Mental Health Specialist Support Officer

Mental Health Specialist Support Officer
Bedford - Permanent, Full Time
£34,500 per annum plus car allowance

We are looking for a Mental Health Specialist Support Officer to provide specialist mental health support across our housing services, enabling customers with mental health challenges to sustain their tenancies, improve wellbeing, and engage effectively with appropriate services.

The role acts as a bridge between customers, housing teams, and external mental health services, ensuring a coordinated, compassionate, and trauma-informed approach to support. The role is designed to deliver short‑term, targeted interventions, and will therefore hold small, focused caseloads to ensure timely, intensive, and effective support.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Support

• Work directly with customers experiencing mental health challenges to provide tailored, person-centred support
• Build trusted relationships that encourage engagement with services and reduce barriers to accessing support
• Proactively manage a small caseload and ensure full, timely, and accurate recording all casework activity and reporting of outcomes
• Carry out holistic assessments of need and risk, establish effective mitigation and risk management strategies
• Develop and review person-centred plans focused on tenancy sustainment and wellbeing
• Support customers to attend and engage with appointments (e.g. GP, community mental health teams, tenancy related appointments)
• Respond appropriately to crisis situations, including safeguarding, welfare concerns and risk escalation

Specialist Advice & Support to Housing Teams

• Act as the mental health subject matter expert for housing officers and wider teams
• Provide guidance on managing complex cases, including risk, behaviour, and tenancy-related issues
• Support case reviews and joint visits where there are significant mental health concerns
• Deliver informal training, briefings, or coaching to improve confidence and understanding across teams
• Promote trauma-informed and psychologically informed approaches to housing management

Partnership & Link Worker Role

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with local mental health services (e.g. CMHTs, crisis teams, GPs, voluntary sector)
• Act as a key point of contact to improve communication and partnership working between services
• Advocate on behalf of customers to ensure their needs are understood and responded to
• Attend multi-agency meetings, case conferences, and safeguarding forums
• Identify gaps in local provision and escalate where appropriate

Safeguarding & Risk Management

• Identify safeguarding concerns and take appropriate action in line with policy
• Contribute to risk assessments and safety planning for customers and staff
• Maintain accurate, confidential, and timely case records
• Ensure all work is compliant with safeguarding, data protection, and professional boundaries

Service Development

• Contribute to the development of internal policies and practices relating to mental health
• Identify trends and themes to inform service improvement
• Support the organisation in embedding a more informed and compassionate response to mental health

Key Skills & Experience

• Experience of working with individuals with a range of mental health needs (e.g. anxiety, depression, trauma, personality disorders, severe mental illness)
• Strong understanding of the mental health system, including statutory and voluntary services
• Ability to build trust and rapport with customers who may be reluctant to engage
• Skilled in risk assessment, safeguarding, and managing complex or sensitive situations
• Confidence in advising and influencing colleagues and stakeholders at different levels
• Experience of multi-agency working and partnership building
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal

Qualifications / Knowledge

• Relevant qualification or equivalent experience in mental health, social work, psychology, or a related field
• Knowledge of safeguarding legislation and best practice
• Understanding and application of trauma-informed practice

Personal Attributes

• Empathetic, calm, and non-judgemental
• Resilient and able to manage emotionally demanding situations
• Strong professional boundaries
• Solution-focused with a practical approach
• Committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion

Disclaimer

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. Early application is encouraged to avoid disappointment.