Band 6 Specialist Practitioner and Group Facilitator - BNSSG Sequoia

at  Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Sequoia provide holistic support for people with Complex Emotional Needs (CEN) and mental health difficulties associated with Personality Disorders, across BNSSG.
The service promotes wellness and safety and will continue to grow to meet the needs of those within our community (please see key local information for further details).
We are looking for a Band 6 Practitioner to help bring the service to life. Sequoia is a brand new service for people with Complex Emotional Needs and Personality Difficulties. The successful applicant will be joining the existing team to build the service further. There is a website in development. If you would like more information please feel free to contact us.
Diversity makes us stronger, we encourage applicants from a broad range of backgrounds. We are building a team that is diverse in all areas and communities; we will employ people who those communities can identify with. We will employ people with ‘lived-experience’ of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities. We think about intersectionality both to understand our service user group and to inform our staffing model.
The vision for Sequoia is the product of an innovative collaboration between Experts by Experience, Avon and Wiltshire Partnership Trust (AWP), Voluntary community and social enterprises (VCSE) and the Integrated Care Board (ICB) within Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG).
The successful applicant will have the challenge of helping to build a service within AWP in collaboration with VCSE partners. The team will be inclusive, recovery focused, highly motivated and will hold the needs of the people of BNSSG at the centre of all that they do. They will work across primary and secondary care services and develop strong relationships with colleagues. They will support the development of the new service and bring creativity and innovative thinking.
Co-production between the multi-disciplinary team and experts by experience is at the heart of the organisations in service planning, delivery and review; with paid lived experience roles in varying levels of seniority within the team.
Once the service is up and running the Band 6 Practitioner will primarily be delivering DBT and MBT informed interventions in a group setting. These groups will be both online and in person, depending on the needs of the population. This role will also triage referrals, leading on support conversations (assessments) and post-group reviews. They will also be involved in other group work and delivering training.
We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshi re Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust) : a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.
We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.
Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.
At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
As a service we will need to be flexible to the needs of the Service Users we serve. We will also be flexible to the needs of our staff. The service will allow staff to work flexibly and in return staff will offer flexibility over when they deliver interventions. The service operates between Monday – Friday 7am – 10pm, with the bulk of the interventions taking place between 9-5. Staff hours are flexible within this, depending on service users’ needs.
The service will be supportive of our staff and responsive to staff’s need. Working with intense emotions is often challenging and this is why Sequoia will have excellent supervision and training built into the model for all staff. The service has started in North Somerset, then will expand to South Gloucestershire and then Bristol, in a phased approach. Staff will have a focus on certain geographical areas and also be prepared to travel within BNSSG as needed. The base for this post is currently Callington Road, this is an administrative base, as most of the work will be done from home or within community buildings.
Sequoia is an incredibly exciting project, which has the permission to do things differently. We welcome dedicated people from all backgrounds who would like to join us on this journey. Please do get in touch before applying

Please refer the Job description for details