Merton Youth Justice Service (YJS) & Contextual Safeguarding Team is a Local Authority multi-agency service including professionals from partner agencies in health, education and the police. Merton YJS-CAMHS provides a Tier 2 CAMHS provision embedded within the service. The YJS provides both statutory and non-statutory supervision for young people in the youth justice system in line with the National Protocol for Case Responsibility (2014).

The service is informed by AMBIT (Adaptive Mentalization Based Integrative Treatment), trauma-informed, systemic and attachment-based principles. The service is also interested in working towards implementing community psychology and co-production concepts into its work. The team also takes a critical approach to addressing ethnic, racial, and social disproportionality within the Youth Justice System.

The team also embraces an agile flexible working approach.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will be joining an established and well-regarded service and will be supervised by the current YJS-CAMHS Psychologist/Team lead in Merton. The role forms part of the CAMHS tier 2 provision provided into Merton Youth Justice Service (YJS) & Contextual Safeguarding Team.

This postholder will be providing consent based psychological assessment and treatment for young people and families who are currently involved with or at increased risk of entering the Youth Justice System, they will also support cases where there are risks of contextual harm such as child exploitation. These are often complex cases that require engagement and support from several agencies and provide opportunities for creative multi-agency joint working.

The role requires advanced skills in psychological assessment and formulation, with an understanding of how to incorporate offending behaviour within a trauma-informed framework, as well as the ability to share this and recommendations with other professionals. An important aspect of the role includes providing consultation, supervision, and training to team members and external agencies. This is a new and developing position which will give the postholder the opportunity to shape the role in line with service and stakeholder requirements.

The appointee will also work closely with partner agencies such as children's social care, youth work provisions, and the wider youth support service.

About us

We offer a number of excellent staff benefits and understand the importance of a healthy work life balance. Some of our benefits are highlighted here:

• Generous pay, pensions and leave, we offer a comprehensive pay, pensions and leave package which is dependent on the role and length of service.
• Work life balance, we support a range of flexible options, such as: part-time working, job sharing, term-time working, compressed hours and working from home.
• Career development, There are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and we support your development through a number of programmes such as mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes
• Subsidised car parking - You can park at any of our sites at a reduced rate of £20/month.
• NHS discounts, with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands though Health Service Discounts website.

Other benefits include:

• Eye examinations
• Looking after your health
• Cycle to work scheme
• Car lease scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Childcare vouchers
• Staff restaurants
• Free gym membership

Job description Job responsibilities

To provide specialist assessments of young children and their parents/carers referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and where appropriate, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews in line with CYP IAPT methodology.

To formulate and implement plans for evidence-based interventions, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, to improve the parent/child relationship.

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychotherapeutic interventions employed individually and in synthesis, maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses, adjusting and refining formulations or understandings, drawing upon different explanatory models and employing methods of intervention that are based upon evidence of efficacy.

To evaluate and make 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 and the family.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans

To provide specialist mental health advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to the care of the young child and their parents/carers

To contribute to and/or use evidence-based, integrated working tools and processes, to ensure young children and their parents/carers receive holistic and co-ordinated services in response to their mental health needs.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for young children and their parents/carers.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of young children and their parents/carers who are under their care.

To monitor progress during the course of interventions, ensuring that all interventions are fully assessed, planned, implemented and evaluated in conjunction with CYP IAPT minimum dataset standards.

To maintain accurate and accessible health care records according to Trust policy and Information Governance requirements.

To demonstrate high level communication skills, both written and verbal, within all agencies.

Person Specification Qualifications Essential

• Qualified Clinical/Counselling/Forensic Psychologist registered with the HCPC as an applied psychologist, or oQualified Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist having successfully completed a training course recognised/accredited by the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) or equivalent, and registered with ACP, or oQualified Systemic Family Psychotherapist registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) via the College of Family Couple and Systemic Therapy, or oRegistered mental health nurse with training in a therapeutic model relevant to the role

Desirable

• Training as part of a CYP IAPT collaborative in a recognised evidenced based approach.

Experience Essential

• Demonstrable experience of working with children and young people in a variety of community settings
• Experience of multi-disciplinary team working
• Experience of inter-agency working
• Experience of safeguarding and Child Protection

Desirable

• Experience of leading case reviews
• Experience of working in the NHS
• Experience of teaching and liaising with other professional groups

Knowledge and Skills Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
• Specialist knowledge of child and family development
• Ability to work with children of all ages
• Ability to deliver evidence based therapeutic interventions in a variety of community settings
• Knowledge of the use of a variety of evidence-based therapeutic tools
• Ability to demonstrate competence in at least one form of evidence based psychological therapy

Desirable

• In depth knowledge of safeguarding and Child Protection
• Advanced observation skills

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

294-CAMHS-4294050-JB