CAMHS Band 6-7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Integrated Care System; Castleford; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare organization based in Castleford is seeking a Senior Mental Health Practitioner to join its CAMHS team. You will provide urgent, recovery-focused support to children and their families facing mental health crises. The role includes complex case management, leading assessments, and coordinating care plans in a fast-paced environment. Ideal candidates will have a relevant professional qualification and experience in mental health settings.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• Experience working with children and adolescents in mental health settings.
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and guidelines.

Responsibilities

• Provide assessment and treatment to children and young people with mental health needs.
• Lead on complex cases and provide clinical supervision to team members.
• Conduct risk assessments and develop safety plans.

Skills

Mental health assessment

Crisis intervention

Team leadership

Communication

Risk assessment

Education

Relevant professional qualification (e.g., nursing)

Post-graduate qualification in mental health

Tools

Rio (information technology system)

Job description

Go back South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust

CAMHS Band 6-7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner

The closing date is 13 August 2025

We have a really excitingdevelopment post in Wakefield CAMHS as Band 6- Band 7 Senior Mental HealthPractitioners. You need to be a registered staff member to apply for this rolee.g. Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker or Occupational Therapist.

Are you ready to take on arole that is a fast-paced, rewarding role, where you can make a real differenceeach day?

Our Responsive Adolescent andChildrens Home-Based Treatment Team (ReACH) Team is seeking a Senior MentalHealth Practitioners to join our multi-disciplinary team, providing urgent,recovery-focused support to individuals and their families that areexperiencing an acute mental health crisis.

This role is fast-paced and arewarding role where no two days are the same. Youd be expected to workcollaboratively with children, young people, families and external agencies tooffer intensive home-based assessment, support and treatment.

The ReACH Team is the frontline of urgent mental health care, supporting people at their most vulnerabletime and helping them stay safe and feel supported in a community setting.

As a senior member of theteam, you will be expected to lead on complex cases and support staff withinthe team to manage challenging situations. You will also be expected toattend/lead multi-professional meetings to ensure collaborative risk assessmentsand care plans are in place.

The role is currently based atFlemming Court in Castleford, but from December 2025, the base will change toFieldhead Hospital.

Main duties of the job

This opportunity will be led by a competency framework to support you through the development from a Band 6 to a Band 7 Practitioner whilst in the role.

Assessing children andyoung people in a variety of setting (e.g. Accident and Emergency Department,home visits, schools).

Working with familiesand carers to implement safety plans and collaborative care plans.

Undertaking riskassessments and reviewing risk documentation.

Allocated as leadclinician on young people on your caseload to implement home-based treatment.

Support staff in theteam and offer clinical supervision.

Support with deliveringtraining and guidance to the team.

Referrals to internaland external agencies for young people and families.

Taking on the role asshift co-ordinator.

Delivering therapeuticintervention over a short period to children and young people.

Submitting safeguardingreferrals where required.

Leading on support forthose young people who have been recently discharged from an inpatient unit.

Attending professionalsmeetings.

The service runs 7-days per week and on a shift basis of long days (no night shifts).

Atthe time of advertising, this role does meet the minimum requirements set by UKVisas and Immigration to sponsor candidates to work in the UK. We look forwardto receiving your application.

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to befully vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect patients.

About us

Weare a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental healthand learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale,Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and arethe lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission isto help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do thisby providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employstaff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make adifference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourageand welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we valuediversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Beinga foundation Trust means were accountable to ourmembers, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people(including staff) are members of our Trust.

Joinus and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improvingthe mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet andhelp each year.

Weare committedto safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people andvulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share thiscommitment.

We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.

Job responsibilities

For full job description, please see attached supportingdocuments.

Band 7

JOB SUMMARY

This job description is an outline of the main duties of the post. The post-holder will be required to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade as directed.

The content of this post will be reviewed in consultation with the post-holder when necessary and in line with the service developments.

To provide highly specialist skills and expertise, facilitating interventions of the highest quality in the field of mental health, including emergency assessments and intensive interventions with children, young people and their families.

To work autonomously and collaboratively within the MDT, providing consultation and teaching for other agencies/professionals.

To provider supervision and teaching to all other disciplines within CAMHS and to deputise as agreed for the team leader.

To promote safeguarding and the welfare of children and young people

KEY RESULT AREAS:

CLINICAL

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility in accordance with the Trust Policies and procedures.

