Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health
- Grade
- Band 4
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Mon - Fri, 9am-5pm (with some flexibility))
- Job ref
- 334-NUR-7811430-FR
- Employer
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Croydon Care Home Intervention Team
- Town
- Purley
- Salary
- £32,199 - £34,876 per annum incl. of HCAs
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Senior Support Time and Recovery (STR) worker
Band 4
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.
We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.
We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.
The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.
Our Values
We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.
As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.
Job overview
Are you passionate about improving the quality of care for people with dementia? Do you see challenging behaviour as a form of communication? Are you driven to understand and meet the unmet needs of people living with dementia?
If so, then this is the job for you. Our Support, Time and Recovery (STR) workers in the care home intervention teams play a key role in supporting care home staff to implement care plans and improve the way they communicate with and offer care to people living in care homes who display behaviours that challenge.
Previous NHS experience is not essential. What you do need is experience working in a residential care environment and an understanding of the multiple factors that can often be barriers to staff being able to meet a resident’s needs in this setting. You need to be an excellent communicator and to be able to engage people at all levels, particularly service users who may struggle to communicate their needs, care home staff and members of the multidisciplinary team.
Please use the supporting information section of the application form to outline how you meet the essential criteria on the person specification
Main duties of the job
The role of the STR worker is to facilitate the personhood and wellbeing of clients under the care of the CCHIT. The post holder will work alongside the multi-disciplinary team focusing on the psychosocial domains of patients’ care with care home staff. The post holder would be expected to have autonomous skills in developing positive relationships with care home colleagues, and to model and demonstrate genuine empathy with clients, care home staff, and carers to support care home residents who are living with behaviours that challenge in the context of dementia or other mental health conditions.
The post-holder will work closely with the multidisciplinary team in formulating, modelling and monitoring behavioural support plans and interventions to help care home staff care for their residents. The post-holder will provide practical and psychosocial support for a defined caseload of care home residents, including their paid carers in the care home, and unpaid carers (family and friends) in their wider social network.
The post holder will work alongside care home staff in a collaborative way for a defined period of time to implement interventions detailed in the CCHIT care plan. They will assist with upskilling care home staff in these interventions and increasing their ability to apply these more widely to the care of other residents within the setting.
Working for our organisation
The care home intervention teams work with people over the age of 65 (or those with younger onset dementia) who are resident in care homes, and who display challenging behaviour in the context of dementia or other mental health difficulties. The teams work on the basis that people’s behaviour, even when challenging, can be understood, and this understanding often leads the way in identifying unmet needs and in developing good care planning and practice, involving the use of psychosocial interventions. The team is based at 50 Pampisford Road, CR8 2NE, Purley
The ability to travel around care homes in the borough of Croydon daily is essential for this role, although you do not need to be a driver, and many existing team members do use public transport.
The post holder will be well supported by both team-based supervision with the CCHIT team manager, and role-based group supervision alongside the two other STR workers working in the CHITs in the other SLaM boroughs.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. For both overviews please view the Job Description attachment with the job advert.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Level 3 certificate in Health and Social Care or equivalent
Desirable criteria
- Psychology degree or equivalent experience, or Evidence of continued academic development
Experience
Essential criteria
- Two years or more experience within a mental health setting (either NHS, social care or private setting)
- experience in working with older people, and those with cognitive impairment and dementia
Desirable criteria
- experience dealing with health acute psychiatric crises / care
- Experience of psychological formulation sessions
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Knowledge of the principles of equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice in the provision of services
- Knowledge of the key principles of risk assessment and risk management
- Understanding of SMART goal setting
Desirable criteria
- Training in specific interventions for people with dementia
- Some knowledge of psycho- pharmacology intervention
- Some understanding of the needs of people with mental illness and personality disorder
Abilities
Essential criteria
- Ability to work with a wide variety of professionals and agencies
- Ability to work with carers and families and commitment to developing user focused services
- Good written and verbal communication and IT skills
- Ability to travel extensively within the community
- Ability to treat people with warmth, kindness, dignity and respect
- Ability to prioritise workload and carry out work efficiently and effectively
- Ability to work under times of change and pressure of work
- Ability to motivate clients who are difficult to engage and co-ordinate the support with fellow staff members
- Self-motivated and able to use supervision sessions effectively
Desirable criteria
- Ability to reflect positively on practice
- Motivated to participate in required training and development
- Willingness to work flexibly and adapt to changing priorities
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
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
- Rebecca Christian
- Job title
- Team Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
020 3228 6429
List jobs with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in Nursing and Midwifery or all sectors