FCAMHS Senior Mental Health Practitioner | Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust; Peterborough; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional health service is seeking a Specialist in Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health to provide assessments and specialist advice. You'll work within a multi-disciplinary team, support high-risk children, and undertake forensic assessments. Candidates must have a relevant mental health qualification and a full UK driving license. The role involves travel across the region, focusing on integrated care and collaboration. This position offers flexible hours and requires a commitment to improving mental health outcomes for young people.

Qualifications

• Must provide specialist advice and consultation to professionals.
• Capable of highly skilled mental health assessments.
• Experience in forensic and neurodevelopmental assessments is necessary.

Responsibilities

• Provide detailed comprehensive written reports following assessments.
• Advise on plans for high-risk children/young people.
• Deliver specialized training for other mental health professionals.

Skills

Specialist advice and consultation

Mental health assessment

Forensic assessment skills

Report writing

Clinical supervision

Driving license

Education

Relevant mental health qualification

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our community Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (FCAMHS). Consideration will be given to applicants who want to work either full time or part time.

The FCAMHS community team base is in Peterborough and there is also a second base in Cambridge. The service is regional covering the East of England region (Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire).

This dynamic service works in partnership with wider agencies to ensure integrated care provision across health, social care, education and youth justice to optimise the outcomes for children/young people who present with high risk and/or concerning behaviours and where mental health and/or neurodevelopmental concerns are suspected. The job will involve a mixture of advice and consultation and direct assessment work.

The post holder will be part of a multi-disciplinary team and will have the support of a Senior Leadership Team that includes a Consultant Psychologist and Consultant Psychiatrist. The post holder will have the opportunity to be part of a specialist forensic peer supervision group.

The post holder will provide specialist services to children/young people and their families/carers. The post holder will provide assessments for children/young people with highly complex presentations and psychological consultation to other professionals involved in their care. The post holder will also be expected to undertake service development projects and research as agreed with the Senior Leadership Team.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high-quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services, not only via inpatient and primary care settings, but also within the community. These services include children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, research and development.

To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high-calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.

Please be advised we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date should we receive sufficient applications.

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.

For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at www.cpft.nhs.uk

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist advice and consultation to other professionals working with and on delivering interventions to children/young people with diagnosed or suspected mental health/neurodevelopmental/learning issues.
• Provide highly skilled assessment of mental health and risk and, on occasion, intervention to children/young people with diagnosed or suspected mental health/neurodevelopmental/learning issues.
• Conduct specialist structured forensic and neurodevelopmental assessments as per training and skill base.
• Provide detailed comprehensive written reports following assessments.
• Advise and contribute to decisions/plans for high-risk child/young person who are vulnerable to and at risk of neglect, physical, sexual or emotional harm.
• Support the safe and effective transitions for children/young people between the community and custodial/welfare secure settings to ensure the appropriate services are available and coordinated.
• Make clinical judgements that satisfy the expectations and demands of the role, and support colleagues to do so (seeking support from senior colleagues when needed).
• Make and receive referrals.
• Regularly undertake clinical supervision for specialist practice area.
• Deliver and develop specialised training regarding adolescent forensic mental health to other mental health professionals and to other professionals in probation, youth offending teams, mental health services, education and social services who also work with young children who are a risk to others.

Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.

*DVLA have a number of reciprocal arrangements with overseas countries, for further information please visit the DVLA website

This advert closes on Monday 5 Jan 2026