Job overview
Join us be You and make a difference to a child's life.
Bury CAMHS is a high-performing and dynamic child and adolescent mental health service, working closely with commissioners and with our partners in Children’s Services, education and the VCSE sector to develop models of care within the principles of the i-thrive framework. Our vision is for our local community to be well-equipped to support children and young people, the adults of tomorrow, to grow up with good emotional health and well-being. In addition to the successes of our Early Attachment service, Mental Health Support Team (schools), and innovative #RISE team (emotional well-being service for children and families).
As a borough, we are committed at a commissioning and senior leadership level to continue to build on this experience and we aspire to provide our children and young people in care with high quality, trauma-informed services, including access to assessment and psychological therapies provided in a timely manner.
Main duties of the job
The postholder will work alongside colleagues and provide training, consultation, supervision and specialist intervention while simultaneously promoting trauma informed practice across the large multi-agency network of mixed professionals and supporting healthy relationships within our Bury families.
The postholder will work as a highly specialist practitioner developing and implementing a community based therapeutic service to children, young people and their families with a particular focus on trauma and attachment. S/he will provide assessment and treatment of children and young people and their carers grounded in the principles and techniques of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
The training and strategic development aspect of the role involves acting as a specialist resource and contributing to multi-agency training of relevant professionals across Bury. The post holder will be expected to offer consultation and clinical supervision to professional colleagues
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapeutic offers are well-integrated and highly valued within the multi-disciplinary CAMHS team locally and across the broader Specialist Services Directorate in Pennine Care. There are currently progressive psychological therapies and research work-streams running across the Directorate. The support, development and well-being of our workforce are the foundations on which we continue to develop services to ensure children and young people receive optimal care. We have strong links with local universities and are active in the Clinical Training Programmes.
The successful candidate will be responsible for the development and delivery of a specialist child and adolescent psychotherapy service provision within the parameters of child and adolescent mental health, in a multiagency context.
They will provide specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapy assessment for children and young people who may be experiencing severe, highly complex and persistent mental health difficulties and to make decisions about treatment possibilities.
They will work independently and collaboratively as part of the team to ensure the most appropriate support and intervention to meet the young persons needs is identified and communicated and where appropriate provided in a timely manner. options taking into account relevant evidence based research, theory, practice and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental
Person specification
Skills
Essential
- Skills in the use of psychoanalytical methods of assessment, intervention and management in work with children and families.
- Evidence of a capacity to work collaboratively and flexibly in a multi-disciplinary team context
- High level of skill in assessing risk in the context of parent child mental health.
- Ability to work with people from different backgrounds, cultures and ethnicity from one’s own.
- Demonstrate sensitivity in all contact with disadvantaged groups
- High level of ability to communicate effectively (both written and verbal) complex, technical and clinically sensitive information to children, parents and carers and a wide range of professionals.
- Ability to cope with stressful interpersonal situations, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse and communicate in situations in which there may be barriers to the acceptance of communications
- Good organisational skills
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by ACP
- Skills in co-working, liaison and consultation with others, especially with regard to highly complex families.
- Skills in developing the psychotherapy provision within CAMHS including the support and development of novel psychotherapeutically informed interventions and supervising junior staff
Education
Essential
- Doctorate level qualification as a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist as recognised by the Association of Child Psychotherapists
- Full membership of the Association of Child Psychotherapists
Knowledge
Essential
- Evidence of awareness of parental mental health in relation to infant/child mental health matters
- Knowledge of legislation and national guidance in relation to the needs of children and adolescents
- Doctoral level (or equivalent) knowledge of child and adolescent psychotherapy, including highly developed knowledge of psychoanalytical theories and models of development, psychopathology, family and institutional dynamics.
- Working knowledge of professional systems involved in work with children and adolescents, particularly in relation to the statutory framework around child protection
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with patient groups presenting high levels of complexity, including young children, adolescents and families
- Experience in psychotherapy assessment and therapeutic work with young children, adolescents and their families/ parents/carers with a full range of presenting problems.
- Experience of consulting with other professionals in Health, Education, Social Services and Local Authority.
- Experience of representing clinical child psychotherapy within the context of multidisciplinary and multi-agency treatment and care.
Desirable
- Experience of working in CAMHS or with children, prior to training as a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist
- Experience of Audit
- Experience of research
- Experience of work or contact with adult mental health services
work related
Essential
- Use of a car or access to a means of mobility to travel across the Trust footprint in line with service needs
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Senior Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist with Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust in Ashton Under Lyne, North West, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Psychologist role. The advertised salary is £57,528 - £64,750 per annum. The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 10 Jul 2026.
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