Nursing Careers UK

Integrated care organisation · Antrim, Northern Ireland

Mental Health Nurse at Northern Health and Social Care Trust

Working as a mental health nurse at Northern Health and Social Care Trust in Antrim, Northern Ireland means a caseload that can cross the ward, the outpatient clinic and the patient’s home inside a single organisation, because acute and community services sit under one employer. Band 5 starts at £31,049 on the Northern Ireland 2025/26 scale. No workforce or staff survey figures for this organisation are in the open dataset yet, so this page sets out the caseload, the national pay ladder and where the local courses are, and states nothing it cannot source.

Mental Health NurseBand 5 entryNorthern Ireland
Not published Mental Health Nurses employed here Organisation-level workforce data is not in the open dataset yet
£31,049 Band 5 starting salary Northern Ireland, 2025/26 scale
Not published Median pay, all occupations Not published in the open data
Not published Staff survey response rate Not in the open dataset for this organisation

The job at Northern Health and Social Care Trust

Mental health nurses support and promote recovery for people experiencing a wide range of mental health conditions, from medication management to recommending therapies and structured social activities. They build trusting relationships quickly and are trained to identify the risk of self-harm or harm to others, working closely with GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists. Mental health nurses practise across psychiatric wards, specialist units and community settings, including clients' own homes. People experiencing a wide range of mental health conditions, across inpatient, specialist and community settings.

At an integrated care organisation such as Northern Health and Social Care Trust, that work means a caseload that can cross the ward, the outpatient clinic and the patient’s home inside a single organisation, because acute and community services sit under one employer. Rotations can follow the pathway rather than the building, so you can see the same patient group in hospital and at home without applying for a different job. Across the profession as a whole, mental health nurses work in settings including psychiatric wards, specialist mental health units, community mental health teams and clients' homes — an organisation of this type will run some of those services and not others, which is why two posts with the same job title in the same city can be very different jobs.

Pay is not an employer decision. Agenda for Change is negotiated nationally and set separately in each of the four nations, so Northern Health and Social Care Trust pays band 5 exactly what every other NHS employer in Northern Ireland pays it: £31,049 at the bottom of the band on the 2025/26 scale. What genuinely differs between two employers is the caseload, how rotations are structured, how much protected time you get for supervision and continuing professional development, how much band 6 progression is built into the establishment, and how far you travel between sites. Those are the questions worth asking at interview.

This page states no figure specific to Northern Health and Social Care Trust because none is published in the open data. When the workforce and staff survey feeds include this organisation, the establishment size, the response rate and the theme scores will appear above.

Employer
Northern Health and Social Care Trust
Organisation type
Integrated care organisation
Based in
Antrim
Nation
Northern Ireland
Regulator
NMC registration required
Usual starting band
Band 5
Local courses
1 in Northern Ireland

What you would be paid, band by band

Northern Ireland Agenda for Change rates, 2025/26 — the same at every NHS employer in the nation.

Agenda for Change pay for mental health nurses in Northern Ireland
Band Starting Point 2 Point 3 Top of band
Band 4 £27,485£30,162 £30,162
Band 5 Entry level £31,049£33,487£37,796 £37,796
Band 6 £38,682£40,823£46,580 £46,580
Band 7 £47,810£50,273£54,710 £54,710
Band 8a £55,690£58,487£62,682 £62,682
£27,485 Band 4 · Newly qualified First post after registration, for roles that start at band 4 (e.g. nursing associates).
£31,049 Band 5 · Newly qualified First post after registration, usually rotational.
£38,682 Band 6 · Specialist Typically two to four years in; a defined clinical specialty.
£47,810 Band 7 · Advanced or team lead Clinical leadership, complex caseload, supervision.
£55,690 Band 8a · Consultant or service lead Service-wide responsibility or consultant practice.

Mental Health Nurse pay in detail · The whole Northern Ireland scale · Band 5 mental health nurses

Where to train for this job near Antrim

1 university in Northern Ireland runs an approved pre-registration course for mental health nurses. Placements are commissioned with the trusts and boards nearest the university, so these are the courses most likely to place students with Northern Health and Social Care Trust, across undergraduate degree routes.

Approved courses for mental health nurses in Northern Ireland
Course University Route Length
Professional Nursing Mental Health Nursing Queen's University Belfast BSc 3 years

Mental Health Nurses at other organisations in Northern Ireland

Same registration, same bands, different caseload — the organisation type is the variable, and the size of the establishment tells you how many colleagues and how many rotation slots sit behind the job title.

Published establishments for mental health nurses at NHS organisations in Northern Ireland
Organisation Type Based in Full-time equivalent
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust Integrated care organisation Belfast
Northern Health and Social Care Trust This page Integrated care organisation Antrim
South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust Integrated care organisation Belfast
Southern Health and Social Care Trust Integrated care organisation Craigavon
Western Health and Social Care Trust Integrated care organisation Londonderry

A blank establishment figure means the organisation did not return one for this profession, not that it employs nobody. Only organisations whose type runs this service are listed.

Other nursing roles at Northern Health and Social Care Trust

Next steps

Where this page’s data comes from

The figures on this page are national or regional. No workforce, staff survey or inspection data for this organisation is in the open dataset yet.