Senior Mental Health Practitioner -Hillingdon CAMHS MHST

CNWL NHS Foundation Trust; City Of London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent NHS Trust in England is seeking a Senior Mental Health Practitioner to provide evidence-based interventions for children and young people. The role involves collaboration with schools and various stakeholders, focusing on mental health support in educational settings. Candidates should have relevant qualifications in mental health and experience in child and adolescent services. This position offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on young people's wellbeing within the community.

Qualifications

• Degree level qualification in Mental Health Nursing or related field.
• Experience in child and adolescent mental health.
• Ability to conduct assessments and interventions.

Responsibilities

• Providing evidence-based interventions for mental health issues.
• Forming relationships with schools to support wellbeing.
• Supervising junior staff and providing consultations.

Skills

Mental health interventions

Team collaboration

Time management

Cultural sensitivity

Education

Relevant professional qualification in Mental Health

Registered with a relevant professional body

Job description

A Vacancy at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

This role is within the Green Paper for Transforming children and young people's mental health programme. The post holder will work within a Mental Health Support Team providing short-term evidence-based interventions to children and young people with mild to moderate anxiety and depression and/or behavioural difficulties and their parent(s)/carer(s).

The post holder will work with children, young people and parents from different cultural backgrounds and ages, using interpreters when necessary and should be committed to equal opportunities.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and patients and service users when working in our healthcare settings.

The MHST works with young people with mild to moderate mental health presentations attending school/education setting in the Hillingdon area.

Purpose of the team

• Provide evidence-based interventions for mild to moderate mental health issues.
• Support the senior mental health lead in each education setting to introduce or develop their whole school or college approach.
• Give timely advice to school and college staff, and liaise with external specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.

Young people have access to the MHST through their education setting. School staff and other potential referrers are able to contact a team of clinical staff to discuss potential referrals.

The MHST will manage referrals, deal with queries, undertake clinical telephone triage and face to face assessment, give advice and signpost young people where appropriate.

Core values

Central and North West London NHS Trust expects all staff to act in a way that shows you understand our core values and are willing to put them into practice with young people, their friends, family and carers and other staff members.

We expect you to show COMPASSION, contribute to a caring and kind environment and recognise that what you do and say helps can make the lives of others better.

We expect you to RESPECT everyone and acknowledge and welcome people's differences rather than ignore them or see them as problematic.

We expect you to EMPOWER others and continually try to provide information, resources and support to help others make their own decisions and meet their own needs.

We expect you to work in PARTNERSHIP and behave in a way that shows that you recognise the importance of working collaboratively with all who come into contact with this service.

To find out more about working in CAMHS click here for our video.

Key roles and responsibilities of the Senior Mental Health Practitioner

• Forming strong working relations with a variety of stakeholders
• Working in partnership with schools/colleges and other educational settings.
• Provide training to team members and other professionals/trainees
• Supervising junior staff in the team.
• Providing consultations to education colleagues and support education settings to embed a whole school approach to wellbeing
• Developing and delivering evidence-based individual and group time-limited interventions to young people within education settings in accordance with Children and Young People's IAPT principles
• Holding a caseload of CYP with mild-moderate mental health difficulties
• Completion of thorough assessments, risk assessments, care planning and reviews.
• Ensuring that there is accurate and timely documentation to a high standard, and that Routine Outcome Measures are completed.
• Evidencing the outcomes of the MHST service and feeding back this data to key stakeholders
• Providing clinical supervision to Education Mental Health Practitioners and day to day clinical and supervisory support for the Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioners.
• Contributing to group supervision spaces within the team.
• Working as part of a senior team, supporting the Senior Clinical Supervisors and Service Development Leads to expand the service within the Harrow area and improve the quality of the service.
• Supporting and developing the interventions that can be delivered as part of the MHST within the education setting, including SEN settings.
• Appropriately raise and report safeguarding concerns where identified and to support colleagues with this process.

Patient Safety

• Safeguarding people by recognising and responding when an adult or child might be at risk from abuse but also recognising their own limits and asking for help and escalating concerns when necessary
• Escalating safety concerns and by doing so acting as effective advocates for those who use our services
• Being open and transparent about your own practice
• Identifying areas where improvements in safety or quality can be made. Report to the Team Manager any areas of concern, which may affect the safe delivery of care and/or the safe working of other members of the team.
• Working closely with others to improve services
• Maintaining accurate, legible, comprehensive records
• Maintaining compliance with your mandatory and core training requirements
• Be aware of and understand your responsibilities in relation to the Policies and Procedures regarding: • Fire • Lone Working • Health & Safety • Absence management • Report any accidents / incidents as per the reporting procedures of the service.
• Central and North West London NHS Trust is committed to providing safe, effective services and providing young people and families with a positive experience.

Person Specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential

• Relevant professional qualification in either: a.) Degree level Mental Health Nursing; Social Work; Occupational Therapy; Art Therapy; Drama Therapy; Music Therapy; LD Nursing. Or b.) Substantial consolidated experience qualified as EMHP or CWP.
• Additional qualifications or training in child and adolescent mental health gained through study
• Registered with a relevant professional body

Desirable

• Formal CBT training or Post Graduate accredited training in CBT
• Accredited courses / workshops in CYP-IAPT principles

Previous Experience and Knowledge

Essential

• Substantial consolidated experience working in child and adolescent mental health.
• Experience either working as a member of a multidisciplinary team or multi‑agency working.
• Good understanding of the range of child and adolescent mental health services and conditions
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and adolescents and safeguarding procedures and policies

Desirable

• Knowledge and experience in mental health promotion work
• Experience of working with schools to support CYP emotional wellbeing needs
• Experience running therapy groups and/or training events

Other

Essential

• Able to travel to meet the requirements of the post
• Team player
• Excellent time management and organisational skills

Desirable

• Access to car or other motor vehicle for use for work purposes.

Clinical Skills

Essential

• Ability to carry out 1:1 therapeutic mental health interventions with children and young people
• Ability to conduct mental health assessments of children and young people
• Ability to work within educational settings to increase mental health awareness within the staff group

Desirable

• Experience delivering trainings and psycho-educational workshops about mental health issues
• Experience of providing mental health consultation and signposting to education staff and other professionals.

Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding how the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards impacts on their work and the people they are working with
• Understanding the concept of quality and their role in improving safety, clinical outcomes and the patient experience

This advert closes on Wednesday 3 Dec 2025.