Job summary
- Main area
- Allied Health Professionals
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 6
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 455-NLFT-0713
- Employer
- North London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Highgate West Mental Health Centre
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £46,419 - £55,046 Per annum including HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 06/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Exercise and Physical Activity Specialist
NHS AfC: Band 6
Thank you for your interest in the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT). This is an exciting time to join us and be part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:
- Collaborate at every level by living our values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
- Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
- Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
- Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
- Ensure that research, quality improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
- Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do
We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.
The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.
Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/
As a values‑driven Trust, we recruit through our values. Our selection processes focus on behaviours, attitudes, and examples that reflect our organisational values and commitment to compassionate, high‑quality care.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. 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, it’s important that examples and responses 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.
Further guidance can be found in the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1.
North London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to fair and transparent recruitment and requires applicants to provide accurate information, as misleading details may affect their application or employment and may be verified in line with the Fraud Act 2006. For further information please visit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1.
Job overview
We are looking for a new person to join our vibrant and busy team working in acute mental health services. We have a new, well equipped sports hall and we are keen to expand our physical activity programme across the wards.
The post-holder will provide and oversee a group exercise programme with an emphasis on healthy lifestyles and use of exercise as a therapeutic intervention. The post-holder will also work alongside the therapy team to provide bespoke exercise plans and goal attainment work.
We are looking for someone from a sports science background with mental health clinical experience, or a physiotherapist or occupational therapist with exercise and mental health as a specialist interest.
Main duties of the job
- To oversee and provide the sports and physical activity programme with an emphasis on healthy lifestyle and movement across the inpatient service
- To actively involve service users in identifying their needs and goals as part of the multi-disciplinary team care plan. To provide prescription for exercise as appropriate.
- To carry out specialist group and individual interventions, individual or jointly with other members of the multi-disciplinary team, as appropriate.
- To use professional specific assessments and interventions, as appropriate, to support the service user’s engagement in the exercise pathway.
- To maintain close relationships with third sector partners and develop further opportunities for joint working and developing pathways into the community.
Working for our organisation
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.
Our Five-Year Strategy:
- We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
- With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
- We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.
Why NLFT?
- We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
- We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
- NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
- Excellent internal staff network
In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see job description and person specification for more information about this role and whether you meet the criteria for application.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree in Occupational Therapy/Physiotherapy or Sports Science
- Current registration with HCPC or member of BACPR, CIMSPA, CEPUK or similar
- Evidence of training bespoke to mental health
Desirable criteria
- Other coaching/personal trainer qualifications
Skills
Essential criteria
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to maintain boundaries and form positive therapeutic relationships with service users and carers and staff.
- Able to work with a variety of community partners and services effectively
- Competent using computers and keyboards for entering personally generated data, generating and responding to emails, conducting web searches, storing data and retrieving data, producing reports etc.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable experience working with people with complex mental health and physical health needs in a mental health setting.
- Demonstrate a sound knowledge and experience of evidence based best practice and research in working with service users with mental health issues
- Demonstrate an understanding of risk together with an ability to evaluate and contain risk with reference to the individual, staff and carers.
- Demonstrate experience of running groups/ providing activity programmes and understanding of procedural and group processes involved.
Desirable criteria
- Experience working across a range of older/ adult care settings
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Jaqueline Petersen
- Job title
- Lead Occupational Therapist - inpatient
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
or contact Ruth Watson (Head AHP unplanned Care); [email protected]
If you have problems applying, contact
- Address
-
Candi & Tavi
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