CAMHS Early Help Liaison Practitioner

Livewell Southwest; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A community health organization in Plymouth is seeking a CAMHS Liaison Practitioner to support children's mental health. The role involves delivering consultations, coordinating interventions, and working collaboratively with schools and community services. Ideal candidates will have a relevant qualification in nursing, social work, or psychology, and experience working with children and young people in a mental health setting.

Benefits

Protected CPD time

Training pathways

Leadership programs

Qualifications

• Post-registration experience working with children & young people who have mental health difficulties.
• Experience managing own caseload as an autonomous practitioner.
• Knowledge of I-THRIVE model.

Responsibilities

• Deliver consultation and advice to community services.
• Participate in training for schools and community services.
• Co-ordinate targeted interventions based on assessments.

Skills

Experience with children & young people

Mental health assessments

Multi-agency working

Excellent interpersonal skills

Organizational skills

Education

Core qualification in nursing, social work, occupational therapy, or psychology

Professional registration relevant to qualification

Postgraduate training in therapeutic principles

Job description

30 hours per week. This is an exciting opportunity for band 6 professional registered clinicians to join an expanding team working within CAMHS Early Help Pathway working with Children, Young people & families to work as a CAMHS Liaison Practitioner.

This role will be joining an already established team within the CAMHS service. CAMHS Early Help pathway provide consultation, assessments and targeted, short term interventions up to 8 sessions within the I-THRIVE model with the focus being on early intervention within children's mental health. The post holder will work as the named Early Help liaison practitioner for schools within the locality, offering consultation, advice & signposting to services.

The post holder is responsible for supporting the emotional, psychological & social wellbeing of children & young people with a drive for early intervention. The post holder will actively promote resilience, prevention & early intervention to children & young people.

The post holder will contribute to the CAMHS advice & support line.

This will be based on a hybrid model of working with access to office/ clinical space as well as some home working.

This role will require at relevant post qualification experience of working with children & young people within mental health or equivalent with a professional registration.

Main duties of the job

Work as the Liaison practitioner within the Early Help pathway to deliver consultation, advice & signposting to community services and schools working with children & young people with mental health difficulties.

Implementation of evidence based targeted interventions & groups evaluated using outcome measures. To ensure that they access timely assessments & interventions. Representing CAMHS in multi-agency meetings having oversight of mental health element.

Participate in the delivery of training for schools & community services. Maintain standards of care to highest level within available resources. To actively participate in line management with junior members of staff. To liaise effectively with the other CAMHS pathways. To develop and maintain relationships with all providers.

To maintain confidentiality in respect of the young people at all times. Communicate clearly with children & young people, their families and all other health professionals.

Actively participate in clinical governance & quality improvement initiatives. Ensure that children & young people are encouraged to play a part in decision making about the help they need, how they can access specific interventions promoting person-centred care.

All staff are expected to be able and willing to work across a 7 day service.

This role may not be eligible for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route.

Please note we may close the job advertisement earlier than the specified deadline.

About us

Livewell Southwest is an independent, award-winning social enterprise delivering integrated health and social care services across Plymouth, South Hams, and West Devon, with specialist services in parts of Devon and Cornwall. Our teams work in community hospitals, GP practices, sports centres, and health hubs.

As an organisation with a strong social conscience we are guided by our values, kindness, respect, inclusivity, ambition, responsibility, and collaboration. We focus on transforming services to ensure sustainability, while empowering staff and those we serve.

We involve the people we care for, along with their families and carers, in shaping the care they receive, striving to deliver the right care at the right time and place. Centering our work on individual needs helps people lead healthy, independent lives.

We prioritise employees' development, offering protected CPD time, training pathways, leadership programs, and funding for qualifications like the Care Certificate and Nurse Training Scholarships. Our induction and preceptorship programs ensure a smooth transition into our organisation.

Livewell Southwest values diversity and encourages applications from all sections of the community, including those with armed forces experience, lived experience of mental health, neuro-diverse conditions and learning disabilities. If you need assistance or reasonable adjustments during the application process, contact the Recruiting Manager listed in the job advert.

Job responsibilities

The postholder is responsible for supporting the emotional, psychological and social wellbeing of children and young people with a drive for early intervention, enabling cultural change in the way first contact services can support children and young people with mental health problems. In line with the 2015 “Future in Mind” strategic vision for CAMHS the post holder will actively promote resilience, prevention and early intervention to children and young people in the community. The post holder will work as the named Early Help liaison practitioner within the locality. The post holder will directly link with the Children’s Gateway to screen potential referrals, and be a direct link to GPs, primary schools and all other children’s services. The post holder will offer consultation about identified young people to the referrer, network or directly to the child, young person and their family. The postholder will be responsible for the co-ordination of further assessment, targeted intervention or group that would meet the needs of the child or young person. The post holder will co-ordinate training to community professionals and schools to meet the specific needs of each setting or school and co-facilitate training when appropriate.

To work as the identified Early Help Liaison practitioner to deliver early help consultation, advice and information sharing to community services and schools working with children and young people who may present with emerging mental health difficulties.

