Senior Mental Health Practitioner - CAMHS

Transformation Unit; High Wycombe; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days annual leave

NHS discount

Lease car scheme

Cycle to work

Staff development

Job summary

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Buckinghamshire CAMHS in High Wycombe is recruiting for a Senior Mental Health Practitioner (Band 6) to deliver high-quality mental health care to children and young people and their families.

You will conduct initial assessments, provide psycho-educational advice, supervision, and contribute to service development within the Specialist Intervention and Recovery Support team.

Qualifications

• Professional registration as a mental health clinician (NMC/HCPC).
• Postgraduate qualification in a therapeutic modality (e.g. CBT).
• Experience coordinating caseloads and delivering child/adolescent services.

Responsibilities

• Perform initial assessments and plan care for children/young people.
• Provide psycho-educational advice and practical support to families.
• Lead and supervise team members; contribute to service development.
• Deliver evidence-based interventions within a recovery-focused approach.

Skills

Risk assessment

Caseload management

Communication

Leadership supervision

Education

Mental Health Nurse (NMC)

HCPC / NMC registration

Postgraduate in therapeutic modality (IAPT CBT)

Job description

Main area CAMHS Grade Band 6 Contract Permanent Hours

• Full time
• Part time

37.5 hours per week (Full and part time hours will be considered) Job ref 267-BM8385599

Employer Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Saffron House Town High Wycombe Salary £39,959 - £48,117 Per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 25/11/2026 23:59

Band 6

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.

We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Good luck and we hope to hear from you.

Job overview

With a big national focus on improving services for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, there has never been a better time to join Oxford Health - Buckinghamshire CAMHS and make a positive difference to children and young people’s life chances.

You need to be a Mental Health Nurses, Occupational Therapists and Social Workers interested to join our fantastic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service based in High Wycombe, Bucks. You will deliver a high quality, comprehensive mental health service for children, young people and their families who are experiencing mental health difficulties.

Main duties of the job

As a Senior Mental Health Practitioner you will be responsible for initial assessments, delivery and evaluation of care and providing psycho-educational advice and practical support to young people and their families by drawing on evidence- based interventions and using a collaborative, recovery focused approaches.

This post is based in our Specialist Intervention and Recovery Support part of their service; previously known as Getting More Help. Risk assessment and management including the need for positive risk taking is an important part of the role. You will contribute to the clinical leadership of the team, providing supervision for other team members and participate in the team service development and evaluation.

Working for our organisation

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust provides physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible

Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive:“Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”

Our values are:“Caring, safe and excellent”

At Oxford Health we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:

• Excellent opportunities for career progression
• Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
• 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
• NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
• Lease car scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists may apply)
• Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Bucks CAMHS team are an innovative and supportive multi-disciplinary team. We have a strong ethos around staff well-being and ensuring a wide range of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities are available to everyone. We offer robust clinical and caseload supervision to facilitate a supportive working environment.

This is a varied and rewarding role within a highly supportive team. Clinical Supervision and CPD are priorities for the service.

Part time hours will be considered.

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.

The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview, and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.

We are aware that some candidates may choose to use AI tools to support their application. We kindly remind applicants that submissions should remain an honest and accurate representation of their experience and must take care to ensure the use of AI tools does not generate an application that does not accurately reflect their knowledge, skills and values.

Person specification

Qualification

• Relevant professional mental health qualification as Mental Health Nurse, Occupational Therapist, Social Worker
• Current registration with relevant professional body: NMC or HCPC
• Evidence of continuous professional development
• Post graduate qualification in therapeutic modality e.g. IAPT CBT

Experience

• Experience of being a Care coordinator or managing a case load
• Working knowledge of community services.
• Working with children, young people and families

Knowledge and further training/skills

• Risk assessment and management skills, particularly in relation to Safeguarding children and young people
• Caseload Management
• Effective communicator with patients, carers and staff
• Knowledge and experience of a range of evidence-based interventions i.e. motivational interviewing, solution focused therapy and a psychological therapy (i.e. CBT/DBT)
• All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
• Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
• We’re advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
• Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
• We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
• We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
• Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Megan Wale Job title Service Manager Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 01865 901325 Additional information

At Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust we want to employ people not just with experience, but with the aptitude and motivation to succeed and whose values resonate with our own.

Therefore, if you don’t meet all the requirements of the role and are unsure about applying but are excited about the opportunity, please do get in touch. We will be happy to discuss the requirements in more detail ahead of making a written application.