Approved Mental Health Professional (Adults)

Closing date: 3 June 2026

Salary: Grade 9 ranging from £41,771 to £46,142 per annum

Transform lives, champion rights & support adults to achieve their full potential.

• Location: Base can be flexible within offices across Somerset
• Hours: Full time and part time hours available
• As a 24-hour service, we can offer some flexibility to working hours with a variety of shifts, but will need to include weekends, nights and bank holidays.

Role Purpose

Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) play a critical statutory role in responding to Mental Health Act (MHA) assessment requests across Somerset, ensuring that people experiencing mental health crisis receive timely, lawful and person‑centred support.

Working within a 24/7 centralised AMHP hub based in Taunton, you will coordinate and undertake Mental Health Act assessments, uphold individuals’ legal rights, and apply a social model approach to mental health practice. You will work closely with health, police, housing and social care partners to promote the least restrictive options, supporting people to remain in their communities wherever possible.

The role involves balancing complex and high‑risk situations, liaising with individuals, carers and nearest relatives, and completing statutory documentation including tribunal reports, guardianship and Community Treatment Orders. AMHPs also contribute to innovative crisis‑response approaches that help reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and reliance on police powers.

Outside standard hours, AMHPs support the wider Adults Social Care Out‑of‑Hours service, responding to urgent social care needs such as emergency housing.

Key Responsibilities

• Arrange, coordinate and undertake Mental Health Act assessments, ensuring statutory timescales are met
• Act as the Single Point of Access for Mental Health Act assessment requests on a rota basis
• Assess and manage significant risk, applying professional judgement and legal reasoning
• Arrange hospital admissions (voluntary and compulsory) and pursue alternatives to admission wherever possible
• Prepare and complete statutory documentation, including tribunal reports, guardianship, CTOs and court statements
• Liaise with individuals, carers, nearest relatives and partner agencies, managing differing views sensitively
• Work closely with CMHS, Home Treatment Teams, police, housing and voluntary sector partners
• Participate in a 24/7 rota, including lone working overnight and at weekends
• Contribute to out‑of‑hours Adult Social Care activity, including emergency housing provision

What We’re Looking For – Essential Skills/Experience

We’re looking for skilled, resilient practitioners with strong legal literacy and a commitment to rights‑based, least‑restrictive practice. You will have:

• An Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) qualification
• Substantial experience within a mental health setting, with recent experience practising as an AMHP
• Strong working knowledge of the Mental Health Act, associated guidance and case law
• Knowledge of the Human Rights Act, Mental Capacity Act and Care Act
• Ability to apply legal reasoning and make robust, defensible professional decisions
• Experience coordinating multi‑agency assessments and managing complex risk
• Excellent communication, documentation and decision‑making skills
• Ability to work confidently both autonomously and within multidisciplinary teams

A comprehensive list of the job requirements can be found at the bottom of this advert.

About the Team/Service

You’ll join Somerset’s centralised AMHP service, delivering a countywide response to Mental Health Act assessments through a 24‑hour hub model.

The service works closely with NHS mental health services, police, housing and voluntary sector partners to provide compassionate, lawful and proportionate crisis responses. AMHPs are supported through regular supervision, ongoing legal and practice‑based training, and opportunities to contribute to service development and innovation.

Additional Information

Please Note: We may consider offering Skilled Worker visa sponsorship to suitably qualified overseas social workers who are already residing in the UK. To be eligible, applicants must hold a recognised social work qualification and be registered with Social Work England. Sponsorship will be assessed as part of the recruitment process. This is only available to candidates currently living in the UK, as unfortunately we are unable to provide resettlement support. 

Due to the nature of the role and the geographical area of the service across Somerset, which is a largely rural county, with limitations around public transport the ability to be able to travel to any location is essential. Therefore, applicants must have full access to a vehicle that can be used for work purposes.

We recognise and welcome applications from disabled individuals who may require reasonable adjustments to meet this requirement, and we’re happy to discuss this from the first point of contact with the recruitment team.

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact amhpmanagers@somerset.gov.uk

Please note we reserve the right to close this advert early if we have received a sufficient number of applications, so don’t delay, apply today!

Person Specification