Co-ordination and implementation of evidence based targeted interventions in a timely manner, in collaboration with the other clinicians. To co-ordinate and contribute to the early help assessment clinics to ensure that children and young people access timely assessments and the appropriate targeted interventions. Organisation and delivery of group based needs-led groups within the school and community setting. To support the delivery of evidence based parenting programmes for children and young people with mental health issues. Take a lead in representing CAMHS in multi-agency meetings such as EHAT, SEND, CIN meetings or child protection meetings to co-ordinate and have oversight of mental health element of a multi-agency plan around a child. To function as a member of the locality facing CAMHS early help pathway taking appropriate responsibility for the implementation of decisions made by the team. Ensure planned interventions are implemented effectively and evaluated using Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROMS) and minimum data set.

Participate in the delivery of training programmes for schools and community services from a portfolio of available CAMHS training

Maintain standards of care to highest level within available resources.

To actively participate in line management with senior and junior members of staff. To liaise effectively with the other CAMHS pathways across the city. To develop and maintain relationships with providers statutory and non-statutory. To maintain confidentiality in respect of the young people at all times. Communicate clearly with children and young people, their families and all other health professional groups about their health problems. Actively participate in clinical governance and quality improvement initiatives, e.g. clinical audit, essence of care or clinical policy development. Ensure that children and young people are encouraged to play a part in decision making about the help they need and how they can access specific interventions. This is to promote person-centred planning.

• Expert ability in receiving information, analysing and formulating professional judgments.
• The post holder will provide assessment and other interventions in the setting most appropriate to meet the children and young people’s needs.
• Ability to match children and young people’s need with available skills and resources.
• To take a lead role in the co-ordination of allocation of work with the available skill mix utilising, prioritising, negotiation and delegation skills for the identified schools in the locality.
• Liaise with other services to arrange appointments that both meet the needs of child or young person and service demands.
• Confidence to travel in an urban environment
• Take a lead role in early help assessments. Formulate plans for appropriate interventions or to signpost to relevant services.
• Making appropriate agreed referrals for longer-term treatment and attending CAMHS core multi-disciplinary meetings to discuss onward steps and to ensure on correct pathway.
• Take a lead role in clinical decision-making and collaborating with other team members in the provision of children and young people’s care packages.
• Take a lead role in the identification of risk and the formulation of risk management plans within the community setting.
• Provide education to children, young people and their families to enhance their knowledge of mental health issues and management of this.
• Promote resilience and prevention of mental health issues.
• Maintain high standards of clinical care to children, young people and their families.
• To liaise and work with other CAMHS pathways to ensure the needs of children are met by the right team, on the right pathway at the right time.

Mental Effort:

• Accurate manual and electronic record keeping whilst coping with constant interruptions and distraction in the work place for example: telephone calls and questions from colleagues.
• Constantly deal with sensitive, intricate and complex clinical and service decisions whilst frequently being required to change from one activity to another at a third party request, i.e. Telephone or staff interruption and be able to respond in a positive and constructive manner to emergency situations.
• Managing to extract information from people with communication difficulties due to acute distressing mental health problems, often in noisy or busy environments.

Emotional Effort:

• Ability to deal with children and young people with emerging mental health difficulties.
• People who self-harm.
• People who are presenting in distress or with distressing thoughts and behaviours.
• People who are very difficult to engage within a therapeutic relationship.
• Ability to cope with stress generated from the constant changing priorities within the Team.
• Take a lead in clinical decision-making and collaborating with other team members in the provision of children and young people’s care packages.
• Take a lead role in the identification of risk and the formulation of risk management plans withinthe community setting.
• Provide education to children, young people and their families to enhance their knowledge of mental health issues and management of this.
• Promote resilience and prevention of mental health issues.
• Maintain high standards of clinical care to children, young people and their families.
• To liaise and work with other CAMHS pathways to ensure the needs of children are met by the right team, on the right pathway at the right time.

As this is a community post, it will involve working in a variety of different environments and will require the post holder to have the ability to adapt to these settings.

All employees have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults and are required to act in such a way that at all times safeguards their health and wellbeing. Familiarisation with and adherence to national and local safeguarding adults and children policies is an essential requirement upon all employees. Livewell South-West has specific safeguarding policies and in addition, employees also have a responsibility to practice and work within the multi-agency policy developed by the Safeguarding Adults Board and the Safeguarding Children Board. Staff are also required to participate in related mandatory/statutory training.

Person Specification

Experience

• Post-registration experience working with children & young people who have mental health difficulties
• Experience and knowledge of mental health assessments including risk management.
• Experience of effective working with families of different cultural backgrounds.
• Experience of multi-agency working
• Experience of managing own caseload and being an autonomous practitioner.
• Experience of working within children's mental health.
• Experience of supporting students
• Line management of junior staff members
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Good organisational skills and ability to prioritise
• Time management and meeting deadlines
• Experience in assessing mental health assessments including risk management
• Ability to work effectively under pressure
• Self-motivating
• Knowledge of legislation and policies relating to children's mental health
• Experience of multi-agency working
• Knowledge of I-THRIVE model
• IT skills and be familiar with various programmes

Circumstances

• Ability to travel across Plymouth
• Ability to work flexibly (hours of work and duties) both as an individual and across Livewell if required

Qualifications

• Core qualification in nursing, social worker, OT or psychology.
• Relevant experience post registration or experience as a band 6 working with children in mental health
• Professional registration relevant to qualification i.e. NMC
• Understanding & awareness of therapeutic principles to support with providing interventions within children's mental health
• Post graduate training qualification in working with children's mental health i.e. systemic practice, CBT, DBT
• Evidence of clinical supervisor & assessor training to support student nurses

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.