organisations if appropriate; providing brief psychoeducation and intervention where appropriate.
• Acting as a senior clinician within both the ED and the MHLT; providing advice, clinical support, clinical supervision and senior review where necessary.
• Promoting and devising risk management and admission plans, for those who may be transferred from the ED to a ward within the hospital.
• Maintaining oversight of demand and acuity across the entire emergency floor, managing patient-flow effectively and proactively.
• To provide senior clinical support in managing incidents of challenging behaviour in the ED, related to mental health/ illness
• To liaise effectively with services and service providers both inside and outside of the organisation (including CMHTs, Police, Ambulance, Social Services, GPs and acute trust staff).
• Participate in teaching and training of ED and other staff within GSTT, in line with the trusts Mental Health Strategy.

Person Specification
Qualification
Essential

• Registered Mental Health Nurse
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Educated to post-graduate/ master's level

Desirable

• Registered General Adult/ LD Nurse/ formal training or education in physical health
• Evidence of other advanced education related to Liaison Psychiatry

Experience
Essential

• Significant post-qualification experience in mental health services, both inpatient and community
• Experience working within crisis mental health care; of assessing and managing crisis within acute mental illness
• Experience of making autonomous decisions regarding discharge, sign-posting and admission of service users following a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of risk
• Experience of working with service users with harmful use of illicit substances and alcohol

Desirable

• Experience of assessing and risk-managing violent self-harm
• Experience of service development, Quality Improvement and leading change.
• Experience of managing or leading a team/ colleagues
• Experience at working at band 6 level or above within liaison psychiatry, or band 7 level in a crisis mental health service
• Experience of teaching or delivering training

Knowledge
Essential

• A sound knowledge of risk assessment and risk management in mental health and acute care settings
• Knowledge of restrictive practice and restrictive interventions; the ability to reduce restrictive practice in clinical settings

Desirable

• Knowledge of brief psychological interventions and their use in an ED setting; ability to deliver brief psychological interventions for the management of acute psychiatric distress
• Knowledge of relevant policies, research and codes of practice related to ED; an awareness of national targets, frameworks and pressures related to ED
• Knowledge of Core 24 service models and RCPsych guidance on liaison psychiatry services.

Skills
Essential

• Ability to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care to meet the needs of service users, appropriate to the setting of the Emergency Department

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.

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 (Opens in a new tab).

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 (Opens in a new tab).

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Address: St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.slam.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Clinical Team Lead
Sadie Thomson-Ashworth
sadie.thomson-ashworth@slam.nhs.uk
07521544182