Mental Health Practitioner

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust; Castleford; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 43,000; Full time

Job summary

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust is seeking a Mental Health Practitioner to join Wakefield CAMHS. You will work with young people and families, manage a caseload, conduct risk assessments and deliver evidence-based interventions within a multidisciplinary team.

The role requires autonomous practice within professional guidelines, commitment to safeguarding, and collaboration with schools and social services. A willingness to engage in supervision and training is essential.

Qualifications

• Substantial post-qualification experience with Children/Young People in mental health.
• Experience working within MDT and inter-agency settings.
• Evidence-based interventions and risk assessment skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide assessment and treatment to children and young people with mental health needs.
• Work autonomously within MDT with supervision as needed.
• Promote safeguarding and welfare of children and young people.
• Deliver clinical interventions and care planning with appropriate documentation.
• Collaborate with schools, social care and other partners.

Skills

Communication skills

Caseload management

Negotiation

Problem solving

Teamwork

Multi-agency collaboration

Education

Nursing qualification

Dip SW or related field

Postgraduate mental health qualification

Tools

RIO system

Job description

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust

Mental Health Practitioner

The closing date is 26 October 2026

Are youpassionate about helping young people with mental health problems? Are youlooking for an opportunity to develop and share your skills and knowledge inmental health? If you answer yes to these questions, then Wakefield Child andAdolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is the place for you!

We arelooking for an experienced and confident Mental Health Practitioner who is ableto work within a busy team. You must have significant and demonstrableexperience of working with young people and their families, who can oftenpresent with a range of complex mental health needs. You will manage your owncaseload, providing a range of high-quality care appropriate to the youngpersons needs which will include risk assessment and management, consultationand evidence-based interventions.

You musthave a comprehensive range of skills and knowledge to deliver clinical aspectsof the role in order to be able to provide a range of appropriate clinicalinterventions and assessment and be competent to do this work as an autonomouspractitioner within professional practice guidelines and a structuredsupervision framework.

Main duties of the job

As a Mental Health Practitioner in The Core Team withinWakefield CAMHS, the main duties would be as follows:

• Hold and manage a caseload independently.
• Provide thorough risk assessments and careplanning.
• Provide therapeutic intervention through both1:1 work and group work with young people in the locality.
• Provide urgent assessments when required.
• Work in a trauma-informed way.
• Work with other agencies; schools, social careetc.

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged tohave their up-to-date flu vaccination to protect staff and patients.

About us

Weare a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental healthand learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale,Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and arethe lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission isto help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do thisby providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employstaff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make adifference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourageand welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we valuediversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Beinga foundation Trust means were accountable to ourmembers, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people(including staff) are members of our Trust.

Joinus and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improvingthe mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet andhelp each year.

Weare committedto safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people andvulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share thiscommitment.

Job responsibilities

JOB SUMMARY

Thepost-holder will:

Provide assessment and treatment to childrenand young people with mental health needs;

Work autonomously and collaboratively withinthe MDT, providing consultation for other agencies/professionals;

Promote the safeguarding and welfare ofchildren and young people.

Toprovide routine and urgent assessment and interventions to young people with awide range of emotional and psychological problems who are referred tospecialist CAMHS, in keeping with evidence based practice with supervision froma senior clinician within professional guidelines and within the overallframework of the teams policies and procedures.

KEY RESULT AREAS:

1. To support theongoing process of delivering a comprehensive CAMHS system.
2. To provideassessment, interventions, therapy to children, young people with the mostsevere, complex and persistent mental health problems, including those whoare severely mentally ill or at suicidal risk and where appropriate, familiesas both an autonomous practitioner and as part of a multidisciplinary team ina variety of settings to address need. This will include working with theCAPA model.
3. To apply a soundknowledge of safeguarding children and guidelines in clinical work.
4. To be committedto a quality approach for patient care.
5. Thepost-holder will demonstrate high levels of concentration and provide sustainedeffort in assessment of complex family issues.
6. Tomanage own caseload, accessing support and guidance appropriate to individualneed.
7. To operate within the clinical and case managementsupervision framework.
8. To provide training, consultation and supervision toother service providers, partner agencies and junior members of staff asrequired regarding intensive interventions with children, young people andfamilies.
9. To participate in the development, audit andreview of this extension to existing service provision.
10. To undertake extended hours of work alongside fellowspecialist CAMHS practitioners.
11. To work collaboratively with all services to providecoherent and co-ordinated mental health services for children and youngpeople as well as other significant partners, ensuring timely transition andrelevant consultation, training and support to universal services andtargeted groups.
12. To use a range of Information Technology systems(including Rio) ensuring high quality data is collected appropriately, keptsecurely and confidentially
13. To participate in an agreed clinical audit programmefor the service, and ensure lessons learnt from both audit and clinicalincidents are reported.
14. To comply with both clinical and corporate governanceframeworks.
15. Tosupport the engagement of service stakeholders and users in the developmentand monitoring of service delivery and identify opportunities for serviceimprovement and redesign.
16. To actively promote user/carer involvement in allaspects of care planning/delivery whilst respecting the rights, capabilitiesand wishes of the individuals concerned.
17. To work in an innovative andchild, young person and family centred way, in a culture of continuousimprovement and learning.
18. Apply Trust policies and procedures in instances ofaggression, acute distress and disturbed mental health presentations.
19. To maintain relevant professional registration
20. To identify and communicate any concerns through the relevant management processes.
21. To demonstrate continued practice development andengage in annual appraisal.

For full job description, please see attached supportingdocuments.

Training

• Training and experience relating to specialist CAMHS
• Experience of delivering training to others

Special Knowledge/Skills

• Good verbal and communication skills
• Ability to manage own caseload
• Good negotiation skills, and problem solving skills
• Effective record keeping and report writing skills to include care planning and risk assessments.
• Have good team working skills. Be able to work across disciplines with an ability to predict and manage inter-disciplinary tensions and foster good working practices.

Qualifications

• Relevant professional qualification, e.g. nursing, or other professional allied to medicine
• Dip SW or relevant mental health profession
• Membership of professional body
• Post graduate qualification in mental health (e.g. CBT, Family Therapy, Counselling)
• A teaching and assessing qualification.

Experience

• Substantial post qualification experience, some of which must be working with Children, young people and their carers in a mental health or other complex care setting
• Multidisciplinary team working
• Inter-agency liaison and consultation
• Experience of supervising/mentoring junior staff
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance e.g. NHS plan, Mental Health Legislation, Childrens act, Education Act, Working Together, Childrens NSF, Every Child Matters, etc.
• Clinical/therapeutic knowledge and skills in mental health.
• Experience in assessment and risk management and ability to implement evidence based practice
• Proven ability to work with other agencies and disciplines and in partnership with other organisations.
• Experience of safeguarding children and young people.
• Experience of community settings
• Experience of working in different cultural contexts
• Knowledge and experience of working with Equality and Diversity.

Personal Attributes

• Able to work autonomously and as part of a team
• Commitment to multi-agency approach
• Ability to work and make decisions under pressure.
• Calm, confident, innovative, creative
• and assertive
• Clarity of decision making
• Willingness to be flexible and adaptable in accordance with changing service priorities.
• Commitment to challenging discrimination and improving accessibility of services.
• Ability to cope calmly in a crisis
• To demonstrate good self care and encourage the same in team members
• A Current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability)

Physical Attributes

• Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).

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.

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust