Intake Supervisor & Clinical Practitioner

Open Door; City Of London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Part time

Job summary

A community health service in London is seeking a part-time Intake Supervisor & Clinical Practitioner to oversee the intake process for young people. The ideal candidate will manage referrals and treatments while ensuring that young people receive timely support. Candidates should have relevant postgraduate training and experience working with adolescents. This role offers a fixed-term contract with potential for extension, reflecting a commitment to increasing accessibility in healthcare services.

Qualifications

• Post graduate training in relevant therapeutic disciplines.
• Minimum one year of relevant post-qualification experience.
• Professional accreditation with relevant bodies.

Responsibilities

• Oversee and supervise the intake process from point of referral.
• Manage waiting lists and allocation of cases.
• Ensure compliance with service waiting times and quality standards.

Skills

Experience of working with adolescents

Ability to communicate effectively in highly emotive situations

Experience in the autonomous management of work patterns

Self-motivated

Good interpersonal skills

Education

Post graduate training in Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy or related field

At least 1 year's post qualification experience

Job description

Intake Supervisor & Clinical Practitioner

We are excited to be recruiting a part-time role for an experienced clinician to join our dynamic voluntary service as our Intake Supervisor & Clinical Practitioner.

Our mission is to make talking therapy as accessible as possible to all young people in Haringey who need it.

This role will oversee Intake, which is a key aspect of our organisation and a critical area of the work done at Open Door. It is suited to a clinician who is interested in service development.

• 0.4 to 0.6 FTE post (15 to 22.5 hours per week)
• 12 month fixed term contract, with hope of extension

Provisional interview date: Thursday 18th December 2025

We welcome applications from candidates with lived experience of all kinds, including applicants from the global majority and those who are neurodivergent.

Main duties of the job

• Overseeing and supervising the intake process from point of referral to initial assessment stage
• Overseeing the Intake Co‑ordinator
• Management of initial assessment & treatment waiting lists
• Allocation of cases for treatment according to availability & clinical need
• Developing effective ways to support young people on the waiting list
• Working with frontline administrators & the senior clinical team to identify and manage risks & safeguarding concerns for young people awaiting treatment
• Building good working relationships and communicating with other services & agencies regarding new referrals and informing them about our referral processes
• Enhancing our intake processes to ensure we are providing an effective service for our users
• Monitoring compliance with service waiting times such as 4 week waits for under 18s
• Identifying capacity issues and reporting difficulties to senior clinicians within the service

About us

Open Door is an NCL ICB commissioned voluntary sector service based in Haringey, North London, providing a range of therapeutic services for young people aged 12-24 and parents/carers. We form part of the Haringey CAMHS pathway for 12-18 year olds and are a highly regarded clinical service.

Open Door recently received national recognition for our impact, as a 2024 finalist for the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Award for Reducing Inequality and Improving Outcomes for Children and Young People.

Open Door offers talking therapy to adolescents and young adults on a brief, medium and longer-term basis. The team comprises Child & Adolescent and Adult Psychotherapists, Psychodynamic Psychotherapists and Counselling Psychologists who offer psychotherapy, CBT, drama therapy, therapeutic football groups and EMDR.

The clinical team currently comprises 28 qualified and trainee therapists, many of whom are NHS trained and all of whom are professionally accredited. We are a highly skilled team and many of our clinicians also teach on professional trainings.

Open Door works from bases in Crouch End and Tottenham, and provides services in local secondary schools and the Haringey Autism Hub. Most of our work is delivered in person as this is what most young people tell us they want. Demand for the service is high.

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. More than half of our young people are from global majority communities, and approximately 1 in 4 are neurodivergent.

Job responsibilities

DESCRIPTION OF THE POST - KEY AREAS

1) Clinical

a) To co‑coordinate incoming referrals, in consultation with Principal Child & Adolescent Psychotherapists, and to manage waiting lists across the service. This will include liaison, risk assessment & triage coordination.

b) To meet with professionals working in other agencies to inform them about Open Door's services & referral processes and to learn about other services

c) Dependent on contracted hours, and alongside intake responsibilities, to hold a small clinical caseload including initial assessments

d) To work within Open Door's ethos and values. As an organisation, we have low thresholds for accepting referrals, and we try to make access to support equitable & as easy as possible.

e) To monitor compliance with service waiting times such as 4 week waits for under 18 yrs

f) To report on capacity issues and to flag difficulties to senior clinicians within the service

g) To ensure that Open Door is managing intake processes & waiting lists while working sensitively around issues of diversity. This includes working sensitively with neurodivergent young people, parents & carers, providing therapeutic work that is culturally sensitive, and working effectively with those needing interpreters.

h) Finding effective ways to support young people & families while waiting for treatment

i) To undertake initial assessments

2) Service Development

a) To work with senior colleagues on developing Open Door's intake processes. This includes the way we manage new referrals, allocation of cases & waiting lists.

