Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist

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 providing 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

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly motivated consultant to join Chelsham house at the Bethlem Royal Hospital. This is a well-established substantive consultant post and has come about as the current post-holder is moving to another post within the Trust.

The Chelsham House organic ward predominantly for dementia patients is based at Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, Greater London, BR3 3BX and the employing Trust is The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM). It provides care and treatment to older adults from any of the four boroughs Croydon, Lewisham, Lambeth, and Southwark with organic mental health issues who need in-patient treatment.

The hours of operation of Chelsham House is 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, and the post holder's hours will be Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

There are close working relationships with the other teams within the directorate, including the home treatment teams, liaison teams and community mental health teams.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide senior medical leadership to the ward. They will be the Responsible clinician for all patients detained under the mental health act as well as responsible consultant for the rest of the patients who are not detained.

The post-holder will be expected to provide supervision to the other medical members of the team in line with Royal College of Psychiatrists requirements and the Trust's Supervision policy. They will support the ward manager in evaluating the performance of the team and be part of quality improvement work going on in the Team.

The post holder will participate in the MHOA consultant on-call rota, providing consultant advice/ support to on-call core and specialist trainees when they see older adults patients. The rota is approximately 1 in 22. The post holder will be expected to be part of reciprocal consultant cover arrangements in Croydon CMHT for older adults.

Working for our organisation

The post holder will work in a well-established multidisciplinary team with junior medical cover. There is dedicated office space as well as admin support.

The post holder is expected to take advantage of opportunities for innovative service development, quality improvement and management/leadership development in the directorate as well as within the Trust. There are ample opportunities for educational, academic and managerial roles. There are also opportunities for collaborations, as SLaM is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre and also the only mental health trust in the UK to have its own biomedical research centre, hosted jointly with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at KCL.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

A more detailed job description is attached. There is support for newly appointed consultants in the StartWell group. As part of this the post holder will have the opportunity of having a more senior consultant as a mentor.

Person specification

• Fully registered with GMC with a licence to practice
• Eligibility for inclusion on the specialist register or within 6 months of gaining CCT
• Approved Clinician status or able to achieve within three months of appointment
• Eligibility for approval under Section 12(2) MHA 1983
• Membership or Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Evidence of specific CCT and relevant endorsement

CLINICAL SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE

• Evidence of excellent knowledge in Old Age psychiatry
• Confidence in risk formulation and management on an acute older adult ward
• Able to manage clinical complexity and uncertainty
• Excellent working knowledge of MHA and MCA
• Experience of service development in mental health
• Experience with Home treatment team, community or mental health liaison for older adults
• Experience within acute ward setting

OTHER QUALITIES AND SKILLS

• Commitment with working with service users and carers
• Ability to work in and lead a team
• Demonstrate commitment to shared leadership & collaborative working to deliver improvement
• Able to plan and deliver undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training relevant to this post
• Experienced in clinical research and / or service evaluation

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights.

Application Process

• All applications for this post will need to be made online
• Read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
• The closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
• Once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
• Should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful
• Priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
• Should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
• We are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe.

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.