The post-holder will have highly developed skills in assessing the needs of children and their carers based on the analysis of highly complex facts and situations. Interventions will be planned based on the assessment information and interpretation of this. The clinical assessment will include gathering appropriate historical information from the child and family, allied to clinical observation of family relationships and mental state of the child and other family members, and obtaining relevant information from other agencies. Offering highly specialist expertise in child and adolescent mental health, ensuring clear documentation in all appropriate case notes and sharing assessments and information with the family and all relevant professionals.

To undertake highly specialist initial assessments of young people following acts of serious self-harm and attempted suicide in line with evidence based practice.

To undertake highly specialised risk assessments following referral for presentations requiring urgent mental health or psychiatric assessment and plan relevant interventions.

To implement intensive interventions with young people and their families, as relevant to the post-holders main clinical role, i.e. group and individual work, systemic family interventions. This will include analysis, interpretation and evaluation to reformulate plans of care.

The post-holder will provide therapeutic care to emotionally demanding clients in highly emotive situations.

The post-holder will develop and maintain therapeutic relationships with children and carers. This will include cases of high complexity which require more specialised levels of assessment and therapeutic skills.

As part of multi-disciplinary team, the Senior Mental Health Practitioner will deliver and devise complex packages of care. Provide individual and family review/follow-up sessions to children, young people or their carers.

To take a lead role in setting guidelines and standards that will ensure all young persons identified with complex problems are discharged from Specialist CAMHS with an appropriate package of care from universal services.

The post-holder will have skills to communicate highly complex information regarding personal psycho-social problems in an empathic and supportive way using the highest level of interpersonal skills in situations which can be highly emotional and sometimes antagonistic. Service users and families may have difficulty or be reluctant to understand what is communicated to them.

Communicate complex, sensitive or contentious information utilising highly developed interpersonal skills. Take into account issues of confidentiality and the consent of Adults and Young People. Considering and assessing a childs maturity to consent.

To work with children, young people (0-18) and their families, liaising with external agencies, e.g. Education, Social Services and Paediatric Services. Presenting problems are frequently complex and require that sophisticated packages of care are negotiated and delivered. To actively promote user/carer involvement in all aspects of care planning/delivery whilst respecting the rights, capabilities and wishes of the individuals concerned.

To apply a sound knowledge of safeguarding children and guidelines in clinical work.

To deputise for the team leader in his/her absence.

Apply Trust policies and procedures in instances of aggression, acute distress and disturbed mental health presentations.

Band 6

JOB SUMMARY

The post-holder will:

Provide assessment and treatment to children and young people with mental health needs;

Work autonomously and collaboratively within the MDT, providing consultation for other agencies/professionals;

Promote the safeguarding and welfare of children and young people.

To provide routine and urgent assessment and interventions to young people with a wide range of emotional and psychological problems who are referred to specialist CAMHS, in keeping with evidence based practice with supervision from a senior clinician within professional guidelines and within the overall framework of the teams policies and procedures.

KEY RESULT AREAS:

To support the ongoing process of delivering a comprehensive CAMHS system.

To provide assessment, interventions, therapy to children, young people with the most severe, complex and persistent mental health problems, including those who are severely mentally ill or at suicidal risk and where appropriate, families as both an autonomous practitioner and as part of a multidisciplinary team in a variety of settings to address need. This will include working with the CAPA model.

To apply a sound knowledge of safeguarding children and guidelines in clinical work.

To be committed to a quality approach for patient care.

The post-holder will demonstrate high levels of concentration and provide sustained effort in assessment of complex family issues.

To manage own caseload, accessing support and guidance appropriate to individual need.

To operate within the clinical and case management supervision framework.

To provide training, consultation and supervision to other service providers, partner agencies and junior members of staff as required regarding intensive interventions with children, young people and families.

To participate in the development, audit and review of this extension to existing service provision.

To undertake extended hours of work alongside fellow specialist CAMHS practitioners.

To work collaboratively with all services to provide coherent and co-ordinated mental health services for children and young people as well as other significant partners, ensuring timely transition and relevant consultation, training and support to universal services and targeted groups.

To use a range of Information Technology systems (including Rio) ensuring high quality data is collected appropriately, kept securely and confidentially

To participate in an agreed clinical audit programme for the service, and ensure lessons learnt from both audit and clinical incidents are reported.

To comply with both clinical and corporate governance frameworks.

To support the engagement of service stakeholders and users in the development and monitoring of service delivery and identify opportunities for service improvement and redesign.

To actively promote user/carer involvement in all aspects of care planning/delivery whilst respecting the rights, capabilities and wishes of the individuals concerned.

To work in an innovative and child, young person and family centred way, in a culture of continuous improvement and learning.

