Acute Care Pathway Coordinator – Senior Bed Manager

Company: South West London and St. George's Mental Health NHS Trust
Apply for the Acute Care Pathway Coordinator – Senior Bed Manager
Location: London
Job Description:

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values; being consistent, compassionate, collaborative, respectful and open is at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is “making life better together”.

When you join us, you’ll be part of something special – an innovative and rapidly growing organisation that is helping to redefine the Mental Health, education and social care landscape in the UK.

As a Trust, we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

Acute Care Pathway Coordinator is responsible for maintaining the operation of the ACP within its bed capacity during the OOH period and providing leadership during working hours.

The post holder will coordinate access to Acute, PICU, Older Adult beds, Crisis Hostels as well as PDU and HBPOS Capacity against out of hours demands, prioritising based on clinical needs & risk, system pressures and escalates to the Service Line, or on call Team where appropriate.

Post Holder will lead the bed management related meetings, including weekends and bank holidays, responding at an operational level. The post holder will seek assurance around plans for patients being discharged on the day and in the coming days, identified barriers to discharge how actions are being prioritised with specific time frames to avoid delayed discharges or transfers of care. The Post holder will liaise with

Main duties of the job

the senior psychiatry registrar/consultant, relevant Home Treatment Teams (HTT) and Integrated Recovery Hubs (IRH) to consider reviewing suitable patients for early discharges, step downs and explore suitable alternatives to admission where this can be appropriately facilitated safely.

The Post Holder will have an oversight of the Purpose of Admission and ensure these are clear, specific and that alternatives had been explored.

In the absence of ‘in hour’s’ managers, Discharge Coordinators and ‘in hours’ medical resources, the post holder will find it harder to create new capacity in the ACP system in the OOH period. The post holder must therefore start the OOH period with a bed stock reserve, gate keep diligently to commit that reserve wisely and try to reconstitute the reserve whenever possible. The post holder must support the Assessing and Triage services in finding alternatives to admissions. The post holder will work collaboratively with external stakeholders.

The post holder will be expected to be a representation of all the Trust values in dealings with all staff and patients.

Working for our organisation

Unless expressly stated in the job advert this role is not subject to sponsorship, please be advised that all offers of employment are subject to evidence of right to work in the UK.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ – we aspire to be ‘outstanding’.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services as we invest a further £120m to upgrade and modernise our estate by 2027.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We are looking for an enthusiastic candidate who can work as part a team. The successful candidates will have a sound clinical background with effective decision-making skills and the ability to work as part of a team. You will be an experienced and competent nurse or equivalent clinician. You will be confident in using RIO (patient electronic record system) and have a good knowledge of excel. You must also have good listening, communication skills and problem-solving skills as well as the ability to work under pressure in challenging situations where conflict may arise. A good understanding of the London Compact Agreement and Clinical Prioritisation framework is also desirable.

Person specification

Training & Qualifications

Essential criteria

  • Registered General or Mental Health Nurse
  • Post Qualification – relevant to area of practice Teaching qualification (ENB 998, Mentorship) or equivalent.

Desirable criteria

  • MSc Health Management, MBA or Recognised management or leadership course Clinical background in mental health services

Experience

Essential criteria

  • Minimum of 5 years post graduate experience working in the relevant area
  • Experience of effective risk management within a service
  • The ability to provide nursing leadership and advice within the service and to lead and motivate staff. The ability to hold staff to account for the quality of care delivered to patients
  • Excellent leadership and management skills
  • Previous experience in managing teams
  • Previous experience in planning and managing flow, able to demonstrate and understanding of the issues affecting this within the health context
  • Previous contact centre / control room experience
  • Excellent organisational skills – able to prioritise own work and manage own time
  • Evidence of strong problem-solving skills – able to respond to unexpected issues and respond.
  • Proven experience of service improvement

Desirable criteria

  • Demonstrable results of successful involvement in discharge planning and coordination
  • Previous experience of working in a Trust wide capacity Previous experience of working as an Out of Hours Co-ordinator and of Bed Management
  • Project Management Training

At South West London St Georges Mental Health Trust we are committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Committed Employer, and welcome applications from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We are Members of Stonewall Diversity Champions and Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion.

  • BME (Evolve) Staff Network
  • Christian Staff Network
  • DiverseAbility
  • Deaf Staff Network
  • Mental Health Staff Forum
  • Women’s Staff Network
  • LGBTQIA+

We are committed to supporting the Armed Forces Community and has signed the Armed Forces Covenant.

We provide reasonable adjustments to the interview process for any candidates with a disability.

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Posted: October 13th, 2026