Senior LAC CAMHS Professional Lead

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Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

Senior CAMHS LAC Professional lead-Band 7

This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic team in Barking & Dagenham. Working with CAMHs and across targeted service to meet the significant needs of our looked after children population. making a difference to their lived experience and providing them with the tools to enter in to adult life healthy and well adapted.

The post holder will achieve this by ensuring best practice of clinical standards within the triage and pathway functions of community CAMHS service working closely with other health care professionals within the CAMHS multi-disciplinary team in line with the I-Thrive framework of supporting children and young people in delivering care and support.

The post holder will be a registered professional (nurse, social worker or allied health professionals) with experience of working with children in care. The post holder will be responsible for undertaking and supporting assessments and brief intervention for Looked After children within CAMHS triage capacity and working with and across the multi-disciplinary team and Multi Agency Partners.

They will ensure the delivery of the LAC care pathway and the prioritisation of the assessment of looked after children within CAMHS and in conjunction with the LAC team.

The Post holder will be expected to supervise students in their final year of placement within the service.

Main duties of the job

1. To prioritise own day to day workload and ensure that CIC referrals are appropriately prioritised. Liaising with the LAC nursing team / Paediatricians to ensure effective communication and collaboration in the best interests of the child / young person.
2. To offer support, clinical advice and guidance to the team around the treatment of children in care.
3. To undertake assessments of children in care and their wider support network to ensure their mental health and wellbeing needs are identified and met. Assessments will be undertaken via telephone and face to face consultations/appointments and attending professional meetings where appropriate. Sharing information/reports where appropriate with the wider team with appropriate agreed consent from the young person.
4. To offer brief intervention/ advice and guidance to children and their wider support network as appropriate.

Working for our organisation

Starting with NELFT
NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focusing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

High Cost Area Supplement - London
This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £4,551 and a maximum payment of £5,735 per annum).

Certificates of Sponsorship
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points based system.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. To support the development of an effective team alongside the LAC team and productive working relationships throughout the Trust and with the local authority social care teams including the Corporate Parenting meetings.
2. To actively promote integrated health and social care working both internally and externally, to support the management of children in care within Barking and Dagenham.
3. To advise and encourage the sharing of clinical knowledge across Children's service and with the local authority teams.
4. To participate in and undertake staff appraisals and supervisions as appropriate.
5. To deputise for the pathway leads as and when required.
6. To supervise students on placements within the service as required. Ensuring the students receive appropriate supervision, support and experience of health across children's services and how this can relate to children in care.
7. Attend the LAC/CAMHS meeting fortnightly to ensure effective communication and collaboration for the benefit of meeting the needs of children in care.
8. To lead on the education and awareness raising of development in LAC mental health alongside the wider LAC team so that staff are appraised of recent research, good practice and key developments.

Clinical Skills

1. To act as an autonomous, registered practitioner who is legally and professionally accountable for own supervised and unsupervised actions guided by the professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols.
2. Further professional knowledge gained through accredited courses workshops, study and in house training programmes.
3. To ensure the highest standard of care to children in care and their families/carers.
4. To initiate referrals to other health professional specialist services and agencies and monitor and track progress. Seeking additional support from the medical team where appropriate and for the benefit of the child. Being aware of the priorities for children in care and their referrals.
5. To provide children in care and their wider support network with information and education thus ensuring they have meaningful choices that promote dignity, independence, and quality of life.
6. To ensure practice is evidence based supported by research and bench marked with national guidance, alongside literature and peer review.
7. To provide clinical and professional support and direction to junior members of the team regarding the treatment and management of children in care.
8. To demonstrate legal literacy, knowledge and skills in supporting children and young people to make decisions and supporting team members to understand the implications of the MCA 2005 assessment for children and young people to avoid delay in needs escalating.
9. To maintain and demonstrate expert clinical assessment practice and knowledge of the treatment and management of children in care referred to CAMHS.
10. To actively pursue care practices that will reduce the likelihood of admission to hospital for children and young people whose health care needs might be more appropriately met in the community.
11. To work in partnership and promote collaborative working with other health care professionals, partner agencies, including the independent and voluntary sectors as appropriate. Ensuring appropriate and effective liaison and communication
12. To deliver and participate in child protection and clinical supervision in accordance with Trust policy.
13. Will promote the understanding and nature of risks and harm to vulnerable children/LAC may change as they go through adolescence and into adulthood including exposure to risks outside the home eg: sexual exploitation, drug trafficking and violence within the community.
14. Able to promote trauma informed culture understanding the lived experience of Looked After children and young people and its impact on engagement with services and nonattendance, supporting colleagues to improve non engagement to improve service.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• A registered social worker
• Mental Health Nurse

Desirable criteria

• Approved mental health practitioner

Experience

Essential criteria

• Substantial experience of working with children and young people with mental health needs
• Experience of working with Children in Care
• Experience of supporting and developing user of service engagement and co-production

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• An awareness of NHS Long Term Plan and priorities
• Comprehensive understanding of the mental health concerns commonly affecting children in care and mental health disorders and treatment
• Knowledge and understanding of policies and guidance that govern/influence the treatment and management of the needs of children in care including Safeguarding legislation and strategies
• Awareness of safeguarding protocols
• Understands IG and Data Protection Act

Skills

Essential criteria

• Basic awareness of IT and IT skills
• Advanced clinical skills within the community setting and ability to work autonomously
• Advanced skills of assessment and treatment for children with complex health and social care needs.

other

Essential criteria

• To be aware and demonstrate the Trust Values
• To be able to travel efficiently throughout the area
• Excellent organisational and prioritisations skills

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

In the event of a high number of responses to any advert, NELFT reserves the right to close the vacancy early. If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date then please assume you have not been successful on this occasion.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Senior LAC CAMHS Professional lead JD & PS (PDF, 744.5KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)