Senior Perinatal Mental Health Practitioner

Join our dynamic and compassionate Community Perinatal Mental Health Team in Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as a Band 6 Senior Mental Health Practitioner, where you will play a pivotal role in supporting women and birthing people experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties during pregnancy and in their postnatal period.

If you are passionate about maternal mental health, early intervention, and making a lasting impact on the birthing population and their families, this is an opportunity to grow your career in a forward-thinking and supportive environment.

This role is 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday Service. The Team's base is at Resource house in Wokingham where you are surrounded by local cafs and shops. The role combines both remote, community and office working with hot desking bases across Berkshire.

In this rewarding role, you will act as a Care Coordinator, delivering high-quality, trauma-informed, and evidence-based interventions to birthing people and their families at a crucial stage of life.

You'll undertake comprehensive specialist assessments, develop collaborative care plans, and provide or transfer into therapeutic interventions that promote recovery, resilience, and positive parent-infant relationships.

You will be working autonomously and collaboratively within a highly skilled multidisciplinary team--including other MH practitioners' psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health wellbeing practitioner's nursery nurses and support workers and closely linked to specialist midwives, health visitors, other community MH teams and social care partners.

You'll contribute your expertise to risk management, safeguarding, and case formulation. You'll also liaise closely with maternity services, health visiting, adult MH services, primary care, and community agencies to ensure seamless, holistic care and recovery in the community.

Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health and community health services trust. Rated 'outstanding' by the CQC, we're committed to providing the best possible care to people across Berkshire. As an employer, we're committed to offering an inclusive and compassionate environment where our people share in a sense of belonging and are supported to flourish.

• Caring for and about you is our top priority
• Committed to providing good quality, safe services
• Working Together with you to develop innovative solutions

Your wellbeing is important to us. Some of the benefits of working for us include:

• Flexible working options to support work-life balance
• 27 days' annual leave rising with service + opportunity to buy and sell
• Generous NHS pension scheme
• Excellent learning and career development opportunities
• 'Cycle to Work' and car leasing scheme including electric vehicles
• Access to a range of wellbeing tools and services
• Discounts at hundreds of popular retailers and restaurants
• Staff networks for race, diversity, disabilities, the environment and armed forces community to support equality
• Generous maternity, paternity, adoption and special leave
• Free parking across Trust sites

• You must be a Registered Mental Nurse (RMN) or Social Worker (or equivalent qualification whereby the person is licensed to assess, plan and evaluate care for patients with mental health problems) to apply for this role.
• Experience of working effectively with a range of professional staff and external agencies.
• Knowledge and experience of working in a care environment and with service users who have complex mental health needs.
• Experience of working effectively in a multidisciplinary team and multi-agency environment.
• A passion for supporting patients and their family's recovery in the community with strong support plans that support long term stability.
• The ability to independently manage and organise personal workload and identify in-efficiencies that support overall improvements of personal workload and of the team.

For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification.Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, its important that examples and responses given in your supporting statement genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

In addition to explaining how you meet the person specification, you must complete your employment history for at least the last five years. Any experience, skills or responsibilities referenced in your supporting statement should be evidenced within your employment history. Applications that do not include sufficient employment history to support the experience claimed may not be shortlisted.

Were committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Stonewall Proud Employer, Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.

We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please dont hesitate to call: Victoria Derrett on 03003652000 or email: victoria.derrett@berkshire.nhs.uk wholl be delighted to help.

Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible.

• You must be a Registered Mental Nurse (RMN) or Social Worker (or equivalent qualification whereby the person is licensed to assess, plan and evaluate care for patients with mental health problems) to apply for this role.
• Experience of working effectively with a range of professional staff and external agencies.
• Knowledge and experience of working in a care environment and with service users who have complex mental health needs.
• Experience of working effectively in a multidisciplinary team and multi-agency environment.
• A passion for supporting patients and their family's recovery in the community with strong support plans that support long term stability.
• The ability to independently manage and organise personal workload and identify in-efficiencies that support overall improvements of personal workload and of the team.

For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification.Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, its important that examples and responses given in your supporting statement genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

In addition to explaining how you meet the person specification, you must complete your employment history for at least the last five years. Any experience, skills or responsibilities referenced in your supporting statement should be evidenced within your employment history. Applications that do not include sufficient employment history to support the experience claimed may not be shortlisted.

Were committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Stonewall Proud Employer, Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.

We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please dont hesitate to call: Victoria Derrett on 03003652000 or email: victoria.derrett@berkshire.nhs.uk wholl be delighted to help.

Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible.

Education, qualifications or training

• Professional qualification - hold a relevant professional qualification at diploma or degree level i.e. RMN, SW

Continuous Professional Development

• Specialist knowledge acquired through training in a specialised discipline

Previous Experience

• Experience in working with women during the perinatal period and able to demonstrate some experience/interest of working with women experiencing perinatal mental health issues
• Experience of clinically supervising junior and unqualified staff and mentoring students
• Substantial experience of managing a busy workload/caseload and be able to demonstrate significant knowledge, skills and some experience in working within the field of perinatal mental health

Knowledge, skills and abilities

• Knowledge and understanding of the health and social care systems and operating frameworks, clinical observations and the Mental Health Act
• Experience of working effectively in a multidisciplinary team and multi-agency environment
• Competent IT skills and the ability to navigate around various systems and software packages (such as outlook, databases, MS office and the internet)
• Ability to work effectively in a team, work on own initiative, work unsupervised and manage own workload
• Able to empathise, be supportive and sensitive to the needs of others as well as being able to cope with distressing circumstances

Additional Requirements

• Must hold a clean driving licence and be able and willing to travel both within Berkshire and to other locations as directed to meet the needs of the service
• Manage difficult situations with service users that have complex perinatal mental health and challenging behaviours

Education, qualifications or training

• Professional qualification - hold a relevant professional qualification at diploma or degree level i.e. RMN, SW

Continuous Professional Development

• Specialist knowledge acquired through training in a specialised discipline

Previous Experience

• Experience in working with women during the perinatal period and able to demonstrate some experience/interest of working with women experiencing perinatal mental health issues
• Experience of clinically supervising junior and unqualified staff and mentoring students
• Substantial experience of managing a busy workload/caseload and be able to demonstrate significant knowledge, skills and some experience in working within the field of perinatal mental health

Knowledge, skills and abilities

• Knowledge and understanding of the health and social care systems and operating frameworks, clinical observations and the Mental Health Act
• Experience of working effectively in a multidisciplinary team and multi-agency environment
• Competent IT skills and the ability to navigate around various systems and software packages (such as outlook, databases, MS office and the internet)
• Ability to work effectively in a team, work on own initiative, work unsupervised and ma