Consultant in Adult Psychiatry - Dunstable CMHT

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job Overview

Dunstable Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) has undergone a process of transformation/ redesign in order to focus on providing prompt assessment and intervention at the point of need. By separating out some of the functions of a traditional CMHT, the new structure will additionally allow more of a focus on recovery for those with enduring mental health problems and those accessing CPA, within a linked recovery service.

Community mental healthcare will increasingly be provided closer to home, within primary care networks.

Dunstable CMHT Has The Following Structure:

Closing date: 27th July 2025

Interview date (AAC panel): 13th August 2025

Front-end blended teams with triage function + Providing care for complex patients not on CPA (PCN Case load)

Managing recovery-focused care of individuals on CPA. (Recovery Case load)

ADHD Case Load

Main duties of the job

The Post-holder Will Provide Clinical Leadership To a Community Mental Health Team Serving Adults With Acute And Severe Mental Illness. Key Responsibilities Include:

• Leading the Dunstable team and weekly MDT meetings.
• Conducting assessments, diagnoses, and treatment planning with a focus on recovery-oriented care.
• Offering clinical guidance to GPs and collaborating with crisis, inpatient, and specialist teams to ensure continuity of care.
• Fulfilling responsibilities under the Mental Health Act, including duties as an Approved Clinician and Section 12-approved psychiatrist.
• Ensuring performance targets (KPIs) are met and working towards HTAS accreditation.
• Supervising junior staff, delivering training, and leading quality improvement and audit activities.

Participating in the consultant duty rota and engaging in regular appraisal and job planning.

Candidates must be fully GMC registered with either a CCT or equivalent (Article 14), and have s12 approval.

Working for our organisation

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

For a detailed description of main duties and responsibilities please refer to the attached job description and person specification.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Fully registered with the General Medical Council
• Eligible for inclusion in the GMC Specialist Register (or Specialist Registrar within 6 months of gaining CCT at time of interview).

Teaching

Essential Criteria

• Experience in teaching junior staff
• Good teaching and communication skills
• Experience of teaching medical undergraduates and postgraduates
• Experience of teaching non-medical mental health professionals
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Medical education qualification
  
  

Research and Audit

Essential Criteria

• Experience of research work, or be able to interpret research findings and apply them to clinical practice.
• Audit experience
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Experience of grant-funded project work
• Publications in peer-reviewed journals in relevant academic fields
  
  

Other Requirements

Essential criteria

• UK driving licence
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Car owner
  
  

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rated 'Outstanding' in 2021. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other Reasons To Apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

AI in applications

If you use AI or other tools to assist in writing your job application, make sure you add your own personal touch especially in the supporting information section. AI can make writing easier, but it doesn’t fully understand the position you’re applying for and might generate false or misleading information. Applications written only by AI often sound generic and may not show your real skills, knowledge, or experience. It’s important to write your supporting statement in your own words. East London NHS Foundation Trust does not recommend relying only on AI, as it could negatively impact on your chance of success in the application process.

We carefully check applications to make sure no one has an unfair advantage, and we verify all references. At the interview, you’ll be asked about your experience, so be honest and ensure everything in your application is accurate. Please remember that using AI during the interview is not allowed.

What Next?

If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!

As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify

your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..

If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.

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