b) To continue developing processes & protocols around referrals to our schools service, triage, allocation of cases, and communication with school & young people. This includes assigning cases to therapists and ensuring Open Door delivers the agreed‑upon number of sessions.

c) To work with Open Door's Support Team around admin processes related to intake

d) To work with senior colleagues to develop ideas & proposals for new initiatives for our intake process & waiting list management

e) To be responsible for continued monitoring and evaluation of risk for teenagers & young adults in their own caseload, in supervision and team discussions; this relates to safeguarding concerns, deliberate self‑harm or other risky behaviour such as substance abuse, running away, causing harm to others.

a) To receive regular clinical & service‑related supervision from a Principal Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist

b) To gain additional specialist experience or training relevant to the service

c) To contribute to the development & maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice through active participation in internal & external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the CEO

d) To participate in clinical team meetings and present clinical cases in detail for group discussion

e) To take part in an annual appraisal with a Principal Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist

4) Research & Audit

a) To participate fully in Open Door's comprehensive programmes of audit & evaluation

b) To ensure that individual clinical evaluation profiles are noted and discussed in the context of supervision

c) To contribute to the development of Open Door's systems and programmes of evaluation & audit

d) To utilise theory, literature & research to support evidence‑based practice

5) Administrative

a) To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and the responsible exercise of professional codes of self‑governance. Administration tasks may include: electronic data entry & recording, completion of audit & evaluation data forms, upkeep of weekly appointment diary, attendance records etc.

b) To contribute to the overall administration of Open Door's services

6) Meetings Attended

a) To attend and participate in weekly Open Door team meetings (clinical, business) and Initial Assessment workshops

b) To attend multi‑agency meetings as appropriate, including Child Protection conferences, Team around the Family, EHCP annual reviews etc.

c) To attend meetings with other service providers, commissioners etc. as & when appropriate

d) To represent and promote Open Door at local network meetings & public events

a) To comply with Open Door's policies, procedures & guidelines including those related to Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety, Environmental, Complaints, Child Protection, Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults, Information Governance & Disciplinary and Grievance

b) All information concerning clients and staff must be treated as strictly confidential at all times

8) General

a) This is not an exhaustive list of duties & responsibilities, and the post holder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the scope / grade of the job, in discussion with the CEO

b) This job description may be reviewed in the light of changing service requirements; any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.

c) The post holder will be expected to work flexibly across Open Door's services

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post graduate training in Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy, Clinical / Counselling Psychology, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy with Children, Young People & Families, Family & Systemic Psychotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech & Language Therapy, Clinical Social Work or Clinical Nurse Specialists, accredited by the ACP / BPC / BPS / NMC / BABCP / HCPC / AFT / RCOT / RCSLT / SWE
• At least 1 year's post qualification experience
• To maintain professional accreditation as a full member of the relevant professional body
• Training in other therapeutic modalities
• Experience of working in a triage / access / intake role

Experience

• Experience of working with adolescents
• Experience in the process of assessment of risk and clinical need
• Experience in liaison and multi‑agency working
• Knowledge of other therapeutic modalities
• Interest in and/or experience of service development
• Experience of liaison with other therapeutic modalities towards improving interdisciplinary understanding and networking
• Knowledge of areas of service administration
• Knowledge of methodology associated with use of outcome measures, service user evaluations, etc.
• Experience of IT administration systems
• Experience of contributing to intake coordination, triage and waiting list management
• Experience of developing service user participation
• Experience of presenting the work of a service to other professionals
• Experience of working on call, or on duty, in a mental health service
• Knowledge of statutory & voluntary sector services and the increasing demands facing mental health providers
• Experience of completing risk assessments over the phone

Additional Requirements

• Awareness of the ethical, professional and legal responsibilities of therapists working with children & adolescents
• Ability to work as an autonomous clinical specialist, whilst also maintaining close links with other clinicians & colleagues
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Willingness to work from a number of locations

Personal Characteristics

• Self‑motivated
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to support colleagues and contain anxiety
• Adaptable
• Good interpersonal skills
• Reliable
• Trustworthy
• Mental effort: capacity for frequent, intense mental concentration
• Emotional effort: capacity to frequently work with highly emotional circumstances and levels of distress
• Working conditions: capacity to work in a mental health setting with occasional exposure to unpleasant working conditions such as verbal aggression

Skills and Competencies

• Ability to make complex autonomous judgements based on theoretical, technical and clinical knowledge & experience
• Ability to communicate effectively in highly emotive situations, overcoming barriers to understanding and analysing complex & conflicting opinion / emotions
• Experience in the autonomous management of work patterns and caseload. This includes experience in scheduling and maintaining a pattern of complex clinical & non‑clinical work.
• Ability to work in a way that promotes the safety and wellbeing of children and young people
• Good literary and report writing skills

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.