Early Days in Custody Mental Health Practitioner | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

Posting date:	15 January 2026
Salary:	Not specified
Additional salary information:	£46,419 - £55,046 pa inc
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	14 February 2026
Location:	London, SW18 3HS
Company:	Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	7721114/277-7721114-WAND

Summary

To ensure that new prisoners are supported with their mental health needs during their first 14 days in the prison
To Identify the wider needs of patients, through the completion of a comprehensive mental health assessment and working in partnership with them and wider prison services, to co-produce a written care plan that addresses their health and social care needs.

Important Sponsorship Information for this post: We are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post

The post holder will be responsible to take part in reception screening for new prisoners on the day of first entry into prison. This will identify immediate health, risks, and safety needs.
To be able to develop initial mental health crisis plans for patients who are presenting as particularly at risk of a mental health crisis and to review as part of the nursing process.
The post holder will be responsible for carrying out comprehensive mental health assessment, obtain / check collateral and review as part of secondary screening, within fourteen days for all prisoners referred.
For people that decline this assessment the team an assertive outreach approach will be needed to ensure a care plan is in place for any known risks and vulnerabilities and will proactively work with the person to undertake a secondary screen at a later stage.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

Assess, plan, implement and evaluate a plan of care in line with mental state examinations and the nursing process.

To ensure that all of those seen have relevant collateral obtained and care plan generated, alongside comprehensive communication with wider prison teams

To ensure support for those at risk of self harm

To ensure communication with community teams is contemporaneous

To ensure that there is concordance of prescription regime and identify barriers to this.

To support the wider team as is necessary.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:


All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.  


 


You will need to provide: 


Proof of right to work documentation 


Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographic ID


Proof of address documentation 


Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code. 


 


Address History: 


5 years address history will be needed.  


Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously. 


Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited.


 


In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants


If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en).



This advert closes on Sunday 25 Jan 2026

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.