Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Erith; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist to join a dynamic CAMHS team. This role offers an opportunity to work with young people facing complex mental health challenges, providing both short and long-term therapeutic interventions. The position emphasizes collaboration within a multi-disciplinary environment, allowing for professional growth and specialization in various therapeutic approaches. With regular clinical supervision and access to continuous professional development, this role is perfect for those passionate about making a difference in the lives of children and adolescents. Join a supportive team dedicated to innovative practices and comprehensive care.

Qualifications

• Full member of ACP or trainee due to qualify in 2023.
• Experience in child mental health in a multidisciplinary context.

Responsibilities

• Provide psychoanalytical psychotherapy assessment and treatment for adolescents.
• Conduct initial assessments, case management, and consultations.

Skills

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Risk Assessment

Clinical Supervision

Multi-disciplinary Collaboration

Education

Doctorate Level ACP accredited training

Relevant honours degree

Job description

Applications are invited for a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist to join a lively and friendly multi-disciplinary CAMHS team. The service is situated in the London Borough of Bexley, one of the three boroughs served by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust. This is located in a recently refurbished building at Park Crescent, Erith, which lies on the border of London and Kent with good transport links, including regular trains from and a nearby Crossrail link from Central London.

Bexley CAMHS service is being redesigned according to the THRIVE framework, and this post will be based in the Getting More Help Quadrant and will involve work with a range of young people with complex and enduring mental health problems up to 18. We currently have a vacancy for a Child Psychotherapist to work with a range of CYP from 0-18, including LAC and adopted young people and Under 5s. There are also opportunities for consultations and the development of specialisms in work with schools, local authorities, carers and families.

The post is open to a newly qualified child psychotherapist or those due to qualify summer 2025, who are members of the ACP, with experience in child mental health in a multidisciplinary context. The Child Psychotherapy discipline is well established and valued across the Trust with a strong clinical presence in most of the different teams across Oxleas and within Bexley CAMHS.

Main duties of the job

The successful applicant will offer brief, medium and long term treatments (including individual, parent-child, group and parent work) as well as specialist state of mind assessments. They will also undertake initial assessments, case management work and psychoanalytically informed brief psychological interventions and consultations where indicated.

The position provides an excellent opportunity for a child psychotherapist to consolidate training and/or post qualifying experience within a supportive and stimulating environment. Regular clinical supervision will be provided to enhance and maintain the Child Psychotherapist’s core psychoanalytic skills. There are opportunities within the team and service for innovative work and we are keen to enable clinicians to develop job plans to encourage development of skills and interests. The Child Psychotherapy discipline promotes wider psychoanalytic thinking through a monthly psychoanalytic journal club, a monthly clinical forum and business meeting, termly trust-wide psychotherapy away days and an annual Oxleas Child Psychotherapy conference. We also encourage access to wider CPD opportunities as well as maintaining links with the ACP. All clinicians are encouraged and have opportunities to pursue further trainings to offer additional interventions such as EMDR, IPT and VIG to meet the needs of our clients.

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Task and Responsibilities

• To provide efficient, effective, comprehensive and highly specialist child and adolescent psychoanalytical psychotherapy assessment and treatment for adolescents with severe, highly complex and persistent mental health problems, their carers/parents and families.
• To provide highly specialist supervision and consultation for multi-disciplinary staff within Bromley CAMHS and to staff of related agencies (health, education, social care, voluntary sector, and youth criminal justice system.)
• To undertake clinical audit, research and evaluation and to contribute to the development of child psychotherapy as required.
• To work autonomously within the overall framework of CAMHS and trust policies and procedures.
• To participate in Directorate wide CPD programme for Child Psychotherapists and attend monthly Child Psychotherapy Directorate meetings.

Clinical

• To provide highly specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapy assessment for adolescents with severe, highly complex and persistent mental health problems, who are at risk of requiring Tier 4 in-patient care and to make decisions about treatment options taking into account relevant evidence- based research, theory, practice and highly complex factors concerning historical and development processes which have shaped the child/adolescent, their parents/carers and family.
• To provide highly specialist brief, medium or long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for adolescents with severe, complex and persistent mental health problems.
• To provide in depth risk-assessments of young people who are at risk to themselves and/or others and to be able to formulate short-term crisis planning, in order to provide support that will enable the young person to engage with on-going treatment at a later stage.
• To provide, as required, highly specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic assessment and treatment for adolescents and parents/carers who may be vulnerable and may have mental health problems.
• To contribute, as required, to the process of care planning for young people referred to the Adolescent Team and to manage a complex caseload as care coordinator working within a multi-disciplinary team.
• To monitor clinical progress through regular reviews of psychotherapy treatment.
• To deliver, as required, highly specialist psychotherapeutic assessment and psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic treatment for families who are hard to engage.
• To provide highly specialist assessment reports for Social Care and Court where appropriate.
• To participate and collaborate with other team members to provide specialist clinical services as required.
• To participate in regular CPA reviews and on-going discussion of cases in treatment with other members of the multi-disciplinary team.
• To be able to engage and work with adolescents while drawing upon a range of theoretical and practical knowledge acquired over a significant period of time.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility based on the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics of the Association of Child Psychotherapists.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Risk

• To be responsible for working within the appropriate Safeguarding, Deliberate Self Harm, Substance Misuse guidelines, for own cases and the provision of appropriate advice in supervision and consultation.
• To be responsible for continually monitoring and evaluating risk to/from children and young people in own caseload.

Consultation

• To provide highly specialist advice, guidance and consultation to professional colleagues.
• To provide, as required, highly specialist advice, guidance and consultation to adults involved with those young people who are within the Social Care system.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a specialist psychoanalytically informed understanding to the client group across all settings.

Research

• To undertake audits as appropriate within the Specialist CAMHS Service in accordance with clinical governance.
• To undertake research as appropriate within the service, Directorate and the discipline of Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
• To utilise theory, literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work.

Communication

To maintain effective communication with all partner agencies involved in a child/adolescent’s care.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Full member of Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) or trainee due to qualify and register in 2023
• Relevant honours degree or recognised equivalent
• Doctorate Level ACP accredited training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy or trainee due to qualify and register in 2023
• Other related professional qualifications

Experience

• Experience of relevant patient groups presenting high levels of complexity and difficulty
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, multicultural context
• Experience of working with families, including foster and adoptive families
• Experience of consulting to other professionals in relation to the emotional needs of children and adolescents

Skills, Abilities and Knowledge

• Good knowledge of relevant theories, practices and research in the field of child and adolescent development and psychotherapy
• Working knowledge of adult mental health difficulties
• Evidence of continuous professional development

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that welcomes and supports individuals of all abilities. Remember, if you meet the minimum criteria for this role and you have a disability, you can be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme - Please ensure you select this on your application form.

If you require any adjustments to participate fully in the interview process, please let us know by adding the relevant details when scheduling your preferred interview date and time. Please feel free to contact the appointing manager to discuss your needs.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Martin Daltrop Job title Consultant Child Psychotherapist, Bexley CAMHS Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 0203 260 5200 Additional information

For further information or an informal conversation, please contact Martin Daltrop by phone or email.