Durham & Tees Valley Mental Health Services for Older People (MHSOP) provides a comprehensive mental health service to older people living in the region and works in partnership with acute and community health services provided by 3 acute Trusts.
This is a full-time Specialty Doctor post providing clinical and medical input to a Community Mental Health Services for Older Peoples team in Northwest County Durham. The post-holder will work into a well-established community team covering the Bishop Auckland & Dales sector, and will be based at Auckland Park Hospital in Bishop Auckland.
The post holder will provide psychiatric input to Bishop Auckland & Dales CMHT, working alongside a consultant psychiatrist. The team covers a population of 31,360 people over the age of 65.
The team provides a dementia assessment, diagnostic and treatment service as well as mental health services to older people with mental health problems and frailty-related complexities. We also accept referrals for young onset dementia patients. The team has good administrative support and co-located social workers.
The expectation is that the post holder will attend daily huddles to support multi-disciplinary working and provide medical input and leadership for the team under supervision of the Consultant psychiatrist, as well as providing supervision and advice to non-medical prescribers.
Clinical contact each week will include complex initial assessments, dementia diagnostic appointments, and patient review appointments. The mix will be determined by the current demands of the team, with the expectation that there will be approximately fifteen to twenty patient appointments each week, the majority of which will be review or diagnostic appointments.
The vast majority of initial assessments for new referrals are seen by nursing colleagues but on occasion for more complex referrals or specific medication queries, for example, the post-holder may carry out the initial assessment. This will be the case for only small numbers of patients, around 1-2 per week. The post holder would not tend to hold a personal caseload and the vast majority of patients are allocated to other colleagues as care coordinator or lead professional.
We are the Mental Health and Learning Disability NHS Trust for County Durham and Darlington, Teesside, North Yorkshire, York and Selby.+
From education and prevention, to crisis and specialist care our talented and compassionate teams work in partnership with our patients, communities and partners to help the people of our region feel safe, understood, believed in and cared for.
We nurture the recovery journey of anyone in need of our help. In Our Trust, everyone has a say in how they are supported and treated because we listen to every person in our care until they feel understood. Our patients, their families and carers work together with us towards better mental health.
We're committed to new thinking that improves the wellbeing of our region. We connect with our communities and partners to get mental health care right, in areas that really need it.
We won't rest until everyone in our region has the mental health care they need, to lead their best possible life.
Psychiatrists are essential contributors to the majority of our mental health teams. Service users expect and are justified to expect collaborative relationships with dedicated psychiatrists who work consistently as part of effective services. The Medical Directorate and Medical Development Team are striving to improve medical workforce recruitment and retention in a variety of ways and the cornerstone of these efforts is The TEWV Charter for the Medical Workforce. (Please see attached Supporting Document).
03 June 2026
Hospital medical and dental staff
Specialty Doctor
£63,696 to £102,689 a year
Permanent
Full-time, Flexible working
C9346-MHSOP-221M
Auckland Park Hospital
Westfield Road
Bishop Auckland
County Durham
DL14 6AE
United Kingdom
Please see the attached job description for further information on this post. Please note that this job description has not yet been approved by The Royal College and therefore subject to change.
Please see the attached job description for further information on this post. Please note that this job description has not yet been approved by The Royal College and therefore subject to change.
- Able to deliver undergraduate or postgraduate teaching and training.
- Evidence of achievement in education, research, audit and service improvement: awards, prizes, presentations and publications.
- Participated in continuous professional development.
- Evidence of annual appraisal and commitment to appraisal and revalidation.
- Good knowledge of psychiatry.
- Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge.
- Able to manage clinical complexity and uncertainty.
- Has actively participated in clinical audit.
- Shows commitment to quality through knowledge of quality improvement and lean thinking methodology.
- Participated in research and/or service improvement.
- At least 4 years postgraduate experience, including at least 2 years in a core psychiatry training programme in UK or abroad
- Postgraduate experience in mental health services for older people
- MB BS or equivalent medical qualification.
- Fully registered with the GMC with a licence to practise at the time of appointment
- At least 4 years postgraduate experience, including at least 2 years in a core psychiatry training programme in UK or abroad
- Approved under S12 of MHA OR able to achieve within 6 months of appointment
- MRCPsych
- In good standing with GMC with respect to warning and conditions on practice
- Able to deliver undergraduate or postgraduate teaching and training.
- Evidence of achievement in education, research, audit and service improvement: awards, prizes, presentations and publications.
- Participated in continuous professional development.
- Evidence of annual appraisal and commitment to appraisal and revalidation.
- Good knowledge of psychiatry.
- Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge.
- Able to manage clinical complexity and uncertainty.
- Has actively participated in clinical audit.
- Shows commitment to quality through knowledge of quality improvement and lean thinking methodology.
- Participated in research and/or service improvement.
- At least 4 years postgraduate experience, including at least 2 years in a core psychiatry training programme in UK or abroad
- Postgraduate experience in mental health services for older people
- MB BS or equivalent medical qualification.
- Fully registered with the GMC with a licence to practise at the time of appointment
- At least 4 years postgraduate experience, including at least 2 years in a core psychiatry training programme in UK or abroad
- Approved under S12 of MHA OR able to achieve within 6 months of appointment
- MRCPsych
- In good standing with GMC with respect to warning and conditions on practice
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Auckland Park Hospital
Westfield Road
Bishop Auckland
County Durham
DL14 6AE
United Kingdom
https://www.tewv.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)
Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Auckland Park Hospital
Westfield Road
Bishop Auckland
County Durham
DL14 6AE
United Kingdom
https://www.tewv.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)
