CAMHS Practitioner

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Colchester; Hybrid; GBP 32,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust in Colchester is seeking a permanent CAMHS clinician to join our multidisciplinary SET CAMHS team, delivering NICE-aligned interventions for children and young people with emotional and mental health needs.

The role welcomes graduates in health professions with CAMHS experience, with opportunities for CBT/DBT/systemic approaches and family work within a Thrive-model framework.

Qualifications

• Background in child mental health or related experience with children and families.
• Additional training in CBT, DBT, Systemic, Family Work, or EMDR is helpful.
• Ability to support young people with complex emotional or mental health needs.

Responsibilities

• Assess and develop care plans for patients with anxiety, self-harm, and low mood.
• Promote mental health in the community through clinical interventions.
• Conduct initial clinic and community assessments and early interventions.
• Routinely measure outcomes and deliver Thrive-model based interventions.
• Work within a multi-disciplinary team in Colchester to provide care.

Skills

Child mental health

CBT training

DBT training

Systemic

Family work

EMDR training

Education

Graduate health professional degree

Job description

Job overview

Come and work in North East Essex NELFT’s SET CAMHS team , and be part of one of the UK’s most innovative healthcare Trusts.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a permanent contract in our team, suitable for a graduate qualified health professional (e.g nurse, social worker, occupational therapist, creative therapist, and someone with clinical CAMHS experience or similar) to join our dynamic multi-disciplinary team based in Colchester, Essex.

Main duties of the job

You will have a background in either child mental health or other relevant experience of working with Children young people and their families. It would be helpful if you have additional training in CBT, DBT, Systemic, Family Work, EMDR or other recognised modality. You will need the skills to support young people who have a presentation of complex emotional or mental health issues.

Driven by the principles underpinning the Thrive model with the latest in evidence based NICE compliant psychological interventions to children, young people and their families experiencing mental health difficulties.

You will be a highly motivated and innovative individual with clinical experience working with children and young people with emotional wellbeing and mental health difficulties.

You will:

• Assess and develop plans of care to meet the complex needs of patients with a variety of conditions such as high anxiety, suicidal ideation, self harming and low mood.
• Promote the mental and emotional health of children, young people and families in the community through clinical interventions in the team.
• Undertake initial clinic based and community based assessments and deliver a range of early interventions to children and young people with a range of emotional and psychological difficulties where appropriate
• Routinely measure clinical outcomes and deliver evidence-based clinical interventions in line with the Thrive Mode

Working for Us

NELFT is an experienced provider of mental health services for children and young people, already providing these services across Essex. It is also one of England’s largest NHS Foundation Trusts. We provide community health services for children and young people with physical health needs in south West Essex and in the four London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.

Our priority is providing the highest standard of care to all of our service users.

About NELFT’s SET CAMHS

NELFT’s SET CAMHS is for anybody aged between 0-18, living in the Southend, Essex and Thurrock areas and is free at the point of entry.

Any young person experiencing emotional wellbeing or mental health problems,

Structure of NELFT’s SET CAMHS

There are: a Children’s Single Point of Access (CSPA), seven Locality Teams, an Intensive Support Services and a specialist Eating Disorders Team. These are located across Southend, Essex and Thurrock.

What difficulties can be referred to the service?

• Mood and anxiety disorders
• Behavioural and conduct disorders
• Emerging personality and attachment disorders
• Eating disorders
• Psychotic disorders
• Deliberate self-harm and suicidal ideation
• Substance misuse with co-existing mental health needs (dual diagnosis)
• Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) - with co-occurring mental health needs where the focus is on the treatment of mental health needs.
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - with co-occurring mental health needs
• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Prolonged bereavement problems

All referrals to the service are assessed and then we use the Thrive model to offer the support that is needed for the young person, developed in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance criteria (NICE) and based on a best practice model of treatment.

Locality Teams in SET CAMHS:

The aim of our SET CAMHS is to respond earlier to children and young people’s needs in order to help prevent, reduce or delay the need for more specialist interventions. This transformation of children and young people’s mental health services has a clinical focus, integrated with local authorities to deliver a long term collaborative approach to planning and delivering services.

SET CAMHS focuses on the mental health and includes access to self-help tools and services based in schools and the community. We are creating a modern service that fits with children’s lives in a way that best suits them. Key new features include a Children’s Single Point of Access (CSPA) into the service, clear early signposting, and use of digital channels. We are working collaboratively with HCRG (formerly Virgin care) when offering the ‘Getting Help’ aspect of the Thrive Model.

The service is driven by the principles underpinning the national CYP-IAPT programme (Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies); evidence based interventions, routine measurement of outcomes, access to high quality training and supervision for professionals and true co-production with children and young people.

Clinicians have to ensure that a high quality, timely, accessible and evidence-based service is available to all children and young people who need it. This means establishing and maintaining excellent working relationships with wider social, health and voluntary services.

Working in our EWMHS locality teams is for you if you are excited by a modern approach. We would very much like to hear from you.

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London and Essex. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award-winning equality and diversity initiatives, along with staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest significantly in your development because when you feel valued and supported, we can deliver the highest quality care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been recognised in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and hold a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Through our staff networks and training opportunities, we strive to foster a just and compassionate culture at NELFT.

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT. They are:

• We are kind.
• We are respectful.
• We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.

Use of AI

We value applications that genuinely reflect each candidate’s own skills, experience and motivations. We therefore strongly discourage the use of AI-generated content in applications.

Applications should be written in your own words and accurately represent your knowledge, skills and experience.

We reserve the right to reject an application where we reasonably believe AI has been used to generate or materially contribute to its content.