Job overview
Are you an experienced Mental Health professional wanting to work within a supportive specialist CAMHS team?
Will you thrive working within a multi-disciplinary system to provide a high quality mental health service to young people in Berkshire?
This is an exciting opportunity to join our specialised Berkshire CAMHS Link team as an Advanced Mental Health Practitioner. This is an 18 month fixed term contract post for 22.5 hours per week. The post is based at Erlegh House in Reading and will support delivery of high quality trauma informed systemic care to children and young people across Berkshire.
The role requires a confident and experienced mental health professional who can demonstrate both experience of working with and a genuine interest in the health and wellbeing of children and young people with complex needs. They will be well organised, have excellent communication and clinical leadership skills, and be familiar with the demands and working environments of Social Care, Health, Education and other partner agency settings.
You will need to have a recognised professional registration and demonstrable experience working within Children and Young People’s mental health services.
Main duties of the job
- To deliver a high-quality trauma-informed mental health service to children and young people across Berkshire.
- To deliver interventions that are systemic in nature and develop the professional family network to support them to work therapeutically with the young people in their care.
- To provide specialist assessment and therapeutic interventions, offer consultation on children’s care to non-clinical colleagues and to other, non-professional carers, working within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.
- To work in a trauma informed way. This means facilitating and collaborating in multiagency formulation meetings, devising multiagency intervention plans and offering ongoing supervision and coaching to professionals so that interventions are therapeutic, streamlined and developmentally appropriate for the young person.
- To utilise research skills to contribute to audit, policy and service development and research. To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the team
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The “must haves” for this role:
- A core qualification and recognised professional registration e.g. NMC, HCPC
- Experienced in working with Children and Young People’s mental health services
- Demonstrable experience in working with mental health complex needs
For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it’s important that examples and responses given in your supporting statement genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.
In addition to explaining how you meet the person specification, you must complete your employment history for at least the last five years. Any experience, skills or responsibilities referenced in your supporting statement should be evidenced within your employment history. Applications that do not include sufficient employment history to support the experience claimed may not be shortlisted.
We’re committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.
We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please don’t hesitate to contact Karen Jacobs, Team Lead on her email: karen.jacobs@berkshire.nhs.uk who’ll be delighted to help.
Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible.
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.
Person specification
Previous Experience
Essential
- Significant post-qualifying experience of undertaking comprehensive assessment of mental health needs, developing care plans and offering appropriate support based on formulation of presenting difficulties.
- Experience of working with service users with high-risk presentations and undertaking risk assessment and risk management plans.
- Experience of hard-to-reach diverse community groups and individuals with emerging complex needs, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities and safeguarding.
- Experience of working effectively in a multi-disciplinary team and multi-agency environment
- Experience of working within mental health settings supporting children, adolescents and their families
Desirable
- Experience of providing supervision or leadership to others
- Experience of contributing to service improvement initiatives.
Additional Requirements
Essential
- Ability and willingness to work in a flexible way to meet service needs
Knowledge, skills and abilities
Essential
- Knowledge and skills to assess acute mental health crisis and deliberate self-harm at Getting Risk/Tier 3 levels
- Demonstrates up to date knowledge of legislation and national strategies and requirements for CAMHS.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
- Ability to take clinical responsibility for patient care and treatment
- Ability to work to timescales and comfortably cope in pressurised situations, applying practical problem-solving skills in everyday and complex situations
- Ability to work autonomously and effectively in a team, reprioritising work to reflect changing needs
- Competent IT skills and the ability to navigate around various systems and software packages, such as Outlook, databases, RiO, Microsoft Office and interne
Desirable
- Ability to motivate and inspire others and to support others to develop key competencies
Continuous Professional Development
Essential
- Evidence of continuing professional development relevant to professional registration and CAMHS practice
Education, Qualifications or Training
Essential
- Recognised and relevant qualification as below: Registered Mental Health Nurse or Registered Social Worker or Occupational Therapist or Speech and Language Therapist.
- Registration with NMC, HCPC or other recognised professional body
WhatsApp job alerts
Get instant WhatsApp alerts for Band 7 Mental Health roles in Reading
Create your Job Clerk account first. We'll collect your alert preferences during onboarding and help you turn on WhatsApp notifications for matching healthcare roles.
Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Advanced Mental Health Practitioner with Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in Berkshire Link Team, Erlegh House, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6BZ. It is listed as a Band 7 Mental health professionals role. The advertised salary is £51,657 - £58,785 per annum, pro rata (incl. of HCAS). The contract type is 18 months (Fixed term end date will be determined once all employment checks have been completed). The application deadline is 30 Aug 2026.
Before you apply, compare the job description with the person specification and mirror the employer's essential criteria in your supporting information. Use the vacancy title, employer, location, salary, contract type, closing date and posted date (21 Aug 2026) to decide whether this role fits your current NHS job search. If the employer can close applications early, prepare the application before the stated deadline rather than waiting for the final day.
For more context, review related Job Clerk pages for the same profession, band or location where they exist, then use the application-support guides to tailor your statement and prepare for interview.