Key roles

We are not able to provide Visa sponsorship for Healthcare Assistant roles, so you will need to be currently living in the UK with the right to work in the UK to apply.

Working as a Healthcare Assistant (HCA) in mental health is very different from working in other areas of healthcare. Our patients and your colleagues will expect you to live the St Andrew’s CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence every single day.

In the role with us, you could work in settings ranging from community provisions to secure hospitals.

While elsewhere the focus is often on physical interventions, in mental health it is on personal interaction with the people in our care. This means that those who choose to work in this field often find it extremely rewarding.

Working life

As a HCA, you'll be under the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional, usually a nurse, and work with doctors, psychologists and a range of other healthcare professionals.

The main contact you'll have, though, is with the people in our care.

Before you begin working on the wards, you'll undergo a high level of mandatory training. This training will prepare you to deal with any difficult situations that may occur, teaching you how to handle such situations safely using de-escalation techniques.

Healthcare Assistant - entry requirements

There are no set entry requirements to become a Healthcare Assistant but there are skills and personal characteristics needed. To be a Healthcare Assistant in mental health care, you'll need to be:

• Resilient
• Caring and kind
• Cheerful and friendly
• Willing to do personal care tasks (washing, toileting, etc.) in some areas
• Able to follow instructions and procedures
• Able to work in a team but use your own initiative

You'll also need:

• Communication and listening skills
• Organisational skills
• Observational skills

Speech and Language Therapy at St Andrew's

Our patients and your colleagues will expect you to live the St Andrew’s CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence every single day.

Our Speech and Language Therapy team assesses and treats patients who have difficulties with speech, language and communication, or with eating, drinking and swallowing (dysphagia). We also offer screening to check the hearing of every St Andrew's patient as part of their physical healthcare.

We are committed to ensuring that all patients referred to us reach their full potential in their ability to communicate, and are able to eat and drink as safely as possible. This means we take a personally tailored approach to every patient we work with, combining direct and indirect support designed specifically to meet their particular needs.

Roles in speech and language therapy

Our department is structured in the following way to meet the needs of its patients.

The Secure Services Team for Speech and Language Therapy works across a variety of clinical pathways, including  autistic spectrum disorder, learning disability and working/older age psychiatry.
The Neuropsychiatry Team for Speech and Language Therapy works across acquired brain injury and progressive conditions.

Speech and Language Therapy is a centralised service, which means our team members are supported and managed by someone within their own profession. We employ a variety of clinical grades and offer a range of clinical and learning development opportunities, supporting career progression within the department.

Your first year with us

We are an enthusiastic and hardworking team. You will be given a warm welcome, regular opportunities to work alongside colleagues to enable you to develop your confidence and competence across clinical pathways, and access to internal and external training events.

We expect you to join us in our commitment to improving patient care, and to complete your mandatory training and identified learning and development objectives. You will be supported in your role through regular team meetings, professional development events, protected time to engage in clinical supervision and regular reviews of your development and training needs.

Why choose St Andrew’s Healthcare to further develop your career in Dietetics?

As a Dietitian at St Andrew’s Healthcare, you will be able to use and build on your core skills, apply these in a specialist area of practice and become a valued member of the multi-disciplinary team.

You will be welcomed by a dynamic, innovative and supportive dietetics team who work together to help individuals make healthier choices by:

Listening to what's important to them

• Answering their questions on food and health
• Being part of their healthcare team, advising and training colleagues
• Communicating clear, relevant messages about nutrition
• Working with chefs on recipes, ingredients and menus with all meals being cooked freshly onsite in our main kitchens and specialist dysphagia kitchen
• Keeping up to date with research and new information.

St Andrew’s offers challenging and rewarding opportunities to enhance your skills and experience through working with a diverse group of patients, from adolescents to older age adults.

To find out more about working as a Dietitian at St Andrew's click here to see a short video featuring Beena Patel, one of our Specialist Dietitians. Beena wrote an article for the September 2020 issue of Dietetics Today (The British Dietetic Association's membership magazine) which highlights the difference you can make when working in mental health. Click here to read more. She also wrote an article for CN Magazine in May 2023 titled ‘Nutritionally supporting patients in a mental health setting. Click here to read.

Innovation

The St Andrew’s dietetic team have developed and validated a Nutritional screening tool (SANSI) which can be used as an alternative to the MUST tool to ensure the additional nutritional risks prevalent in mental health settings can be identified. This tool has been recognised by NHS England working groups as an appropriate alternative tool, and we have shared it with organisations across the UK and overseas. Click here for more information on SANSI (paper version) and our latest presentation on the Nutrition Screening Tool here.

Click here to read an article on nutritional screening including a section Beena Patel contributed to on secure mental health settings.

Our dietitians and nutritionists understand nutrition and food, and the impact it has on physical and mental health. The importance of staying a healthy weight in secure services was been recently highlighted in an NHS England 2019/20 CQUIN. As part of the Charity’s commitment to supporting patient’s physical health, the Dietetics team has produced comprehensive and engaging nutrition education resources including a 12 topic programme, healthy lifestyle workbook, factsheets, a recipe book and internal website as well as an online training module for staff.

