CAMHS Lead Intensive Behaviour Support Practitioner

NHS; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 33,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in Plymouth is seeking a Lead Intensive Behaviour Support Practitioner to provide specialized mental health support for children and young people. The successful candidate will manage a caseload, work collaboratively with families and professionals, and promote culturally competent care. This role requires excellent communication skills and knowledge of mental health legislation. Training and experience with children experiencing mental health difficulties are essential. The position offers a supportive environment for professional development.

Qualifications

• Experience with children and young people in mental health settings.
• Knowledge of mental health-related legislation and frameworks.
• Ability to plan and coordinate care with families.

Responsibilities

• Deliver integrated mental health care to children and families.
• Provide training and consultation to staff across services.
• Manage a caseload and conduct assessments.

Skills

Communication skills

Caseload management

Understanding of mental health

Culturally competent assessment

Education

Core qualification Nursing/Mental/Social Work/OT/Therapist

Appropriate professional registration (NMC/HCPC/Social Work England)

Post-graduate training in child mental health methods

Job description

Job Summary

Job summary

37.5 hours per week.

Position

Livewell CAMHS provides a new way of supporting Children and Young People (CYP) with Mental Health presentations and challenging behaviour including those with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and/or a Learning Disability (LD) and their family/carers. The team will be very responsive to rapidly changing environments, and the focus of the work will be intensive behaviour support in the home or care setting with the child or young person and their parents/ carers. Although this team sits in our neurodiversity pathway, they will work across the CAMHS service, in particular our CAMHS Look after Children Pathway and are CAMHS Acute Care Pathway.

Lead Intensive Behaviour Support Practitioner – Role Overview

This position is the Lead Intensive Behaviour Support Practitioner, a mental health practitioner role with a focus on intensive behavioural support for children, young people and families. The successful applicant will receive training in Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) or other appropriate training. You will need experience in caseload management and be able to plan and coordinate the work with Children, Young People and families/carers. Good communication skills and enjoy a fast–moving environment.

To enable CYP and their family/carers to get the right support at the right time.

Key Responsibilities

To improve children and young peoples mental health through the delivery of an integrated and coordinated system of community based mental health care to children, young people and their families, providing safe, culturally competent, effective, cost efficient, timely and accessible services that are in accordance with national and local priorities and are responsive to the needs and views of local children, young people and their families.

To support the delivery of consultation, liaison and training to staff in Universal/targeted/specialist Services. To also provide clinical input to the team, delivering practice within best evidence and to the highest possible standard. The post sits within a multi‑agency pathway within the city offering mental health assessment and treatment interventions in line with NICE Guidelines.

To contribute to a positive working environment and open learning culture, which supports high morale and commitment within the CAMHS Service promoting wellbeing, personal development and continuous improvement in the standards of business activities and professional practice.

To work with children/young people/families and professionals with them, to reduce the stigma associated with mental health and contribute to the embedding of a positive message about maintaining good mental health.

Lead Intensive Behaviour Support Practitioner is a Mental Health Practitioner role with a specialist focus to lead Intensive Behavioural Support Practitioners to develop the ability to provide specialist and autonomous, culturally competent assessment, formulation of, and implementation of, specific care plans and review for children and young people and their families / carers following a request for involvement. The Lead Intensive Behaviour Support Practitioner will have skills that enable them to communicate that assessment in writing to the referrer and the General Practitioner. This information may also be required to be copied to any other relevant parties involved in the young person’s care, with the young person’s permission where appropriate.

Lead Intensive Behaviour Support Practitioner must use an evidence‑based approach to develop and implement specialist programmes of intervention to a defined caseload of children and young people. These interventions will be based on a clear theoretical framework and will take full account of the child or young person’s developmental needs, gender, ethnicity, religion, race, ability and sexual orientation. Lead Intensive Behaviour Support Practitioner will need to develop their skills and knowledge enabling them to draw on a range of therapeutic interventions, for example different psychotherapeutic models, non‑verbal therapeutic approaches and other techniques adapted for use with children and young people. They will also need to develop an extensive knowledge of the full range of children and family services across all agencies.

Direct intervention is undertaken according to the competencies of individuals. As a Band 6 Mental Health clinician the expectation will be that the clinician takes a lead role in the delivery of the service and supervise the junior members of the team. It will be evidence based and informed by a clear theoretical framework. The Mental health Practitioner will describe the planned care within a written care plan, review and update, which has been signed by the child/young person and/or parent / carer.

The Mental Health Practitioner (MHP) will develop the skills and knowledge enabling to choose an intervention and deliver that from a range of therapeutic modalities including systemic practice, cognitive behavioural therapy, solution focused therapy.

The post holder will be expected to draw upon experience and knowledge gained through training and practice relating to child development, child and adolescent mental health and adult mental health.

The Mental Health Practitioner demonstrate effective skills in the assessment and reassessment of risk and communicate concerns accurately in a timely fashion. This is inclusive of priority assessments and requires multi‑agency responses to risk assessment and risk management plans.

The Mental Health Practitioner develop skills and knowledge enabling them to make an autonomous decision about the time of discharge, and agree with the child, young person and family / carers as well as multi‑agency key partners. Communicate a summary of the work undertaken and how to sustain improvements made and include correspondence to General Practitioner.

The MHP is required to maintain high effective standards in the recording of clinical observations and actions, risk and risk management including child protection in health records.

The MHP will provide schools, and/or other community venues, with access to individual and small group therapeutic interventions for those pupils who require it, including working with families.

MHP work with families at their homes, education and community settings and at base as appropriate/required by children/young people and their families.

