Company

For more than 20 years, people in Australia have placed their trust in Beyond Blue as a reliable source of mental health information, support and hope.

We are one of Australia’s most well-known, trusted, and visited mental health organisations. We never take this for granted. With that comes a deep responsibility to listen, to understand people’s needs and aspirations, and to ensure they are at the heart of everything we do.

We are a big blue door for many in the community: a safe and reliable place for millions of people to access information, advice and support – whether they’re well and want to stay that way, unsettled or struggling and need support, or in recovery and want to reconnect.

About this Position  

As a strategic and collaborative clinical governance and practice expert, this position will play a crucial advisory role to Beyond Blue teams, especially services teams tasked with the organisation’s commitment to quality and safety in care.  The Senior Mental Health Practitioner works within the Assurance leadership team that includes, the Head of Assurance and the Quality and Safety Manager to support clinical quality and safety across Beyond Blue delivered services, and services that are delivered by our third-party partners. The position plays an enabling role to the implementation of the Beyond 2023+ Strategy, Earlier, Easier, Together.

Reporting directly to the Head of Assurance, the Senior Mental Health Practitioner will provide specialist guidance and support in developing and implementing the Care Governance Framework and support a deliberate planned approach towards maturing quality and safety in care, to enhance the organisation's reputation and visibility. This will require skilled clinical advice and a strong focus on delivering outputs to achieve desired clinical outcomes.

With a background in, and practice knowledge of Low Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy this position works closely with the Quality and Safety Manager to support and improve clinical quality and safety at Beyond Blue and with Beyond Blue Partners. As well, the role supports the Mental Health Advisor in their role providing direct supports to the community.  This requires strong knowledge of relevant evidence informed practice and highly developed  collaboration skills.  The role will support the Chair of Clinical Governance Committee and the Head of Assurance guiding and informing the Clinical Governance Committee.

The role

The key duties of the role include:

Team Leadership

 

·       Mentor and support members of the team by conducting regular informal and formal one-on-one meetings;
·       Ensure team members have established achievable work and career goals, and are provided opportunities to develop;
·       In collaboration with each member of the team create a workplan which prioritises activities and is reviewed regularly;
·      Report on team progress to the Head of Assurance.

 

Policy

 

·       Lead the development, implementation and oversight of the Care Governance Framework ensuring governance of quality and safety obligations and to ensure all activities across Beyond Blue are community centred, clinically safe, evidence-informed, adhere to legal and clinical standards and regulations.
·       Develop and implement policies relating to clinical quality, risk and safety.
·       Advise on a program of clinical risk and quality audits/assurance reviews ensuring that all areas of clinical governance are reviewed with sufficient frequency.

 

Organisational leadership

 

·       Work closely with Support Services teams to provide evidence informed and timely clinical and practice advice as required.
·       Provide advice to Beyond Blue teams; that supports a culture of quality and safety in care and ensure adherence to effective governance and best practice policies and procedures.
·       Develop supportive and effective working relationships with peers and colleagues that further the goals of the Assurance team.

 

Clinical and practice activities

 

·       Develop and improve clinical quality activity including, incident, complaint and clinical risk management and clinical quality improvement plans and outputs to ensure strong second line of defence, person centred care and safe and effective services and community responses.
·       Lead third line of defence to ensure independent assurance that risk and clinical governance frameworks are effective and complied with. 
·       Support and advise on the application of Models of Care for Beyond Blue Services.
·       Work closely with the Quality and Safety team to monitor and report on Model of Care compliance.
·       Support community connection and operational responses (first line of defence) to clinical decision making, community distress, clinical incidents, complaints and information requests.

 

Reporting

 

·       Provide analytical reports on complaints, feedback and clinical risk to the Head of Assurance. 
·       Report and escalate complaints and incidents as required.
·       Report to the Clinical Governance Committee on any material changes to the organisation’s clinical risk profile and make recommendations in relation to risk, quality and safety.
·       Report to the Head of Assurance and Clinical Governance Committee on matters relating to clinical strategy, improvements and practice advances.

 

 

About you

To be successful you will hold:

 

·       Tertiary qualification in allied health including Psychology or Social Work, and experience in Clinical Governance and Quality Assurance.
·       Background in a high volume, digital mental health environment.
·       Specialist training in Low Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or significant experience and knowledge gained through professional application.
·       Appropriate registration with relevant professional bodies.
·       Strong leadership experience in coaching clinical staff to build a high performance culture committed to quality and safety.
·       Significant experience in leading evidence-informed clinical services and their quality improvement with demonstrable community impact.
·       Experience successfully implementing change with clinical governance or service frameworks and associated clinical systems, policies, procedures, process and continuous improvement plans within a complex service environment.
·       Experience in translating evidence informed practice knowledge into clinical decisions, service development, content development and/or community development activities.
·       Experience in collaborating effectively with stakeholders across the organisation in developing and embedding clinical governance and frameworks. 
·       Experience in writing corporate reports targeting varying audiences from managers to Board.
·       Demonstrated experience as a subject matter expert in clinical care governance, someone who is highly looked up to by peers in the organisation.

 

 

Culture & Values

Our values are the unseen drivers of our behaviours and ultimately become the organisational culture.

 

•       We're focused
•       We're brave
•       We rise
•       Together

 

Beyond Blue is committed to fostering and preserving a workplace that values diversity and inclusion. We aim to grow and thrive as a diverse team with individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, self-expression, and talents. In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, colour, religion, ability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

 

How to apply

To apply, applications should include a current CV with a cover letter that addresses how your qualifications, skills and experience would be attributes to the position and why you would consider yourself to be a cultural addition to Beyond Blue. For detailed information about this position including the closing date, please refer to the position description on our careers page (candidates who are viewing from a job board such as SEEK or LinkedIn, please refer to our careers page on our website).

Preferred candidates will be required to undertake pre-employment screening, including a National Police Check and where required, a Working with Children Check.

This job advertisement is open until Monday, 4 November 12:00pm. We encourage early applications as interviews may commence before the closing date. All applications will be treated with strict confidentiality.