Apply Trust policies and procedures in instances of aggression, acute distress and disturbed mental health presentations.

To maintain relevant professional registration.

To identify and communicate any concerns through the relevant management processes.

To demonstrate continued practice development and engage in annual appraisal.

We are aware that an increasing number of applicantsare using AI technology to generate responses on NHS Job applicationforms.Over reliance on AI-generated content in application forms isstrongly discouraged and we will conduct a thorough screening process beforeselecting candidates to progress to the next stage. If you are using AI toenhance your application, please disclose this in your NHS Jobs applicationform.

Person Specification

Experience

• Band 7
• Experience of delivering training to others.
• Substantial post qualification experience, some of which must be working with Children, young people and their carers in a mental health or other complex care setting.
• Experience of working in different cultural contexts.
• Knowledge and experience of working with Equality and Diversity.
• Multidisciplinary team working.
• Inter-agency liaison and consultation.
• Experience of providing highly specialist advice and supervision to other professionals.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance for working with children, young people, mental health and safeguarding.
• Evidence of advanced clinical/therapeutic knowledge and skills in mental health.
• Extensive experience in assessment and risk management and ability to implement evidence based practice.
• Advanced experience of safeguarding children and young people.
• Band 6
• Substantial post qualification experience, some of which must be working with Children, young people and their carers in a mental health or other complex care setting.
• Multidisciplinary team working.
• Inter-agency liaison and consultation.
• Experience of supervising/mentoring junior staff.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance e.g. NHS plan, Mental Health Legislation, Childrens act, Education Act, Working Together, Childrens NSF, Every Child Matters, etc.
• Clinical/therapeutic knowledge and skills in mental health.
• Experience in assessment and risk management and ability to implement evidence based practice.
• Proven ability to work with other agencies and disciplines and in partnership with other organisations.
• Experience of safeguarding children and young people.
• Band 7
• Experience of community settings.
• Band 6
• Experience of community settings.
• Experience of working in different cultural contexts.
• Knowledge and experience of working with Equality and Diversity.

Special Knowledge & Skills

• Band 7
• Excellent verbal and communication skills
• Ability to manage own caseload and to be a self-reliant and autonomous practitioner
• Excellent negotiation skills, and problem solving skills
• Excellent record keeping and report writing skills to include care planning and risk assessments.
• Band 6
• Good verbal and communication skills.
• Ability to manage own caseload.
• Good negotiation skills, and problem solving skills.
• Effective record keeping and report writing skills to include care planning and risk assessments.
• Have good team working skills. Be able to work across disciplines with an ability to predict and manage inter-disciplinary tensions and foster good working practices.

Physical Attributes

• Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).

Personal Attributes

• Band 7
• Able to work autonomously and as part of a team.
• Commitment to multi-agency approach/working.
• Ability to work and make decisions under pressure.
• Calm, confident, innovative, creative and assertive.
• Ability to make and lead decisions under pressure/crisis situations.
• Willingness to be flexible and adaptable in accordance with changing service priorities.
• Commitment to challenging discrimination and improving accessibility of services.
• Ability to cope calmly in a crisis.
• To demonstrate good self-care and encourage the same in team members.
• A Current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability).
• To have integrity, be honest, open, transparent and respectful.
• Band 6
• Able to work autonomously and as part of a team.
• Commitment to multi-agency approach.
• Ability to work and make decisions under pressure.
• Calm, confident, innovative, creative and assertive.
• Clarity of decision making.
• Willingness to be flexible and adaptable in accordance with changing service priorities.
• Commitment to challenging discrimination and improving accessibility of services.
• Ability to cope calmly in a crisis.
• To demonstrate good self care and encourage the same in team members.
• A Current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability).

Training

• Band 6
• Training and experience relating to specialist CAMHS.
• Experience of delivering training to others.

Qualifications

• Band 7
• Relevant professional qualification, e.g. nursing, or other professional allied to medicine.
• Post qualification training in identified portfolio, e.g. LD. LAC, eating disorder.
• Dip SW or relevant mental health profession.
• A teaching and assessing qualification.
• Membership of professional body.
• Band 6
• Relevant professional qualification, e.g. nursing, or other professional allied to medicine.
• Dip SW or relevant mental health profession.
• Membership of professional body.
• Band 7
• Post graduate qualification in mental health (e.g. CBT, Family Therapy, Counselling).
• Band 6
• Post graduate qualification in mental health (e.g. CBT, Family Therapy, Counselling).
• A teaching and assessing qualification.

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.

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust

£38,682 to £54,710 a yearBand 6 - 7 dependant on experience