Specialist CAMHS Practitioner - Under 5s

Job overview

Harrow CAMHS are looking for a Specialist CAMHS Practitioner to join our friendly, supportive, and experienced multi-disciplinary specialist mental health service. We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled clinician to provide specialist support to the Under 5s and wider team.

Harrow Under 5s CAMHS Service is commissioned to provide brief parent-infant and parent-child specialist practitioner support to families with infants and young children. The team a psychoanalytically informed service.

We are looking for an Specialist CAMHS Practitioner with an experience of and passion for Under 5s work. You will be part of our successful service and help us to expand our reach and supporting other Hubs across Harrow, making relationships with families and local stakeholders. You will offer interventions and support to families and consultation to professionals and parents. We accept and encourage applications from people qualifying in Summer 2025.

Main duties of the job

The role involves a creative and passionate approach to service development, and offers the opportunity of being part of a pioneering initiative. We are looking for clinicians with sound understanding of infant mental health, and who are open to growing and developing in this field. As this is a brand-new service, we are looking forward to growing and developing together with you.

We are advertising a 0.5 (2.5 days week) band 7 post for the Borough of Harrow. The post holder will be based within Brent & Harrow CAMHS team and in one of the local Children’s Centres.

The service aims to provide an accessible, destigmatising, culturally sensitive infant/young child mental health perspective through:

• consultation to parents and professionals
• specialist assessment
• 6 session brief work with Under 5s and their families, using evidence-based treatment
• interagency partnership working
• teaching and training in infant mental health and early attachment.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide comprehensive specialist assessments, including risk assessment of children, young people and their families/carers referred with moderate, complex and severe mental health problems/behaviours.
• To use a range of assessment techniques including observations, standard measures and questionnaires, direct work and interviews with parents and professionals in order to collate information required to complete a functional analysis assessment.  • To formulate and to be responsible for implementing in partnership with other agencies working with the child/young person a positive behaviour plan/ intervention. • To communicate in a sensitive manner assessment outcomes/formulations and positive behaviour support plans. • To evaluate the implementation and impact of the intervention. • To write confidential behavioural support plans, reports for case conferences, and education that may have wide ranging implications for children, young people and their families. • To be available to carry out urgent assessments. Assessments and interventions will be conducted in clinic settings. • To provide consultation and appropriate training to other professionals working with the children referred to the service in order to ensure implementation of behavioural support plans. • To act as care coordinator for an identified caseload and to be responsible for the coordination of assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of therapeutic packages of care provided by the multidisciplinary team.  • To act as care coordinator in accordance with CPA guidelines within the CAMHS community setting. • To ensure that the needs of the client group is paramount and be aware of and adhere to NICE Guidelines relating to Child Protection. • To ensure acceptable levels of safety (regarding potential verbal and physical aggression from disturbed clients) for self and to advise other colleagues when necessary. To adhere to the lone worker policy and update training in breakaway techniques when necessary. • To maintain accurate clinical records in accordance with service standards and to record and maintain patient data in local database systems (System 1) and the trust wide electronic database.