Demonstrating leadership in Mental Health Dietetics
Promoting Dietetics in mental health care is important to us and we take opportunities to showcase our skills and the contribution we can make. Some examples of this include:

- S. Bailey & Dr E. Delmage, Identification and management of obesity in adolescents within mental health services, Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry annual conference, Edinburgh 2013

- N. Wolfe & A. Simmons-Roberts, Tackling weight management in a secure mental health service plus poster presentation. 3rd Health and Justice summit in London 2015

- E. Cooper & R. Forster, Positive about Nutrition – does nutrition have a role to play in patient recovery in a secure mental health setting? Workshop and poster presentation at the 4th Health and Justice summit in 2016

- G. Momi & R. Forster, Achieving and maintaining optimal nutritional status in elderly patients in a mental health setting (poster presentation) at 5th Health and Justice summit in 2017

- N. Wolfe & A. Simmons-Roberts, Best practice in managing obesity in secure mental health units. Primary Care and Public Health conference, Birmingham in 2018

Across our team we have active members of specialist BDA groups including the Mental Health Specialist Group and Obesity Specialist Group. We have committee members of the CAMHS Specialist Sub-group (membership) and National Forensic Dietetic Forum (joint chair) as well as team members involved in specialist working groups e.g. ARFID. We support our team to access peer supervision via groups such as the East Midlands eating disorder group and BDA branch meetings. Our registered Nutritionists are members of the The Association of Nutrition.

We have contributed to producing professional consensus guidelines on topics such as feeding under restraint.

St Andrew's Dietetics has hosted the BDA Mental Health Group 2-Day conference & AGM (2014) and delivered an external MDT workshop ‘Weight management: Sharing the challenges and solutions in mental health and learning disability services’ (2013).

Our team members have contributed to publications including;

Rowell A1, Long C, Chance L, Dolley O. Identification of nutritional risk by nursing staff in secure psychiatric settings: reliability and validity of St Andrew's Nutrition Screening Instrument. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs. 2012 Oct;19(8):722-8.

Haw C. & Bailey S. (2012) Body mass index and obesity in adolescents in a psychiatric medium secure service. J Hum Nutr Diet. 25, 167-171.

N. Wolfe & A. Simmons. Mental Health versus Physical Health. Complete Nutrition Vol 14, No 1 Feb/Mar 2014 

A. Simmons-Roberts. Obesity Management in Mental Health. Complete Nutrition Vol 15, No 5 Nov 2015

Career development

We provide monthly individual clinical supervision, regular dietetic team meetings and training in this specialist field. There are opportunities to shadow experienced colleagues, to participate in continuing professional development (CPD) activities and to contribute to student training. We have links with University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham.

Would you like to be part of all this?

Our patients and your colleagues will expect you to live the St Andrew’s CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence every single day.

We expect you to show commitment to your clinical area and to the Nutrition and Dietetics team, contributing to shared working and excellent care. We also expect you to develop a sound knowledge of your patient population, their nutritional needs and effective interventions.

St Andrew’s has a long and well earned reputation for both innovation and high quality care. If you join us as a psychiatrist or doctor, you will become part of a well established team, working within a culture that identifies, nurtures and promotes talent. Our patients and your colleagues will expect you to live the St Andrew’s CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence every single day.

As leaders in the field of teaching, we are committed to academic excellence. Our Academic Department is an ongoing partnership with King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry, Europe’s outstanding leader in research across psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience.

Medical roles at St Andrew’s

Doctors work in many roles within the Charity, as specialty or senior doctors with responsibilities for physical as well as mental health, as consultants or responsible clinicians leading multi-disciplinary teams, and as academics, researchers and medical leaders.

We provide many opportunities to develop professionally, especially through medical leadership to lead psychiatrist, clinical director or associate medical director roles.  We are extremely proud to empower the careers of our medical professionals; our Executive Medical Director and all of our Clinical Directors have grown and developed into their current roles from within the Charity.

We offer excellent opportunities for training and support a number of our Consultant Psychiatrists through an Executive MBA programme at some of the country's most prestigious business schools.

Your first year with us

We offer a mentorship scheme for new consultants to help them in their early years in the role, together with regular monthly supervision and peer support.

You will be expected to familiarise yourself with with the Charity's policies and procedures. In return, you will be supported by a large and active consultant body, providing you with opportunities to develop, whatever your specialty.

Careers in psychology
Our patients and your colleagues will expect you to live the St Andrew’s CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence every single day. 

Our Psychology department aims to be a benchmark of excellence for psychology services in the UK. We recruit and develop high quality staff, engage in innovative research and collaborate with leading academic institutions.

We cover a wide range of specialist services (for both inpatients and outpatients), so you'll have the opportunity to work in more than one setting. We'll help you develop your psychology career, and offer many opportunities for continuing professional development (CPD).

Roles for psychologists

Our team comprises over 50 qualified and 60 unqualified assistant psychologists across our sites. We have clinical, forensic and neuropsychologists to cover specialisms in secure services for adult males and females, CAMHS, neuropsychiatry and community services.

