Senior Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist - Infant Mental Health
We are delighted to be recruiting Senior Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists to join our developing Infant Mental Health offer within Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD). We have 1.5 WTE on offer so welcome applications from those seeking full or part time hours. This role is focused on working with infants aged 0 to 2 years and their caregivers, supporting early relationships, regulation, and development.
The post can be based in any of our four localities Exeter, Barnstaple, Totnes, or Torquay.
You will join a growing network of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists (CAPTs) across the service, with clinical leadership provided by a Principal CAPT and a strong culture of shared learning, supervision, and CPD. This is an exciting time to contribute to a model of care for our youngest children and their families.
We Offer:
* A preceptorship opportunity for early career CAPTs to develop into an 8a role.
* A friendly and well-established CAPT network, with strong links to national bodies and local training placements.
* Regular clinical supervision and line management, along with dedicated job planning time.
Main duties of the job
* Provide specialist psychotherapy to infants and their caregivers, including complex assessments and interventions that promote secure early relationships.
* Offer formulation and consultation to colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team, supporting reflective practice and psychologically informed care planning.
* Support service development, audits, and quality improvement initiatives focused on early years mental health.
* Maintain a caseload tailored to the unique needs of infants and their families, working flexibly across services and systems.
* Champion inclusive practice, co-production, and the voice of families, ensuring care is responsive and meaningful.
* Engage in regular supervision, CPD, and reflective practice, contributing to your development and that of the wider CAPT profession within CFHD.
This is a fantastic opportunity for a qualified or newly qualified CAPT to contribute to the evolving Infant Mental Health offer within a collaborative and compassionate team.
About us
Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD) comprises an Alliance of NHS organisations working together to improve health outcomes for children and young people in Devon.
CFHD provides integrated care and treatment for children and young people across physical and mental health which are provided by Torbay and South Devon Foundation Trust and Devon Partnership Trust. We are working closely with other organisations and providers to ensure we deliver locality and county-wide based integrated access to all of our services, based on the i-Thrive Framework.
CFHD works closely with our local universities of Plymouth, Exeter & the Peninsula Medical School where we support students in clinical training placements and in addition support our own staff to undertake post graduate training.
Our integrated care and treatment has been developed and refined in partnership with children, young people and their families/carers.
We would like the people who work for Children and Family Health Devon to be understanding, patient and respectful. They should be trustworthy and make us feel safe and comfortable. It is important that they use their skills and experience to listen carefully in a non-patronising and non-judgemental way. When staff are positive and friendly, they help to create an environment that is informal and without pressure.
Job responsibilities
You will be a qualified and experienced Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist ready to move into a Senior role. You will have a passion for working with children, young people and families with complex needs. You will have the knowledge and skills to undertake complex assessments and deliver skilful psychotherapy interventions. You will have experience in supporting the development of others through supervision and training and be keen to further develop this. You will be a reflective practitioner with strengths to bring to a multi-disciplinary team and consultative work. You will be committed to service user participation and collaborative working with children, young people, parents, carers and families. You will have a good understanding of safeguarding across the lifespan. You will be motivated to further develop your leadership skills to contribute to quality improvement and service development within your pathway and the wider service.
Mood, Emotions and Relationships Pathway
The appointed Senior Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist will work within a strong multi-disciplinary team, providing assessments and therapy to children with severe, chronic and enduring mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety-based disorders and trauma. You would be expected to work with children, young people and families to understand their experiences and presenting concerns in order to formulate and provide an appropriate evidence-based intervention. You will work with other agencies as required and be able to assess and respond to clinical and safeguarding risks as needed. You will contribute to team discussions and complex case consultations, bringing enhanced formulation skills as well as knowledge and experience to support the team processes, reflections and formulation.
As a Senior Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, you will require a high degree of professional autonomy and self-management. You will provide clinical supervision to Trainee Psychotherapists when possible as well as Band 7 colleagues and colleagues from other disciplines where appropriate. You will use your clinical leadership, audit and research skills to take a lead in areas of service development to support a culture of quality improvement.
The multi-disciplinary teams include registered Mental Health Practitioners from a range of backgrounds including Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Social Work and creative therapies, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy colleagues, Systemic Psychotherapists, Clinical Psychologists, CBT Therapists and Psychiatrists.
Person Specification
Experience
* Experience of working collaboratively with service users and their families/carers, including using goal-based care and routine outcome measures in practice.
* Experience of working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team and across agencies.
* Experience of working with a wide variety of child mental health problems, across the whole age range, reflecting all levels of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal abuse.
* Experience of undertaking specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions for children and young people with highly complex mental health problems; including risk assessments.
* Experience in providing effective clinical supervision, teaching, training and assessing in clinical practice.
Qualifications
* Doctorate Level ACP accredited training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
* Full member of Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP).
* Post qualification specialist therapy/assessment training relevant to children and young people.
* Post qualification training or proven equivalent experience in supervision.
Other
* An Enhanced DBS Check will be required for this role.
* Ability to travel across Devon.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
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