The MHP's will strongly adhere to culturally competent and anti‑discriminatory practice, promote equity of opportunity and use their professional position to empower others and challenge power imbalances where they are found to exist.

The MHP will provide consultation to staff in partner agencies and may be required to support junior staff in attendance at meetings/ EHAT/CP meetings.

Consultation is offered to all professionals to identify the nature and level of the child’s mental health need so that an appropriate CAMHS response can be defined and actioned.

Offer consultation and support to CAMHS wider system.

All MHP's promote the mental health and emotional well‑being of children and young people.

The MHP's will play a major role in encouraging and co‑coordinating collaboration between all agencies by attending multi‑agency meetings such as multi‑agency EHAT / EHCP meetings, child protection case conferences, education reviews etc, to provide a mental health perspective.

The MHP's will be required to have excellent and effective communication skills, applicable to working both with young people, their families and professional systems. Acting as a point of liaison between specialist CAMHS and universal services to ensure improved communication and collaboration via a range of different interfaces, forums and meetings e.g: presenting at meetings within Plymouth.

The post holder will be required to contribute to the delivery of education and training to professionals in multi‑agency universal services.

Contribute to team: Contribute to the development of team protocols and clinical practice, proposing changes for discussion. Maintain good activity records and input them onto the electronic recording system in a timely manner.

Maintain good activity records and provide them in a timely manner for inputting onto the electronic system.

Be available for and make use of clinical supervision, child protection supervision and operational line management supervision.

The Post holder is responsible for attending clinical supervision a minimum requirement of an hour per month.

The post holder will need to organise their own workload under the support and supervision of Clinical Pathway Manager.

Maintain health records to the standards required by LSW.

Contribute to a strong team ethos of enquiry, development and improvement.

Contribute to the development of team protocols and clinical practice, proposing changes for discussion.

Participate in team meetings, for example allocation, supervision, reflective practice, case discussions.

The post holder will strongly adhere to anti‑oppressive and anti‑discriminatory practice, promote equity of opportunity and use their professional position to empower others and challenge power imbalances where they are found to exist.

Keep up to date with CAMHS developments taking place nationally in line with service objectives.

To participate in audit and quality and patient safety activity in line with service objectives.

Input to the electronic system as appropriate e.g: child protection supervision coding.

To be aware of and familiar with LWSW policy and procedure and operate within that e.g: lone working policy.

To maintain high standards of infection prevention and control in day‑to‑day delivery of practice.

To measure and make available clinical outcome measures within an agreed system. This is most likely to be the CAMHS Outcomes Research Consortium.

See J.D for further information attached.

Person Specification – Experience (Essential)

• Experience (both work and life related)
• Experience of working in a multi‑agency and/or multi‑disciplinary context.
• Experience of post‑registration working with children and young people who have experienced mental health and psychological well‑being difficulties.
• Experience in assessment, including risk, care planning, intervention and evaluation.
• Maintaining own safety in Community settings by working within relevant policy and having completed or be willing to complete breakaway training or equivalent.
• Experience of effective working with families of different cultural backgrounds.
• Experience of working within multi‑agency safeguarding systems e.g: child protection conferences, child in need meetings
• Experience of managing demanding and difficult professionals/young people/colleagues
• Experience of managing your own caseload and of working with a team approach
• Experience in the delivery of training.

Person Specification – Desirable Experience

• Experience of service evaluation

Person Specification – Knowledge and Skills (Essential)

• Knowledge of relevant legislation and documents pertaining to children, e.g. Children Act 2004, Child Protection, National Service Framework, Every Child Matters etc. Learning Disability specific legislation and documents, Aiming High for Disabled Children, Valuing People, Mansell report, Mental Capacity Act.
• Knowledge of a range of mental health problems and disorders affecting children and young people.
• Knowledge of theories of child development and their application to practice.
• An understanding of resilience and vulnerability
• Mental Health and Risk assessment, care planning, evaluation and intervention skills
• Knowledge of different models of therapy, e.g: Applied Behaviour Analysis and at least one other therapeutic modality eg: CBT, Psychodynamic psychotherapy, solution focussed therapy etc.
• Culturally competent assessment and intervention skills
• Specific therapeutic skills relevant to working with children and families
• Consultation skills.
• Training skills
• Self‑motiving and able to work on own initiative
• Well established case management skills and good organisational skills with ability to prioritise
• Well‑developed communication skills both oral and written
• Commitment to anti‑oppressive practice
• Ability to work in partnership and in collaboration with others, both in and out of own agency/professional background.
• Commitment to own learning and professional development.
• Reflective Practitioner
• Ability to travel across Plymouth
• Ability to work flexibly (hours of work and duties) both as an individual and with other colleagues in LSW and with partner agencies.
• Able to undertake the demands of the post with reasonable adjustments where required.

Person Specification – Desirable Knowledge/Skills

• Ability to travel across the LWSW footprint. It is unlikely that public transport will meet this requirement.
• Adjustments can be considered in accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act.

Qualifications (Essential)

• Core qualification Nursing/ Mental/ Social Worker / OT/Therapist
• Appropriate Registration relevant to professional qualification such as NMC, HCPC , Social work England.
• Relevant post qualifying experience

Qualifications (Desirable)

• Post graduate training qualification in methods of working with children with mental health problems, e.g: counselling, systemic practice or post grad diploma in child and adolescent mental health. Positive behavioural Support.
• Evidence of Mentorship and sign off mentor qualifications

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 UK Visas and Immigration. 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 for criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer Details

Livewell Southwest

200 Mount Gould Road

Mount Gould

Plymouth

Devon

PL4 7PY

Employer's Website

https://www.livewellsouthwest.co.uk/