Pathways of care cover mental illness, personality disorder, learning disability, acquired brain injury, progressive neurological conditions and autistic spectrum disorders.

The Charity’s Academic Department promotes and stimulates research and service evaluation activity. We have co-developed the first Forensic Clinical Doctorate in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. This presents opportunities both for teaching and supervision of trainee psychologists.

Your first year with us

During your first year, you will undergo a Charity wide, profession-specific and service-specific induction programme.

You will be supported through a system of professional supervision and psychology specific meetings that have a dual focus on professional and CPD issues and on effective clinical practice. There will be opportunities for multi-disciplinary and service-specific teambuilding activities. You will be supported in undertaking activities necessary for the maintenance of professional registration.

Opportunities for CPD range from internal weekly multi-disciplinary workshops to national and international conferences.

Why choose St Andrew's?

Our patients and your colleagues will expect you to live the St Andrew’s CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence every single day.

Being part of the Physiotherapy team at St Andrew's Healthcare offers you the opportunity to work with one of the most valued and respected groups of professionals and assistants within the Charity, and the wider field of mental healthcare.

Whatever your previous specialism, whether newly qualified or if you have no current formal qualifications, you'll become part of a fun, innovative, enthusiastic and dedicated team of individuals who happily offer support where needed. You'll also have access to a vast and varied range of knowledge, experience and skills.

Working as a Physiotherapist within mental health, you will be responsible for facilitating both the physical and mental health recovery of some of the most interesting, complex and marginalised patients within the healthcare sector; developing your assessment skills, ability to motivate the unmotivated, improving your communication abilities to world class levels; all core skills that will enhance your clinical practice and prove invaluable wherever you choose to work.

As a Physiotherapist or Physio assistant working at St Andrew's you will have the opportunity to complete 'clinical rotations' across the charity. These rotations encompass a variety of differing specialisms including, progressive and non-progressive neurological conditions, MSK, respiratory, elderly care, and neuro-developmental rehab.

These rotations are facilitated through our specialist services.

Professional development

Your professional development needs are important. We support you with monthly in-service training, journal article critiquing and clinical supervision. External courses identified as appropriate to the needs of both St Andrew's and self-development will be considered. You will have the opportunity to share your knowledge with colleagues and students and an Athens password can also be obtained through our library.

Regardless of your professional background or your experience, you will find that working at St Andrew's Healthcare as a Physiotherapist or assistant offers a unique and life enriching experience that's both intrinsically rewarding and inherently satisfying.

Social work at St Andrew's

Our patients and your colleagues will expect you to live the St Andrew’s CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence every single day.

Social work promotes social inclusion and the empowerment of patients. It offers a psycho-social perspective to patient care, from admission through to discharge.

Social work is an integral part of the work of the Charity's multi-disciplinary teams, with each team member liaising with others to ensure a consistent and cohesive approach to patient care and treatment. Social workers take the lead on discharge planning, safeguarding (a major focus of our work), family work, and risk and safety issues relating to patient visits to and from family and friends. A large part of what we do involves engaging with community professionals and services and ensuring that they are kept informed of developments and the progress of their patients. As a member of our Social Work team, you will spend time acting as an advocate for patients and identifying their predominant needs and strengths so that appropriate support is available on discharge from St Andrew's.

Roles in social work

Our social workers are appointed to work in specific service areas, with specific client groups. This enables you to develop skills and expertise in areas of special interest. However, we can also provide new learning opportunities, enabling you to gain important experiential learning by working with people with different needs across the Charity.

Within the Social Work department we have a staff group of more than 60 people. They work within the divisions at St Andrew's Northampton, and we also have teams at the Charity's other sites in Birmingham, Essex and Nottinghamshire. Supervision is a high priority for ongoing support; individual staff receive one-to-one formal supervision, and informal support as required. Social workers are well respected by the other professions within the Charity and take the lead in patient safeguarding across the organisation.

Your first year

If you are a newly qualified social worker, you will be encouraged to register for the national Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programme to help develop your skills, knowledge and capability. We will provide you with a practice mentor assessor and training opportunities to develop as a confident practitioner.

If you are coming to St Andrew's as a more experienced social worker, we will encourage you to share your skills and expertise, supporting staff through regular supervision. In return we will support you to develop your practice and leadership skills through our extensive range of training opportunities.

Non-clinical career opportunities

Our patients and your colleagues will expect you to live the St Andrew’s CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence every single day.

St Andrew's non-clinical teams have a vital role to play in helping our clinical and healthcare colleagues deliver high standards of care. They provide support to both the St Andrew's head office and to our clinical services across a number of professional disciplines and locations.

The Charity offers a wide range of career opportunities in non-clinical areas. Our support teams cover a number of staffing groups and professions, including:

• human resources (HR)
• information technology (IT)
• finance
• sales and marketing
• estates and facilities
• administration
• programme and project management
• communications
• procurement
• internal audit and risk management
• legal services

For many of our staff in central and local support functions, the ability to apply their professional experience and technical skills in an environment that is dedicated to delivering the highest quality healthcare is immensely motivating and rewarding.

To find out more about the roles available and what they involve, use the job search to view role profiles and apply for our vacancies.