Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

NHS; London Borough of Harrow; On-site; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Part time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in Harrow is seeking a part-time Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist to deliver psychotherapeutic services to young people. The ideal candidate will have a relevant master's degree and experience in multidisciplinary teams. The role is essential for providing mental health support in the community, requiring strong assessment and communication skills.

Qualifications

• Experience in specialist assessment and treatment of children and adolescents.
• Qualified through an Association of Child Psychotherapists recognized training school.
• Work experience in community or outpatient settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide psychotherapeutic assessments for children and young people.
• Formulate and implement treatment plans based on complex data.
• Deliver various psychotherapeutic interventions across teams.

Skills

Psychotherapeutic assessment

Strong communication skills

Complex intervention techniques

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Education

Masters in Clinical Child Psychotherapy

Pre-qualification training in health/social care

Job description

Overview

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting a Band 7 Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist for Harrow CAMHS. The closing date is 18 September 2025.

The post is a part-time (3 days) role based at Harrow CAMHS. We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled clinician who is able to maintain clinical curiosity, engage in reflective practice, and advocate for the needs of children, young people and families. Experience within CAMHS and with young people who have complex needs would be beneficial. This post is suitable for newly qualified or early-career child and adolescent psychotherapists who are passionate about working with young people and their families. Applications from candidates who will be obtaining the relevant qualification this summer are welcome.

Main duties of the job

You will help the service provide specialist mental health and neurodevelopmental assessments alongside specialist psychotherapeutic interventions and contribute to specialist support plans for the care of children and young people who are looked after. You will contribute to highly specialist assessments and interventions for a broad range of complex mental health concerns and neurodevelopmental differences experienced by children, young people and families within a socially, economically and culturally diverse London borough.

As Harrow Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, you will provide a qualified specialist psychotherapy service to children and young people with mental health problems across all sectors of care as part of a multidisciplinary CAMHS team. You will offer specialist psychotherapeutic assessment and therapy to service users and their families, and provide advice and consultation on their care to non-psychotherapist colleagues and the wider professional network. You will work autonomously within professional guidelines and the service’s policies and procedures. You will utilise research skills for audit to support policy and service development and undertake research relevant to the service and to young people, families and carers.

About us

We are passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care in a community setting or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do. We recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our young people, colleagues, teams and the Trust. We support career development and offer opportunities across mental health, community services, neurodevelopmental disorders, and related fields within CNWL.

You will work from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, serving young people experiencing mental health problems in the Harrow area. The post will be based at the Ash Tree Clinic, South Harrow, and the post holder will be expected to maintain close links with the Hospital. The Ash Tree Clinic (Harrow CAMHS) is accessible by train from Kings Cross, Oxford Circus, Euston and Victoria, typically around 45 minutes.

As an NHS Trust, we strongly encourage and support vaccination, as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and your patients when working in our healthcare settings.

Job responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments of children and young people referred to the team, based on the use, interpretation and integration of complex data from multiple sources.
• Formulate and implement plans for the formal treatment and/or management of the child/young person’s problems, grounded in an appropriate conceptual framework and evidence-based methods across the full range of care settings.
• Deliver a range of psychotherapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups within and across teams, grounded in psychoanalytic psychotherapy principles and techniques, including long- and short-term interventions as appropriate.
• Evaluate and decide on treatment options, considering theoretical and therapeutic models and complex developmental factors.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of children and young people managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• Contribute to a framework of understanding and care for all children and young people served by the service across settings and agencies.
• Undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual children and young people.
• Act as case worker where appropriate, initiating planning and review of CAMHS care plans involving children, young people, carers, referring agents and others.
• Communicate information concerning assessment, formulation and treatment plans to children, young people and carers, monitoring progress during multidisciplinary care.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Masters level pre-clinical training at an Association of Child Psychotherapists recognised training school; post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical child psychotherapy at a training school accredited by the Association of Child Psychotherapists or equivalent.
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in relevant health, social care or education settings.

Experience

• Experience of specialist psychotherapeutic assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and their parents as a full member of a multidisciplinary team in community, primary care, outpatient or inpatient settings.
• Experience of working with a wide range of children and adolescents across the whole age range (0-18) and their parents, with varying clinical severity and complexity.
• Experience of working in different CAMHS tiers and applying child psychotherapy in different cultural contexts.

Knowledge and Skills

• Skills in complex methods of psychotherapeutic assessment, intervention and management.
• Strong communication skills to convey complex information to clients, families, carers and colleagues.
• Knowledge of legislation relating to children and adolescents, including child protection procedures and policies.
• Ability to manage own anxiety and seek supervision when appropriate.
• Awareness of working within a managed healthcare system and knowledge of NHS, Social Care and Education structures and policies.
• Ability to provide consultation to other professionals and non-professional groups.
• Knowledge of research methodology and ability to interpret research findings for service development.

Other

• Ability to form good working relationships in a multidisciplinary setting.
• Ability to employ clinical governance mechanisms to support and maintain clinical practice.
• Ability to teach, train others and present the work of child psychotherapists in public, professional and academic settings.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and requires a Disclosure to be checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

£53,751 to £60,651 a year pro rata inc HCAS