Discharge Coordinator

It's a very exciting time to join us in Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) as we continue our journey of improving and investing in our inpatient and community services as well as supporting and developing our staff.

We are looking for enthusiastic and motivated individuals with a caring and empathetic approach to join our developing Clinical Bed Management Service. We want qualified mental health practitioners (registered mental health or learning disabilities Nurses, Occupational Therapists or Social Workers) who have a passion to improve the lives of our patients to join our team.

We require someone who is dedicated to ensuring our patients inpatient stay is as productive but as short in duration as possible. Your focus will be on working with inpatient staff, the patient themselves and their carers as well as community services across health, housing and social care to expedite the patients discharge from their hospital stay. The expectation is that you will support the development and execution of a comprehensive discharge plan for people with often complex and diverse mental health and psychological needs.

Primarily working Monday to Friday, during core hours across NSFT's inpatient sites in Norfolk and Suffolk, you will be required to be able to travel to visit our inpatient service users who are placed in hospitals across both counties.

• Work as a core member of the centralised Clinical Bed Management Team but develop excellent working relationships with locality based inpatient MDT's, Crisis Teams, CMHT's, Housing Providers, 3rd Sector and Charitable Organisations and Adult Social Care Services.
• Contribute to locality and trust wide flow information and meetings.
• In conjunction with other professionals, identify current inpatients whose needs could best be met in a lesser restrictive environment e.g. in their own home with crisis/outreach support, in a respite or 'step-down' facility or in a residential/nursing care home setting.
• Work to develop comprehensive discharge plans for individuals with complex mental health and psychological needs, whose discharge from hospital could be expedited.
• Undertake collaborative actions with inpatient MDT's, Community Mental Health Services, Adult Social Care, housing and 3rd Sector care providers, service users themselves and their Carers/families to facilitate safe and timely discharge of identified service users from hospital.
• By attending locality based clinical meetings and discussions, the post holder will work as a key member of the MDT, ensuring that high quality individualised care is delivered which ensures safety and a commitment to promoting recovery and wellbeing and maximising independence.

The Clinical Bed Management Service is a team of experienced and skilled clinicians whose main aim is to ensure that NSFT's patient population can access the necessary assessment and care they require at the right time, in the right place from the right service. The Service is made up of Clinical Bed Managers and Discharge Coordinators supported by a dedicated Medical Director for Patient Pathways in Acute Care & Flow.

We work across all adult and older adult inpatient pathways and collaborate with inpatient and community MDT's both within NSFT and sometimes external to the Trust if our patient is receiving their inpatient treatment elsewhere. Our Service is responsible for ensuring the efficient and effective use of the Trusts inpatient resources and for eradicating the use of out of Trust hospital placements.

Please see the Job Description for more details on the duties of a Discharge Coordinator.

We look forward to receiving your application for the Discharge Coordinator post and will be happy to discuss the role and the wider Clinical Bed Management Service in more detail. We recommend you speak to someone from within our developing team but initially feel free to contact Janice OHare who is assisting us with these exciting developments. Please contact her on:

• First Level Registered Nurse - RMN/RNMH/RNLD or equivalent Mental Health professional qualification.
• Evidence of postregistration training in clinical/psychological interventions/skills relevant to the post.

• Proven track record of post registration clinical experience relevant to the post.
• Experience in the use of CPA (Care Programme Approach), Safeguarding, MAPPA (Multi Agency Panel for the Protection of Vulnerable Adults) and Child Protection.
• Understanding of difficult to manage/challenging behaviours.

• Risk Assessment and Risk Management/Safety Planning skills.
• Ability to work under pressure.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£38,682 to…