Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join Barnet CAMHS as CAMHS practitioner. This role is suitable for someone who is passionate about providing high quality mental health care to support young people with neurodevelopment disorders and their families. The post holder would be expected to work as care coordinator to children with learning disability and children waiting for ADHD assessment.
The role primarily entails providing therapeutic assessments and brief interventions to children, young people and their families referred to the service.
Barnet CAMHS use the THRIVE Framework when thinking about the mental health and wellbeing needs of children, young people and families. The Framework is needs-led and is defined by the children, young people and their families, alongside professionals, through shared decision making. The post sits predominantly within the Getting Help and Getting More Help needs-based grouping of the Framework. However, Getting Advice and Getting Risk Support are also relevant within the role.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will act as care coordinator, assessing and treating children and young people in your care routinely and work under the supervision of the team manager and senior clinicians to manage these situations effectively.
You will work with other CAMHS practitioners in the service from all disciplines. You will be a member of a number of internal and external professional networks to ensure that care plans for individual children and services across agencies are coordinated efficiently and effectively. This post is a clinical post and the expectation of time management is that the majority of time is spent in actual clinical practice.
You will offer advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedure. You will also clinically and/or professionally supervise, advise or manage junior members and trainees of the team.
The post holder will utilise research skills for QI and make positive contributions to any future service developments and the delivery of high quality, evidence-based care pathways.
About us
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.
Our Five-Year Strategy:
1. We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home
2. With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
3. We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care
4. We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology
Why NLFT?
* We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities
* We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives
* NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
* Excellent internal staff network
The postholder will be aligned with our Values:
* We Are Kind
* We Are Respectful
* We Work Together
* We Keep Things Simple
* We Empower
* We Are Proudly Diverse
In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that falls under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.
Date posted: 22 April 2025
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £42,939 to £50,697 a year Per Annum including Outer London HCAS
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Compressed hours
Reference number: 455-BEH-0074
Job locations: Barnet CAMHS, Holly Oak, Edgware Community Hospital, Barnet, HA8 0AD
Job responsibilities KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical:
* To provide specialist assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
* To plan and implement formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy.
* To implement a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
* To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
* To be responsible and accountable for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care.
* To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment.
* To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all children and young people of the service, across all settings and agencies serving children and young people with learning disabilities and mental health problems / challenging.
* To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk.
* To act as care coordinator, where no other team member is involved, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network.
* To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary.
* To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the BPS and Trust policies and procedures.
* To take part in the duty rota for emergency assessments as agreed with the team.
Person Specification
Qualifications/ Registrations Essential
* Qualification in a core mental health profession: Nursing (RMN, RGN or RSCN) with additional therapeutic qualifications, Clinical or Counselling Psychology (eligible for chartered status), Systemic Family Psychotherapy, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy (eligible for full membership of the Association of Child Psychotherapists), Social Worker with additional therapeutic qualifications e.g. systemic family therapy or CYP IAPT trainings, First level qualification in art, play, drama or music therapy with additional short course certificate level in the psychological aspects of caring for children and adolescent with mental health problems/needs e.g. CBT, family therapy or equivalent with related CAMHS experience. Current professional registration as applicable: the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC), Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC), Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) or The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), or BABCP.
Desirable
* Training in one of the main therapeutic modalities. Relevant training on safeguarding and child protection.
Skills/ Abilities Essential
* Evidence of well-developed clinical skills. Ability to work effectively across organisational boundaries. Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Proven qualities in sustaining the mental, emotional and physical demands of specialised therapeutic work with disturbed and distressed adolescents and their families/care networks. Capacity to deal with working conditions that may occasionally involve verbal abuse and frequent exposure to highly emotive material such as child abuse and family breakdown. Ability to manage the multiple demands in a complex clinical environment. Awareness of current national guidelines and policies in the field of CAMHS. Understanding of NICE Guidelines for mental health disorders. Knowledge of CYP-IAPT and rationale for ROMs. Knowledge of legislation including the Mental Health Act 1983 in relation to children and adolescents including safeguarding children and young people, child protection procedures and policies. Good computer skills and knowledge of patient management systems. Accurate record keeping. Evidence of continuing professional development.
Desirable
* Experience in family therapy processes. Knowledge of development in inter-agency partnership. Specific knowledge of current issues for Adolescent mental health. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. Teaching skills in clinical settings.
Experience/ Knowledge Essential
* Previous experience of working with young people in a mental health setting. Experience of clinical and risk assessment and treatment of young people and adolescents across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings. Experience of case load management. Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team. Demonstrate further specialist training / experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 2 years. Working knowledge and competence in at least one model of therapeutic work (e.g. Systemic, CBT, SFT, Psychodynamic). Ability to work effectively across organisational boundaries. Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Proven qualities in sustaining the mental, emotional and physical demands of specialised therapeutic work with disturbed and distressed adolescents and their families/care networks. Capacity to deal with working conditions that may occasionally involve verbal abuse and frequent exposure to highly emotive material such as child abuse and family breakdown. Ability to manage the multiple demands in a complex clinical environment. Awareness of current national guidelines and policies in the field of CAMHS. Understanding of NICE Guidelines for mental health disorders. Knowledge of CYP-IAPT and rationale for ROMs. Knowledge of legislation including the Mental Health Act 1983 in relation to children and adolescents including safeguarding children and young people, child protection procedures and policies. Good computer skills and knowledge of patient management systems. Accurate record keeping. Evidence of continuing professional development.
Desirable
* Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision. Experience of supervision of junior staff with independent caseloads. Experience of working within a multicultural framework. Experience in setting up and facilitating groups. Experience in family therapy processes. Knowledge of development in inter-agency partnership. Specific knowledge of current issues for Adolescent mental health. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. Teaching skills in clinical settings.
Personal Qualities Essential
* A positive approach to working with children, adolescents and families. Ability to work as part of a team and independently. Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings. Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour. Ability to travel between bases and within the community as required for the post. Commitment to equal opportunities. Self-motivated, assertive and flexible.
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.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.
Employer details
Employer name: 306 North London NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Barnet CAMHS, Holly Oak, Edgware Community Hospital, Barnet, HA8 0AD
Employer's website: North London NHS Foundation Trust
#J-18808-Ljbffr