Early Days in Custody Lead Nurse

Job Introduction
As a Early Days In Custody Lead Nurse, you’ll be part of our valued team based at HMP Chelmsford. You will feel valued as a Healthcare Assistant within HCRG Care Group, receiving access to exclusive rewards and benefits including:

• A salary of £54,000 with access to our group pension
• Free tea, coffee and milk at your base location
• Membership of My Reward Hub, giving you access to discounts on everyday purchases like grocery shopping as well as cashback and voucher offers for treats for you and those special to you
• Access to your wages as you earn them to help cover life’s emergencies and avoid overdraft fees or high interest rates
• Online and face-to-face help with your mental and physical wellbeing – from healthy recipes and activity challenges through to post-trauma support, legal, debt and life management help, as well as career coaching and counselling
• Access to eLearning, bespoke career pathways and opportunities for continuing professional development through our ‘Outstanding’ learning and development team, The Learning Enterprise
• An open, just culture where you’re encouraged to have and implement ideas which can help us deliver our purpose: changing lives through transforming health and care – backed up by at least £100,000 of ringfenced innovation funding each year

Job Introduction
The Early Days in Custody Nurse will play a pivotal role in safeguarding and supporting some of the most vulnerable individuals as they enter custody – a critical period recognised as carrying heightened risk.
You will lead a skilled, multi-disciplinary approach to identifying, stabilising and supporting people with complex needs, including physical health conditions, mental illness, neurodiversity, and trauma-related difficulties. Your clinical expertise will ensure that every individual receives a timely and thorough assessment, compassionate care, and appropriate escalation where needed.
As the clinical lead for early reception and induction, you will:

• Provide expert triage and assessment for individuals entering custody, ensuring swift identification of risk and need.
• Lead the clinical response to those in crisis or distress, drawing on trauma-informed and psychologically safe practices.
• Support the creation of a calm, stabilising reception environment, helping individuals manage distress and engage meaningfully with care.
• Collaborate closely with colleagues in healthcare, mental health, and custodial teams to ensure joined-up, person-centred care.
• Model compassionate leadership, supporting your team to deliver safe, high-quality, and recovery-focused interventions.
  This is a role for an experienced and confident practitioner – someone who thrives in fast-paced environments, demonstrates clinical excellence under pressure, and is motivated by the opportunity to improve outcomes at a point of critical vulnerability.

Main Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate reception screening and first-night health checks.
• Deliver evidence-based, trauma-informed and stabilisation-focused assessments.
• Oversee and quality assure implementation of the EDiC pathway.
• Liaise with GP, Mental Health, Primary Care, Substance misuse and custodial teams to ensure continuity of care.
• Provide specialist input into complex or high-risk cases, including those with a history of suicide attempts.
• Lead and model stabilisation-focused care, using brief interventions and trauma-informed de-escalation to support emotion regulation and prevent escalation.
• Coach staff in recognising dysregulation and responding in ways that promote calm, connection and safety.
• Ensure dynamic risk assessment and clinical contribution to ACCTs and care plans.
• Contribute to staff training on early warning signs, trauma-informed and stabilisation approaches.
• The role will model trauma-informed and stabilisation-focused practice, cascading skills through Band 5–6 nurses and healthcare assistants.
• Development of a prison-wide Early Days in Custody training package, co-produced with colleagues and people with lived experience.

Ideal Candidate
Essential

• NMC registration in both adult and mental health nursing (dual-qualified).
• Advanced clinical assessment skills.
• Strong understanding of trauma-informed care, neurodiversity and stabilisation approaches.
• Experience in custodial, crisis, or emergency settings.
• Experience in acute, forensic or secure mental health settings.
• Strong communication and teamwork skills.
• Experience with emotion regulation and stabilisation work.
• Knowledge of NICE and NHSE Health & Justice frameworks.
  While not essential, it would be desirable to have training in AMBIT, DBT, MBT or trauma stabilisation approaches, and experience leading service development or governance work.

About The Company
We change lives by transforming health and care.
Established in 2006, we are one of the UK's leading independent providers of community health and care services, working with health and care commissioners and communities to transform services with a focus on experience, efficiency and improved outcomes. We deliver and transform adult and children community health services, primary care services including urgent care, sexual health, dermatology and MSK services as well as adult social care and wellbeing services. Across England, we support communities of many millions and directly help more than half a million people each year - guided by our simple values: we care, we think, we do.
We're committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from a broad, diverse range of people who want to join our team. We’re a Disability Confident Committed company, so we work to provide facilities, work environment adjustments and technical solutions to be as inclusive of everyone.
While it doesn’t happen often, sometimes a role is very popular, and we’ll need to close it earlier than the date we’ve shown here. If you’re keen to join our team, we’d love to hear from you, so please apply as soon as you can.
As you’d expect, safeguarding and protecting the children, young people and vulnerable adults that we work with is of the utmost importance, so we have policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices, and everyone who joins the team is subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.
Finally, we need to let you know that the company you’ll work for is part of HCRG Care Group Holdings Limited, and by applying for this job we’ll need to process and hold information about you. If you would like to know a little more about how we use your information, please see our website's privacy policy.