Specialist Health Visitor for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health

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We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if sufficient applications are received prior to the advertised closing date.

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Health Visitor to join a team of Specialist Health Visitors, to lead the continued development of compassionate, evidence informed practice around perinatal and infant mental health, within the Universal Health Visiting service across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG).

Our service focuses on promotion, prevention, and early intervention and works as part of the wider system to ensure that all children and families can access the right support to meet their needs.

The role will also require a commitment to ongoing professional reflection, development and training in order to deliver effective evidence-informed interventions to support parental and infant emotional wellbeing.

• Work as a specialist practitioner to critically evaluate, develop and improve family-based support in the perinatal period where parents have or are at risk of developing emotional wellbeing or mental health difficulties and where these are likely to impact on their infant’s emotional development.
• Support Health Visitors to act (when appropriate) as an advocate for parents and their infants with perinatal mental health difficulties to ensure they receive active and effective support. This will be done by improving liaison with adult mental health, perinatal services and other partner agencies.
• Provide professional leadership for the universal children’s services in relation to perinatal mental health, attending strategic meetings and contributing to wider guidance and support pathways.
• Act as a helpful and accessible resource for health visiting and wider public health services around perinatal and infant mental health.
• Provide evidence-informed consultation, support, and training to colleagues to develop their skills in critical thinking, reflective practice and knowledge around perinatal mental health, the importance of collaborative assessment with families and individualised, compassionate support, and understanding of appropriate referral pathways.

Working for our organisation

Ever dreamt about a career that sparks excitement and fosters your professional growth? Picture yourself waking up eager to make a real difference in our community, surrounded by teams who value your unique ideas.

We are Sirona care & health – England’s largest provider of Adult’s and Children’s Community Services and we’d love for you to join us in Bristol, North Somerset or South Gloucestershire.

Agenda for Change Salary, full NHS benefits, 27+ days’ annual leave, and participation in the NHS Pension Scheme – just a glimpse of the benefits you’ll receive.

We welcome and encourage all applicants. We are committed to having a workforce that reflects the communities we support and are proactively seeking to improve the diversity of our workforce. We know diversity fosters creativity and innovation.

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where all belong. We aim to draw upon the widest possible range of views and experiences to meet the changing needs of our colleagues, partners and communities we serve.

Whether you're starting your journey in healthcare, looking for a fresh challenge within the NHS, or contemplating a career change, don't be daunted by the prospect of something different – we create development opportunities for all our colleagues and apprentices.

Interested? View our benefits leaflet which you can find attached to this vacancy.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For a full list of duties and responsibilities associated with this position please see the attached Job Description.

Person specification

Qualifications and Training

• Registered Nurse or Midwife with SCPHN qualification
• Knowledge of perinatal and infant mental health attachment work with families.
• Competent IT skills –– use of MS Office programmes including word, Excel, Power Point, outlook, Microsoft Teams.
• Car driver/owner, available for travel across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

• iHV Perinatal Infant Mental Health Champion trained.
• Additional qualification(s) in understanding infant emotional development and parent / infant relationships.
• Mentor / teaching qualification (or demonstrable experience)
• Clinical supervision training

Skills, Experience and Knowledge

• Significant knowledge, training and experience in supporting maternal and infant relationships, family wellbeing and mental health.
• In depth knowledge of child and family health and the socio-economic and familial stressors and patterns that contribute to inequalities.
• Experience of working collaboratively with other health care and service providers to contribute to the seamless delivery of services for local families and communities.
• Evidence a psychologically informed approach to supporting infant and family wellbeing which promotes sensitive and responsive parenting and person centred, compassionate practice in all facets of public health early years work.

• Experience of planning and delivering high quality training and support to staff (both in a 1 to 1 and group setting).