Locum Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Paediatric Liaison

Job overview

We are delighted to offer this opportunity for a Locum Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist to join the Child and Adolescent Psychological Medicine service. This is a 12-month fixed term post From June 2025 – June 2026, working 4 days / week, currently Tuesdays – Fridays. We anticipate recruiting to a Substantive Consultant post thereafter.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled and experienced Locum Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist looking to work with children and young people within a paediatric acute hospital setting.  You will be joining an experienced Child & Adolescent Psychiatry team embedded and fully integrated into the UCLH Children & Young People Division.

All applicants must be eligible for full GMC registration, and either have CCT in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, or equivalent, or be within 3 months of completing Higher Specialist training. The successful candidate must have MRCPsych or equivalent, Section 12 Mental Health Act approval and ideally Approved Clinician training.

CV required for job application

Main duties of the job

You will share responsibilities for the assessment and day to day psychiatric care of the in-patients and day-patients admitted to the paediatric department at UCLH, providing supervision and support to the CTs, STs and Mental Health Nursing team. Close teamwork with nursing and MDT colleagues is a specific feature of the role; there is the opportunity to work jointly with paediatricians, paediatric nurses, psychologists, psychotherapists, child safeguarding social-workers and nurses and play specialists / activity coordinators to deliver effective care and treatment for children and young people.

You will assess referrals on admission through the Paediatric Emergency Department, complete mental state examinations and risk assessments, liaise with community child and adolescent mental health services to develop safe discharge plans, and oversee completion of discharge summaries. You will support and oversee making referrals to community CAMHS teams, CAMHS Crisis Teams and Tier 4 in-patient psychiatric units as required, and will need to be familiar with navigating the wider system. You will also play a role in thinking about Child Safeguarding, alongside the UCLH Child Safeguarding team, working closely with social workers and dedicated safeguarding nurses.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For the full Person Specification and more information regarding the main responsibilities of this role, please refer to the attached Job Description.

Please note, due to anticipated high volumes of applications, this vacancy may close earlier than the listed closing date. You are advised not to delay submitting your completed application

You will join a vibrant multidisciplinary team to support paediatric liaison work to a highly complex and diverse patient group. The Child and Adolescent Psychological Medicine/ Services provides assessments, consultation and interventions for patients being treated at UCLH with medical conditions and experiencing emotional, psychological, behavioural difficulties or mental illness. This includes for children and young people presenting in mental health / psychosocial crisis to the Emergency Department, as well as patients receiving treatment as in-patients or out-patients under one of the UCLH teams within the Children & Young People (formerly Paediatric & Adolescent) Division.

You will provide Child & Adolescent Psychiatry input to the Paediatric Emergency Department; T12 South Adolescent (13-18yrs) ward; T11 South (<13yrs) paediatric ward; and to T11 & T12 North wards, providing Child & Adolescent Psychiatry input to the UCLH Paediatric Oncology service and the Teenage & Young Adult Cancer Service, as part of the Psych-Oncology team.

You will join a team of three other highly experienced Consultant Child & Adolescent Liaison Psychiatrists.  There is the opportunity to work with a range of mental health presentations and use evidence-based treatments.  The team also includes one child and adolescent psychiatry specialty trainee (ST) and one or two psychiatry core trainees (CTs) and 2 CYP Mental Health Liaison Clinical Nurse Specialists, with plans to imminently increase the Mental Health Nursing team resource.

There is a strong academic ethos in the Department, with expectations that you will contribute to Medical Student and Postgraduate / Multidisciplinary education and training. You will also have opportunities to undertake and supervise Quality Improvement projects and take up Leadership tasks within the Department.

The Children and Young People Division, together with Women’s Health, Queen Square division, and the Ear Nose Throat and Dental Hospital form the Specialist Hospitals Clinical Board. The Medical Director of the Board is Dr Tim Hodgson. The Divisional Clinical Director for the Paediatric and Adolescent division is Dr Sara Stoneham. The Divisional Manager is Toral Pandya and the Matron for General Paediatrics and Adolescents is Joanna Turner.The Children and Young People’s Division consists of several departments, covering integration with primary care, secondary care, tertiary and national referral services.  These include General Paediatrics (lead Dr Yasmin Baki), Adolescent medicine and specialties (lead Dr Terry Segal) Children and Young People’s Cancer Service (CYPCS, lead for teenagers and young adults Dr Vicky Grandage, lead for paediatrics Dr Maria Michelagnoli), Child and Adolescent Mental Health (lead Dr Mike Groszmann) Adolescent Rehabilitative Medicine (TRACCS, lead Dr Najette Ayadi-O’Donnell), Paediatric Urology (Lead Dr Navroop Johal), UCLH Surgery (Lead Mr Khaled Dawas) and GOSH surgical link Mr Stavros Loukogeorgakis. The Lighthouse lead for health is Dr Najette Ayadi-O’Donnell.

Come and be a part of the best NHS trust in England to work for, according to our staff*

* UCLH top trust to work at in England - In the most recent NHS staff survey UCLH had the highest percentage of staff who said they would recommend us as a place to work, out of all general acute or acute/community NHS trusts in England – for the third year in a row.

UCLH recognises the benefits of flexible working for staff – To find out more, visit: Flexible working.

To discover more about what makes UCLH a great place to work, visit: Why Choose UCLH?