Senior Mental Health Practitioner - Parent Infant Specialist

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust; Heywood; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health service is seeking a specialist practitioner to support the development and delivery of a local parent-infant mental health service. The role involves providing assessments and therapeutic interventions, enhancing workforce skills, and developing care pathways. Ideal candidates will have a relevant professional qualification and extensive experience in therapeutic work with families and young children.

Qualifications

• Extensive post-qualifying experience working therapeutically with families and young children.
• Experience in assessing and intervening clinically around child protection issues.
• Knowledge of Child Safeguarding issues and familiarity with local and national child protection procedures.

Responsibilities

• Delivery of service provision within a high needs pathway focusing on vulnerable families.
• Provide specialist assessments and therapeutic interventions to enhance parent-infant relationships.
• Engage in clinical audits and provide consultation and training to professionals.

Skills

Assessment

Therapeutic intervention

Communication

Collaboration

Education

Relevant Core Professional qualification in mental health or social care

Educated to masters level or equivalent

Job description

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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For detailed information please see attached Job Description

The postholder will work as a specialist practitioner supporting the development and delivery of the local parent infant mental health service, as well as taking a role in promoting and raising awareness of parent infant mental health in the local area. The role will focus on:
• offering assessment, therapeutic intervention and consultation to support the mental health and relationships of infants and their parents/carers
• enhancing knowledge, skills and confidence in the local workforce through training, consultation, supervision and promotion
• taking a lead on developing relationships and care pathways between our service and other key services in the area depending on postholder's area of expertise, e.g children's social care, adult mental health.
• contribute to service development and evaluation to ensure we are providing a modern, inclusive and effective service to local families.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Clinical:
• Delivery of service provision within the parameters of a high needs pathway,
focusing on vulnerable families especially during the perinatal period up until the child's 2nd birthday in a multi-agency context.
• To provide specialist assessments of parents, infants and young children
referred to the service, using interpretation and integration of data from a variety of sources including self-report measures, direct and indirect
observation and interviews with clients, family members and/or carers. In
direct therapeutic work, provide specialist assessment and therapeutic
interventions focused on enhancing the relationship between a parent and infant. This therapeutic work requires empathy, understanding and the ability to contain difficult and highly expressed emotions in the parent and infant.
• To formulate and implement plans for therapeutic intervention and
management from the point of referral in coordination with the multi disciplinary team.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of parent-infant interventions for families, adjusting and refining formulations.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment,
treatment and discharge of vulnerable families.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for vulnerable families and their infants and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological and social aspects of risk assessment and management.
• To undertake organisation, collaboration and liaison with relevant professional colleagues providing a comprehensive clinical, consultative, supervisory and teaching service as required internally or on an outreach basis.
• Carry out clinical audits of service performance, including service user
surveys and evaluations, and help to collate and disseminate the results for feedback, as required or directed.
• To provide consultation and training on a wide range of children's emotional health and well-being issues to professionals from a range of services including GP's, Children's Social Care, Maternity, Early Help, Adult Mental Health Services, NICU and Health Visiting.
• To engage in/deliver managerial and clinical supervision.
• Work as a co-therapist where appropriate with other members of PIMH service and CAMHS.
• To be responsible for and manage a defined caseload and undertake case management responsibilities within the caseload.
• Make decisions on suitability of new referrals, adhering to the service referral protocols.
• Use highly developed communication skills in working with vulnerable parents and their infants to understand their personal and often very sensitive difficulties.
• Educate and involve family members and others in treatment as necessary conveying formulations with sensitivity in easily understood language.
• Adhere to an agreed number of contacts offered, and clinical sessions carried out per week in order to minimise waiting times and ensure treatment delivery remains accessible and convenient.
• To ensure and promote appropriate liaison with professionals from external agencies, particularly in relation to complex presentations.
• To directly support colleagues in assessment and treatment of parent infant mental health where appropriate.

