Job overview

This post is for a Unit Manager for Berkeley House - a 365 day, 24-hour inpatient unit for individuals with learning disabilities, designed for people to access for a short period of time while specialist assessments are carried out and treatment plans put in place to allow the person to return to community living.

Berkeley House is a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency service which includes nursing, psychology, psychiatry, occupational therapy,  speech and language therapy and health care Assistants (HCAs). There are seven individual flats where service users have access to space that is not impacted by others.

The post holder will take overall responsibility in leading the operational and clinical management of the Service, providing day-to-day line management of all staff. They will be responsible for planning, implementation and evaluation of nursing care, as well as demonstrating enhanced competence in complex decision making, assessment and the management of clinical needs.

The ideal candidate will have experience of working within an LD or MH setting who can demonstrate positive learning from their experience and who can transform and nurture care and work cultures. They will need to be a qualified, experienced Learning Disability or Mental Health Nurse with drive and ambition. 

The core hours of this role are 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will work closely with the nursing team and in partnership with service users, carers and other agencies to ensure effectiveness of outcomes.

They will have a responsibility for mentoring and supervising qualified and unqualified staff as well as line management and rota management to ensure the staffing levels within the unit are safe and meeting patient needs.

They will be a leader for the team, providing clear and effective guidance, focusing on a positive and collaborative working environment.

The successful candidate should demonstrate sound, professional knowledge of Learning Disabilities, with a proven ability to work with service users and carers who may be distressed. You will need strong interpersonal and organisational skills to provide a responsive and proactive approach for this developing service.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Working for our organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us.  In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views.  It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

 This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement.  However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.