First Contact Mental Health Practitioner Durham Coast
At a glance
- Band
- Band 6
- Contract
- Fixed-term
- Pattern
- Full-time
- Posted
- 14/09/2026
- Closes
- 28/09/2026
Sponsorship verdict
Candidates needing sponsorship are encouraged to apply.
HiveMind found a sponsorship-friendly statement in the source advert welcoming applicants who require a visa. Always confirm on the source before applying.
“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.”Quoted verbatim from the source advert
Role summary
This is an exciting opportunity for a First Contact Mental Health Practitioner to join a multidisciplinary team within County Durham Primary Care Networks. The role involves providing specialist mental health advice, undertaking triage, assessments, and brief interventions for people with a range of mental health needs in a primary care setting. You will work collaboratively with GPs and other professionals to ensure patients receive appropriate care and support, acting as a key interface between primary and secondary mental health services. The post requires an enthusiastic and motivated individual to help develop innovative and integrated mental health services.
Key responsibilities
- Offer specialist mental health advice and provide expert clinical care for people with a range of mental health needs.
- Undertake triage, assessments, brief interventions, and reviews as a 'first contact mental health worker'.
- Provide networking and navigation expertise to enable access to appropriate mental health support across the community system.
- Manage daily clinics and act as a specialist advisor to GPs, providing short-term interventions and support.
- Develop partnerships and networks with key stakeholders across the PCN and wider mental health care system.
- Facilitate the interface between Primary Care and Secondary Mental Health Services, promoting clear communication and joint working.
Essential criteria
- Current professional registration with appropriate body in healthcare or social work.
- Evidence of Continuing Professional Development.
- Certificate in mentorship, teaching & assessing in clinical practice as appropriate to own profession.
- If appropriate to professional registration, recognised sign-off mentor (or equivalent) for students or must be achieved within agreed timescale
- Clinical Supervisor
- [contact details removed] literacy, numeracy and ITQ level 2 (or equivalent)
- Communicate complex and sensitive information effectively to patients, carers/families and all members of the multidisciplinary team.
- Work effectively across complex organisations, pathways and services
- Provide effective clinical supervision, teaching, training and assessing in clinical practice
- Write reports
- Use multimedia materials for presentations in professional settings
- Use approved breakaway techniques (within agreed timescale)
- Significant experience working with people with mental ill health in a community setting.
- Working collaboratively with service users and their families/carers.
- Providing clinical supervision
- Mentoring students on practice placement experience
- Working in a multi-disciplinary team
- Experience and involvement with quality improvement activities
- Demonstrable knowledge to post-graduate level of evidence-based practice in caring for patients in the designated field.
- Knowledge of Stepped Care model.
- Understanding of relevant legislation (e.g. Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act).
- Care Programme Approach and its application in practice
- Detailed understanding of Safeguarding and its application in practice
- Clinical Risk Assessment and Management and its application in practice.
- Clinical Governance and its application in practice
- Research and development methodology
- Understanding of psychological models of care and treatment
- Demonstrable knowledge and experience of delivering psychosocial interventions and approaches
- Contemporaneous knowledge of recent health and social care policy and guidance on implications for practice
Desirable criteria
- Leadership or management qualification.
- Post-graduate qualification in a relevant area.
- Experience working in primary care.
- Experience working in a multiagency setting.
- Leadership or management experience.
Useful to know
Agenda for Change 2024/25 pays Band 6 at £37,338 – £44,962 a year, across England.
This advert: £39,959 – £48,117 — outside the standard scale; check for HCAS/London weighting.
Posted 1d ago · Closes in 14d
Plenty of time to prepare a strong application.
Full advert · preview
Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
First Contact Mental Health Practitioner Durham Coast
The closing date is 28 September 2026
Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an individual who is enthusiastic, motivated, and interested in working in primary care mental health to join our existing team. You will be part of a growing multidisciplinary service within County DurhamPrimary Care Networks . The role is fundamental to the development and leadership of innovative and integrated mental health services.
Together with Tees Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) NHS Foundation Trust, the PCN is working to transform local community mental health services for people withmental health problems. The PCN, alongside TEWV, consider this joint approach to be essential for the provision of high quality, sustainable care.**** By working co-operatively, we will be able to provide meaningful support for people with mental health difficulties in a way that meets their needs closer to their communities and their homes.
Nursing applicants should already hold NMC registration and have successfully completed their preceptorship programme.
We would welcome enthusiastic innovators with a strong desire to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients and have the motivation and flexibility to help develop the services as the team evolves to meet the needs of the populati
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