Person specification

Work Related circumstances

Essential criteria

• Use of a car or access to a means of mobility to travel across the Trust footprint in line with service needs
• Willing to carry out all duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with the Trust's Equal Opportunities and Equality and Diversity policies

Education / qualification

Essential criteria

• Relevant Core Professional qualification in mental health or social care, or clinical psychology, or child & adolescent psychotherapy or Health Visiting plus evidence of continued professional development in a CAMHS related area Evidence of professional registration and continued professional development Educated to masters level or equivalent demonstrable experience.

Desirable criteria

• Management qualification (MBA, DMS, NVQ Level 4, Care management)
• Additional specialist post-qualifications in parent infant mental health and child mental health and/or attachment.

Expereince

Essential criteria

• Extensive demonstrable post qualifying experience of working therapeutically with families and young children.
• Substantial experience of working with families with young children and infants presenting with emotional difficulties, including, family relationship problems.
• Experience of attachment assessment, formulation and treatment of children and families across a range of care settings.
• Experience of assessing and intervening clinically around child protection issues
• Working in a MDT setting.
• Managing a caseload and associated professional activities under supervision.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision and line management to team members.
• Experience of teaching and liaising with other professional groups, using a wide variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Experience in developing formulations with children and families with complex needs.
• Experience of clinically supervising the work of others

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working with families in a wide range of settings.
• Experience of working in a mental health care setting with families and young children.
• Working in a service where agreed targets are in lace demonstrating clinical outcomes
• Working in adult mental health

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge of Child Safeguarding issues and familiarity with local and national child protection procedures.
• Knowledge of the systemic, developmental and psychological issues within the context of young people in care.
• Specific theoretical knowledge related to social work and families
• Sound knowledge of changing trends within health and social care.
• Knowledge of assessment and care planning process and procedures in families with young
• Understanding of principles and methods of clinical audit research and service evaluation.
• Understanding of attachment and emotional development in young children and parents
• Knowledge and understanding of infant and child development and adult mental health
• Knowledge of infant, child & adolescent development and of family functioning.
• Knowledge of psychological therapies to younger children and to those who are hard to reach.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations and National Policies in relation to infants, young children and families.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies in working with infants, young children and families with attachment and/or mental health difficulties.
• Knowledge and understanding the perinatal period and the impact on attachment and mental health during this period.

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• Ability to work in partnership with service users, carers, colleagues and other agencies
• Substantial experience in performing complex assessments, intervention and management of cases as a practitioner working with infants, young children and families. Frequently, this will require sustained and intense concentration.
• Ability to develop packages of care based on assessed needs.
• Ability to develop and deliver interventions both individually and systemically at various levels, including adapting communication to meet the needs of infants and young children, staff teams or carers as well as being able to write complex, highly technical reports to families and professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS and CSC.
• Ability to identify and manage risk in individuals presenting with mental health needs.
• Ability to provide and receive complex sensitive or contentious information often within a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere.
• Ability to work with families who are very resistant to change.
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing, complex, technical and sensitive information to young children, and families/carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Ability to work autonomously and to use initiative
• Confidence in the use of IT skills to be able to navigate and contribute to the design of databases for recording clinical work as well as providing reports for commissioners and managers.
• Ability to manage change and motivate staff
• Ability to be self reflective whilst working with service users, in own personal and professional development and in supervision.
• Well developed confidence, resilience and the ability to maintain a calm approach when faced with complex team dynamics and work pressures of being placed within a busy open-plan office.
• Ability to act in consultation/ Supervision/ training capacity with other professional and non professional groups.
• Ability to prioritise key tasks, and targets for intervention
• Ability to evaluate service initiatives for effectiveness/ outcome.
• Ability to work as a member of a team within and beyond organisational boundaries.
• Ability to keep accurate activity data for audit/evaluation develop and audit the effectiveness of protocols.
• Ability to work strategically to develop the high needs pathway.
• Ability to work collaboratively with staff from other agencies to meet targets and objectives of the pathway and the vulnerable families cohort.

Desirable criteria

• Service development or project management skills

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

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.

Documents to download

• Job Description (PDF, 126.8KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 130.8KB)
• Policy Statement on Recruitment of Ex-Offenders (PDF, 117.0KB)