Senior Mental Health Practitioner

North West Borough Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Liverpool; On-site; GBP 34,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust invites applications for a Children and Young People’s Mental Health Practitioner in Knowsley. You will join a multidisciplinary team diagnosing and treating mental health concerns in children and young people, managing a caseload and coordinating care with families and external agencies.

The role supports the THRIVE approach, involves risk assessments and safeguarding, and offers flexible working options where possible.

Qualifications

• Must hold EMHP, CYWP or PWP qualification.
• Experience with children and young people’s mental health.
• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Hold a caseload of children and young people with a range of mental health needs.
• Undertake assessments, formulation and treatment planning.
• Work using the THRIVE framework and safeguarding processes.
• Collaborate with families and other professionals to coordinate care.

Skills

Communication skills

CBT knowledge

Teamwork

Education

CYWP/EMHP

Job description

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.

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Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our Children and Young People's Mental Health Service in Knowsley.

We are a multi disciplinary team consisting of psychiatrists, nurses, psychologists, therapists and support workers who assess, treat and signpost referrals received for children and young people displaying mental health difficulties.

The successful candidate will be a key part of the multidisciplinary team, with caseload management responsibilities. They should have excellent communication skills to communicate with both internal and external professionals along with the young people and families that we work with.

Knowsley CYPMHS is part of the THRIVE offer within Knowsley and the successful candidate will hold a key role in ensuring the effective use of this.

We look forward to welcoming the successful candidate to our team which has recently won Team of the Month within Mersey Care and a Good Plus QRV result.

Main duties of the job

• To hold a caseload of both specialist and generic work dependant on clinical competence and experience.
• Undertake assessments, treatment and consultation work based upon a conceptual framework and employing research-based evidence.
• Provide direct therapeutic interventions dependent on clinical competence and experience in line with the grading of the post, including assessments, formulation and therapeutic input into children, young people and families referred into the service.
• Undertake risk assessments and care plans accordingly, in line with the THRIVE framework.
• To be responsible for the screening of referrals to children and Young People's service.
• To exercise responsibility and autonomy, within supervisory, managerial and accountability structures, for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients.
• To deliver care co-ordination, ensuring effective assessment, care planning and risk management processes are maintained. Involve the views of children, their families, referring agents and other professionals involved in the network of care including organising multi-agency meetings.
• To work jointly and collaboratively with other team members in order to enhance and develop the provision of services to young people and their families.
• Identify and respond appropriately to child protection issues, as described with the guidelines of Local Safeguarding Children's Board and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust safeguarding policies.

Working for our organisation

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To engage with using routine outcome measures as clinically appropriate including their use in clinical practice and inputting data into clinical record
• To work collaboratively with children, young people and their families and contribute to the trust's service user participation agenda.
• Work in partnership to deliver a range of mental health interventions. This may involve group work or direct work with children/young people as well as offering specialist mental health-based consultation, and advice around men tal health.
• Be responsible and ensure the effective co-ordination of clinical care provided including consideration to safeguarding and clinical risk issues where indicated
• Work with clinical staff to identify children and young people with emerging mental health needs.
• If working within MHST, Providing supervision and caseload management to the new EMHP (dependent on clinical competence and experience)
• Participate in MDT discussion within relevant locality including waiting list management contribution.
• Work in partnership with young people and their families to inform assessment, need and rationale for treatment intervention.
• To work collaboratively with team members and supervisors to ensure safe working practice and positive outcomes for children and young people.
• To follow safeguarding processes as appropriate or required.
• When working within MHSTs the post holder will be expected to lead on engagement and participation events/activities hosted by the team and support delivery of the whole school approach offer by the team.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Must have one of the following: Education Mental Health Practitioner Graduate (EMHP) or Post Graduate Qualification
• Children and Young Persons Wellbeing Practitioner (CYWP) Graduate or Post Graduate Qualification
• Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP) Graduate or Post Graduate Qualification
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapies Post Graduate Certificate/Diploma and where applicable hold a professional registration with the relevant accrediting body or be able to evidence ability to undertake this within 12 months of commencing in post. Registration must be maintained throughout employment OR
• Core Professional Qualification in one of the following areas: - Nursing - Social Work - Occupational Therapy

Desirable criteria

• Senior CYWP Qualification
• Senior EMHP Qualification
• PWP Supervision Qualification

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge and skills in the complete range of approaches within the field as required to meet the needs of different patients and settings
• Level of knowledge of the mental health needs of children and adolescents
• Have experience in providing risk assessments
• Knowledge of legislation and strategic frameworks and their implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the full range of client groups

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist therapies in specific difficult to treat groups
• A level knowledge of theory and practice of specialist therapy / interventions
• Knowledge of consultation to other professionals and non-professional groups
• Knowledge of research design and methodology consistent with practice to at least Degree level or equivalent
• Level of knowledge and/or training and other psychological therapies

Skills

Essential criteria

• Skilled in the ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing, clinical sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Must demonstrate ability to be self-reflective and to organise own supervision appropriately
• Ability to work within a culturally diverse community in a wide variety of contexts including highly specialist skills for working in settings outside the clinic
• Ability to take full clinical responsibility for patient care and treatment, both as a care co-ordinator and within the context of a multi-disciplinary team
• Interpersonal skills of a high level to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, in order to convey clinically sensitive information to family members of all ages and to a wide range of lay and professional persons, within and outside of the NHS
• Demonstrate the ability to co-ordinate and lead a multi-agency care plan / risk management plan
• Ability to identify and employ as appropriate clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice
• Demonstrate a commitment to respecting and displaying the Trust Values at all times
• A commitment to the continuous improvement of services using feedback from individual clients, families, user surveys and clinical research
• Emotional stamina, and resilience to respond constructively in highly stressful situations
• Ability to organise and co-ordinate areas of work that are complex and demanding
• Ability to identify and provide appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours
• A commitment to the continuous improvement of services using feedback from individual clients, families, user surveys and clinical research
• Ability to organise and co-ordinate areas of work that are complex and demanding

Desirable criteria

• Information technology and management skills using word processing, spreadsheets, database and presentation software
• Ability to demonstrate leadership and management skills to multi-disciplinary work

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of managing a case-load of children and young people with a range of moderate mental health needs.
• Working within a children community mental health setting
• Experience of delivering evidence-based psychological therapy e.g. CBT
• Experience of working with a wide variety of patient groups that reflect the full range of clinical severity including a high degree of professionalism in the face of emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Experienced in and the ability to undertake case management and the supervision of students as required
• Experience of providing supervision

Desirable criteria

• Experience of delivering teaching, training
• Experience of mental health assessments and therapeutic interventions with children and young people with mental health problems and their families
• Experience of providing clinical supervision
• Experience in consultation to other professional and non-professional groups