Specialist Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist for CYPIC & Residentials

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a qualified Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist under the support of our Divisional Children in Care Lead to hold an integral role in supporting the clinical leadership of our Children in Care Team at Walsall CAMHS.  We are seeking a suitable candidate who can bring skills, experience and enthusiasm to meet the needs of children/young people with complex developmental trauma, attachment difficulties and other mental health needs.

The candidate needs to be appropriately qualified and registered with the Association of Child Psychotherapists and be adhering to the relevant code of ethics and practice.

The candidate needs to be able to develop clinical leadership skills as the senior clinical colleague in a small team, with responsibility for leading on the delivery of consultations to the Locality Authority residential homes and coordinating the future development of this model across Black Country CAMHS.

This is an exciting time to join Walsall CAMHS as we are in the early stages of growing our Child in Care team and so the successful candidate will be joining a new venture as part of the wider established CAMHS service.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide specialist support to the CAMHS Children and Young People in Care team (CYPIC) under the leadership of the Divisional CYPIC Lead and management of the Service Manager. They will ensure that the implementation and delivery of the CYPIC team within Specialist CAMHS in Walsall is delivered to a high standard in accordance with the CYPIC Service Specification. A key part of this is to offer specialist psychoanalytical child psychotherapy assessments, consultations and treatment.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Caseload management of referrals made for therapeutic intervention with Children and Young People in Care.

• Provision of highly specialised psychotherapeutic assessments. To ensure the provision of a highly specialised Children and Young People in Care Team in CAMHS is being delivered. This includes minimisation of risk of harm across the team, maintaining an overview of the standards of care being delivered and instigating remedial action if necessary and in accordance with current legislation and Trust policy and procedure.

• Implementation of a range of psychotherapeutic interventions for children, young people, carers and groups.
• Supervision of Band 7 Psychotherapist and Child Psychotherapy Trainees as appropriate. This will entail liaising with the Training School in collaboration with the Consultant Child Psychotherapist.
• Maintenance of professional standards and those of the Trust and Children’s Services, producing information and outcomes relating to the work carried out.
• To be responsible for service user engagement and development from their feedback and input.
• To work as part of CAMHS, contributing to all its processes, including PDC’s, Initial Assessments and goal setting/outcomes/evaluation.

• To be responsible for the assessment, planning, implementation and review of care within agreed parameters, and have a working knowledge of local and national policies and legislation, which govern current CAMHS service provision.

• Manage a specialist caseload and provide advice and consultancy to Children and Young People in Care, their carers and other professionals.

• To provide highly specialist psychotherapeutic assessments of referred children and young people and their carers/parents based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources in a variety of venues.

• Act as care co-ordinator, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate to the needs of the Children and Young People in Care and carers.
• To develop highly complex formulations, both in individual practice and when consulted by others, for the psychotherapeutic treatment and/or management of a child/young person in care with highly complex emotional problems and their carers.

• To be responsible for implementing a range of highly specialist psychotherapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups.

• To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual Child/Young Person in Care.

• To communicate in a highly skilled and empathic manner, often highly sensitive informational concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of children/young people and their families/carers and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni and multi-disciplinary care.

• To be accountable for own professional actions and interpretation of Trust and Professional policies and guidelines.

• To review risk and risk management plans, as part of ongoing assessment for children in care within CAMHS ensuring that the risk is documented and minimized and appropriately dealt with, in provision of care, and in consideration of those affected by risk, both in and out of hours.

• To participate where appropriate, in the admission planning, attendance at case conference/reviews and discharge planning for children in care within CAMHS in collaboration with members of the multi-disciplinary team.

• To continually assess and communicate observations to other professionals and agencies as appropriate and reporting any circumstances which could place clients in jeopardy/risk or which mitigate against safe standards of practice.

• To participate in the development of CAMHS Service, setting of quality standards, including the auditing, monitoring and reviewing in line with current clinical guidance practice and policy.

• Provision of expert consultation and supervision for internal staff and external agencies, notably the local authority in thinking about the needs of the children placed in residential homes and local authority care.