Senior Mental Health Practitioner

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Tameside and Glossop CAMHS are a multidisciplinary team providing a mental health service to children, young people and their families. The service has well-established links with our partner agencies including education, children's social care and the Voluntary, Community & Social Enterprise (VCSE) Sector and is striving to fully align to the Thrive approach to delivering mental health services. We are committed to supporting our staff in their development with access to CPD opportunities, a robust clinical and management supervision structure, and access to an in-house training programme covering key areas of psychological practice. Tameside and Glossop CAMHS is also home to the Early Attachment Service which is a nationally recognised, specialist parent-infant mental health and under 5 service.

Targeted investment has enabled the creation of an innovative and forward thinking, relationship-focussed and trauma-responsive approach to the integration of specialist clinical skills within a quality family intervention service. The FITS clinical team comprised of mental health professionals, work in partnership with the Family Intervention Service of Children's Social Care, while also maintaining strong links with core CAMHS. The aim is to ensure timely access to training, consultation, supervision, and intervention while simultaneously promoting trauma-responsive practice and supporting healthy relationships within our Tameside families.

Please see attached job description and person specification to support your application for this post. Please refer to the essential and desirable criteria in the person specification which will highlight the skills, knowledge and experience you will need to demonstrate in your application, by way of example, to give yourself the best opportunity to be shortlisted.

Person specification

Education/ qualifications

Essential criteria

• UKCC nursing or Diploma in social work plus experience to post graduate diploma level

Desirable criteria

• Accredited membership of an appropriate psychological therapy professional body
• Additional further training in the use of children's attachment assessment tools
• Training in specialist therapeutic work with children, young people and families e.g. DBT, CBT, EMDR, DDP, FT, Theraplay, CAT

Experience

Essential criteria

• Substantial experience of working within a health delivered child & adolescent mental health outpatient / community service
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for the psychological care and treatment as an autonomous practitioner with complex and challenging service users within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan

Desirable criteria

• Experience of cross-sector working e.g. within CAMHS and Children's Social Care
• Experience of working with families with complex needs
• Experience of working in diverse cultural and ethnic contexts
• Experience of consultation
• Experience of clinically supervising and / or line managing others

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Highly developed knowledge of mental health issues in young people and of issues relevant for CYP supported by social care and their families
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and national policies in relation to children and young people
• Highly developed knowledge of a range of therapeutic interventions with this client group

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge and experience of working with young people with developmental trauma
• Evidence of post qualification training courses/ certificates

Skills and abilities

Essential criteria

• Substantial experience of working within a health delivered child & adolescent mental health outpatient / community service
• Good communication skills
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for the psychological care and treatment as an autonomous practitioner with complex and challenging service users within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan
• Ability to perform complex psychological assessments as an autonomous practitioner across a range of mental health presentations
• Ability to develop packages of care based on assessed needs and formulation
• Ability to develop a range of therapeutic activities across a range of settings
• Ability to identify and manage risk in individuals presenting with mental health needs
• Ability to provide and receive complex sensitive or contentious information often within a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere
• Ability to act in consultation/ supervision/ training capacity with professionals.
• Ability to develop liaison/links and familiarity with other professional networks
• Ability to prioritise key tasks, and targets for intervention
• Ability to evaluate service initiatives for effectiveness/ outcome
• Ability to work as a member of a team within and beyond organisational boundaries
• Ability to keep accurate activity data for audit/evaluation
• Ability to work strategically to develop the FITS
• Ability to develop and audit the effectiveness of protocols
• Ability to manage other staff to meet targets and objectives of the service
• Ability to implement HR procedures as appropriate and provide leadership

Work related circumstances

Essential criteria

• Use of a car or access to a means of mobility to travel across the Trust footprint in line with service needs
• Willing to carry out all duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with the Trust's Equal Opportunities and Equality and Diversity policies

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

• Job Description (PDF, 208.1KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 99.6KB)
• Policy Statement on Recruitment of Ex-Offenders (PDF, 117.0KB)
• Applicant Information pack (PDF, 505.6KB)
• Hints and tips for your application (PDF, 128.7KB)