Two permanent full-time CAMHS practitioner posts (2.0 WTE) are available in Islington's School Wellbeing Service (MHST).

Islington's School Wellbeing Service is part of the national Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) initiative, aiming to improve access to help and the general culture of emotional support within primary and secondary schools. The service is delivered as a partnership between Whittington Health and LB Islington.

We are recruiting two proactive, creative and skilled colleagues to join our thriving team. The successful applicants will be passionate about mental health in schools, widening access to services and enjoy inter-agency working.

Main duties of the job

The post holders will work as a CAMHS practitioner delivering CBT informed 1:1 brief interventions, groups and workshops and 1:1 brief interventions with young people and their parent / carers. Other duties include liaison with school staff, contributing to whole-school approaches for mental health, screenings and assessments, observations, joint working, service development work. The post holders will, alongside senior team members, have some responsibility for service user participation and / or coordinating the workshop offer from the service. In addition this post is an opportunity to work with school staff and school cultures in developing school environments that better support emotional health and wellbeing.

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Islington CAMHS is well integrated with partner agencies and is experienced in working together to deliver innovative, high quality mental health service jointly with our partners.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see job description for full details.

Main Clinical Responsibilities:To undertake assessments (incl. telephone triaging and face-to-face) of children and young people referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources.

Working in partnership, support children, young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties and their families in the self-management of presenting difficulties, promoting informed choices and decisions about plans for the intervention and agreed outcomes.

To formulate and devise mental health treatment and management plans for children and young people and to provide psychological treatment, using a range of specialist psychological interventions appropriate to the service. To work at all times in collaboration with and giving respect to the education function of the setting in which the person is employed.

To be a resource of specialist advice, guidance and consultation specifically relating to the common emotional and behavioural problems and disorders of children and young people, to colleagues within the MHSTs, school staff and other professionals and agencies / organisations working in the field of child and adolescent mental health.

To liaise with and where appropriate participate in joint work with other members of the School Wellbeing Service, partner services and other teams and clinicians within Islington CAMHS.

To undertake accurate assessment of risk to self and others, providing initial guidance and safety planning, escalating to senior managers and partner agencies as required.

To collaborate with the range of professionals that makes up the Team Around the School in assessing risk and need in pupils of concern.

To support the development of interventions, consultation and psychoeducation approaches regarding prevention and resilience building and health promotion (e.g. supporting the development and evaluation of new workshops).

Where appropriate, to take case management responsibilities, giving clear clinical advice with regard to assessment, risk assessment, formulation and treatment of identified clients. To coordinate network meetings and involve referring agents and others involved the network of care.

Accept referrals within educational settings according to agreed local and national and local protocols. Alongside senior team members, to contribute to the management of referrals and allocation, determining whether criteria and threshold has been met and supporting colleagues in provide a flexible and effective service within the setting.

Understand the wider SEMH provision available in Islington and the different services that support SEMH in Islingtons schools. To use this information for accurate signposting of children, young people and families.

To provide reports and communicate in a sensitive manner concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients.

Keep clear, professionally coherent records of all activity in line with both health and education service protocols and use these records and outcome data to inform decision making.

Complete all requirements relating to data collection.

To operate at all times from an inclusive values base, which recognises and respects diversity.

To be actively involved in the service user participation coordinating and contributing to across service initiatives, attending planning meetings and leading on areas allocated

In collaboration with senior management, to coordinate the provision of workshop delivery and development at an early intervention and prevention level

Person Specification

EDUCATION/ QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Successful completion of Education Mental Health Practitioner or Child and Young Persons Psychological Wellbeing Practice Postgraduate Diploma

Desirable

• Psychology or other health /social care/youth related undergraduate degree or training
• Other relevant postgraduate degree

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Essential

• Demonstrates a sound knowledge and understanding of child & adolescent mental health and development
• Ability to confidently and competently undertake mental health assessments and consider what may be contributing to and maintaining issues for a child
• Able to formulate and devise treatment plans for children and young people
• Ability to communicate psychological formulations and intervention plans, including clinically sensitive information to young people, their families, carers and other professional colleagues.
• Understands the need for and able to competently assess risk and create safety plans, utilising supervision as required
• Demonstrates an understanding for the need to use evidence-based psychological therapies and how it relates to this post
• Knowledge of child and adolescent development and the role of the family in supporting children and young people's emotional well-being.
• Knowledge of outcome measurement and analysing data for specific child and family interventions as well as service provision
• Understanding of systems and contexts in which children and young people are likely to live, demonstrating a knowledge of the issues relating to children and young people and the impact it can have on mental health
• Ability to work within educational settings to increase mental health awareness within the staff group
• Experience of working with children and their families in an education setting

Experience

Essential

• 2 years post qualifying experience of working with children and young as an Education Health Care Practitioner or Child Wellbeing Practitioner
• Experience of working in mental health or related services
• Experience in assessing, formulating and providing CBT informed interventions for children and young people experiencing, mild to moderate anxiety, low mood and behavioural difficulties
• Experience of carrying a caseload and case management. Ability to assess, plan, implement and evaluate risk/care plans to meet the needs of clients.
• Experience of planning and conducting workshops and/or groups for children and their families
• Experience of gathering and using routine outcomes measures to incorporate into intervention with families and inform service delivery and demonstrate outcomes
• Experience of working in a culturally diverse area
• Experience of User Involvement, contributing to initiatives and projects to involve users and utilising this to develop the service.

Desirable

• Experience of delivering consultations to staff working in community settings who may not have child mental health backgrounds.
• Experience of working with children, young people and families with a diagnosis of ASC, additional needs or other vulnerable groups.

Other

Essential

• Demonstrate an understanding of and an ability to incorporate cultural sensitivity and responsiveness to your work with colleagues and clients
• Ability to work autonomously, making effective use of supervision
• Ability to supervise, teach and train others, using a variety of multi-media materials suitable for presentations with clients and /or professionals.
• Advanced communication skills
• Ability to work within a team and foster good working relationships with colleagues inside and beyond the service
• Ability to work under pressure, prioritising and managing workload
• Ability to take leadership roles in development of role

Desirable

• Fluent in languages other than English

Employer details

Employer name

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust

Address

Laycock Centre

Laycock St

London

N1 1TH

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

220-WHT-2423