This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Wellbeing Practitioner (SWP) or Mental Health Practitioner, with a background of working with education settings, to work in Lewisham CAMHS Mental Health Support Team (MHST).
The post holder will be an SWP due to complete the approved 2-year SWP Post Graduate Diploma in Jan 2025 OR a registered Mental Health Practitioner who has undertaken a recognised qualification in one of the core mental health professions.
The post holder will use their knowledge, skills, and experience to supervise trainee and qualified Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and contribute to the general service development and functioning.
The post holder will also manage a defined caseload with a focus on providing focused assessment and evidence-based intervention for children and young people (CYP) with mild to moderate mental health difficulties and their parents/carers.
Part of this role will include being a named MHST Link Practitioner to a group of schools/colleges, regularly liaising with education staff, external agencies, CAMHS colleagues and other local services.
The post holder will travel across the borough to different schools/colleges and adapt working pattern as appropriate in order to meet the needs of the community and service.
• To deliver evidence-based therapeutic interventions to CYP and families.
• To supervise trainee and qualified EMHPs.
• To contribute to multi-disciplinary team discussions and service development.
• To be a Link Practitioner to MHST schools.
• To contribute and facilitate whole school approach workshops.
• To provide advice and guided signposting to CYP, families and education staff.
Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are a service designed to help meet the mental health needs of children and young people in education settings. They are made up of senior clinicians, SWPs, EMHPs, MHST Practitioners and Practitioner Psychologists. They are based across education settings as an additional resource within a whole-system approach to promote wellbeing, support earlier intervention, enable appropriate signposting and deliver evidence-based support, care and interventions.
Lewisham MHST works across four teams and next year will cover over 80% of education settings in the borough. The MHSTs is partnered with their education settings to design a bespoke offer, based on a school/colleges individual needs and works with the mental health services that are already in place, such as counselling, educational psychology, school nurses, pastoral care, educational welfare officers, VCSEs, the local authority, including children’s social care, and NHS Children and Young People Mental Health Services (CYPMHS).
Qualifications:
• Senior Wellbeing Practitioners (SWPs) due to complete the approved 2-year SWP PGDip in Jan 2025, and be registered or eligible for EMHP registration with the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) or EMHP registration with the British Psychological Society (BPS).
• All applicants with a Core Profession will require professional training and relevant CAMHS experience in combination with professional registration with one of the following statutory bodies as appropriate to discipline: Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC), Health & Care Professional's Council (HCPC), Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP), The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) or British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP).
Experience:
• Significant experience in a setting where mental health is the primary focus some of which should have been in a CAMHS, school or similar service.
• Working in collaboration with supervisor, service user, carers and MDT in assessing needs, planning and implementing care.
• Taking responsibility for care delivery in a specific area and maintaining a safe therapeutic environment.
• Experience of the following: initial assessments, group, individual and family work, multi-disciplinary work, clinical governance and audit or clear evidence of transferable skills.
Knowledge/Skills:
• Ability to assess, plan, implement and evaluate risk/care plans to meet the needs of clients.
• Ability to work to standards for quality within the service.
• Ability to work as a member of a multi-disciplinary team and demonstrate awareness of MDT functioning.
• Ability to maintain and manage own workload and work autonomously within the specialist area.
• Willingness and ability to develop specialist knowledge of clinical aspects of child and adolescent mental health.
• Ability to recognise own limits and seek support and supervision as appropriate.
• To have developed computer skills to enable input of relevant data and typing of summaries and reports etc.
• The ability to supervise, teach and develop the skills of student and junior staff as and when appropriate.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Good interpersonal skills and demonstrable ability to work flexibly and respectfully with others.
• Ability to analyse risk and respond appropriately, seeking support as necessary
• Knowledge of The Children Act 1989, 2004 and The Mental Health Act 1983, Human Rights Act 1998 and Mental Capacity Act 2005.
• London Child protection procedures.
• The principles of clinical governance and practice.
• The principles underlying confidentiality and information sharing.
This advert closes on Monday 13 Jan 2025