Child and Adolescent Mental Health Outreach Specialist

Job overview

The post holder will deliver specialist mental health assessment, consultation and evidence‑based interventions for children and young people in school. Working closely with schools, MHSTs and CAMHS partners, they will support early identification, inclusive practice and whole‑school approaches to wellbeing, while contributing to supervision, training and service development.

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will improve access to mental health support for children and young people in schools.
• The post holder will work with Schools Mental Health Leads to support early identification of developmental, emotional and mental health needs for children and young people who live in, or are educated in, Lewisham.
• The post holder will increase capacity across education and system partners to respond following early identification, through brief evidence-based interventions, liaison, consultation, training and joint working.
• The post holder will contribute to multi-agency training for schools.
• The post holder will review referrals to SOT/MHST and, where required, facilitate step-up to specialist CAMHS and/or other agencies in line with level of need.
• The post holder will monitor and evaluate outcomes and effectiveness, demonstrating professional accountability.
• The post holder will provide clinical supervision and consultation, as appropriate.
• The post holder will promote service evaluation, audit and research activity.
• The post holder will agree outcomes with the clinical/professional lead and determine how these will be achieved.
• The post holder will support the expansion of MHST programmes in schools.
• The post holder will work autonomously within professional guidelines and codes of conduct and in accordance with service principles, policies and procedures.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1       Clinical and Client Care

• To support children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties and their families in the management of presenting difficulties
• To provide specialist psychosocial assessments, formulations and evidence-based therapeutic interventions for clients in the SOT/MHST team.
• Support children, young people and families to make informed choices about interventions.
• To work in partnership with families to provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To offer CAMHS expertise/consultation to the wider professional network including teachers/SENCOs.
• To contribute to assuring service quality by using a specialist knowledge and breadth of understanding of theories underpinning child and adolescent mental health difficulties and distress. Using assessments and evidence-based interventions to manage complex presentations.
• To adapt assessments/formulations and interventions as appropriate to facilitate equitable access to support for neurodivergent children and young people
• To develop and help deliver workshops, groups and individual interventions for children and

young people in schools.

• To provide outreach support and evidence-based interventions to children with mild to moderate mental health presentations who are at risk of exclusion and/or have been absent from school for an extended period.
• To provide reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, to inform referrers and, where appropriate, service users and their families.
• To promote psychological/multiagency support for carers (or families as appropriate) of referred clients.
• To act as a care coordinator for a defined clinical caseload.

KR 2       Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To liaise with the service/s MDT and other professionals.

• To contribute to the effective working of the SOT team/wider MHST service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To work in partnership with schools and other educational settings in contributing to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communitie
• To facilitate and support in the auditing and planning and development of Whole School Approaches to mental health and well-being in each educational setting.
• To develop partnerships with key services across the Local Authority, and particularly those working with allocated schools.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services
• To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature, and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.