Senior Mental Health Practitioner (CAMHS)

Job overview

Do you want to make a difference to the mental health of children and young people and shape early intervention services?

Gloucestershire Health and Care Trust has four established Young Minds Matter Mental Health Support Teams to work with schools. The aim of the team is to enable earlier and more effective mental health support for children, young people, their families and carers and increase resilience within school communities in managing mental health issues.

We are now expanding our successful team and seeking to recruit enthusiastic and committed mental health clinicians who enjoy working within multi agency settings to join the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST’s).

The teams comprise of;

• Qualified CAMHS clinicians, Senior Mental Health Practitioners (SMHP - band 6)
• Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP – Band 4 / 5)
• Partner agencies aiming to work within a THRIVE model (including Talk Well  and Early Help).
• School Mental Health Leads and wider school teams

Band 6 clinicians as Senior Mental Health Practitioners (SMHP) are a vital part of the service. We are seeking people who are flexible, adaptable to change and able to develop service delivery over time and in response to feedback.

It is a community-based post and therefore a valid UK driving licence plus the use of own transport for business purposes is essential.

Main duties of the job

The service welcomes those clinicians who may be currently working within other children’s or adult mental health settings who have the necessary transferable clinical skills and experience.

Key elements of the role are:

• Work in partnership with schools to deliver consultation, assessment of children/young people and a range of mental health interventions within school settings.  This will involve direct work with children/young people as well as offering specialist consultation, signposting and advice to professional networks, including teaching staff
• To provide support to other clinical colleagues
• Be responsible and ensure the effective care co-ordination, support and advice around clinical care provided within schools, especially including consideration of safeguarding and clinical risk issues
• Consult with teachers, school staff and mental health leads in schools to identify children and young people with emerging mental health needs, as part of a whole school approach. This may include supporting the EMHP’s in delivering parenting support, group work, work with parents and psychoeducation within a school setting

Our service is very proud of the positive impact we make on the children and young people we work with and the encouraging feedback we receive as a service from school staff alongside children and families. We have a strong multi-disciplinary ethos in our clinical delivery and have robust clinical supervision structures.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The successful applicant must have the necessary professional qualification, including current registration as outlined in the person specification.  All YMM CAMHS Registered Practitioners hold a generic job description, however specialist skills and responsibilities related to working within this work role will be clearly reflected within a personalised job plan.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.