Specialist CAMHS Practitioner

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust’s Bromley CAMHS NDLD team seeks a skilled clinician to assess and treat neurodevelopmental needs in children and young people. The role involves delivering individual and group interventions, and contributing to evidence-based pathways for CYP within Bromley CAMHS.

The post offers opportunities for professional development, collaboration with families and partner agencies, and involvement in training relevant to NDLD for ongoing service improvement.

Qualifications

• Experience working with children and young people (CYP) who are neurodiverse, including ASD or ADHD.
• Ability to work sensitively with families from diverse backgrounds and settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist assessment of referrals with complex needs to formulate and implement treatment plans for CYP.
• Assess CYP and families as part of risk assessment.
• Collaborate with parents/carers as part of treatment planning.
• Deliver individual and group interventions adapted for NDLD needs and use evidence-based approaches.
• Coordinate care plans and lead multi-professional network meetings when required.
• Offer consultation and guidance to other professionals within the service and partner agencies.

Job description

Job overview

Bromley Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

A very exciting opportunity has arisen to join our enthusiastic and supportive Bromley CAMHS Learning Disabilities and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDLD) Team.

The NDLD team is the base for a variety of professional disciplines with a wide range of professional experience, of which the post holder will contribute. The post holder will offer assessment, formulation and evidence-based intervention for children and young people (CYP) within the NDLD pathway and the successful applicant will have experience working with young people who have a diagnosis of Autism (ASD) or Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), families and partner agencies.

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The post holder will be required to utilise specialist skills to deliver both individual and group interventions, adapted flexibly and creatively for CYP with mental needs. The NDLD Team consists of a diverse client group as well as the opportunity to work with a range of clinical presentations.

This post offers great potential for the candidate to pursue specialist interests and develop skills, including opportunities for trainings relevant to their field and to contribute to further development of evidence-based pathways for CYP within Bromley CAMHS.

Bromley CAMHS is developing its service, with focus on improving services and the collective wellbeing for our Children, Young People, Families and Staff.

Bromley CAMHS is working towards incorporating the Thrive framework, a nationally recognised approach, to help us deliver timely, responsive and needs based mental health interventions for the children and young people in Bromley. Bromley is a place where every child and young person can achieve their full potential. We all recognise and value the importance of promoting good mental health and building resilience in children,& young people.

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. To provide a specialist assessment of referrals of a significant and complex nature in order to formulate and implement plans for the treatment and/or management of a child’s or adolescent’s mental health problems who are neurodiverse, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework and employing methods based upon evidence. To use routine outcome measures as laid down by the Trust.
2. To assess children, adolescents and their families as part of a risk assessment.
3. To consult to parents/carers (including foster parents) as part of a treatment plan.
4. To work in ways which are sensitive to and appropriate for the needs of families from a wide range of racial, cultural and religious backgrounds. This includes abilities to understand and offer therapeutic interventions to a variety of family forms including single parents, same sex couples and their wider family networks, accommodated children and their network of care, children with learning difficulties, and children who are on the ‘Child Protection Register’, and parents with mental health difficulties. Competence is required in undertaking systemic therapy with families through the use of an interpreter where families do not yet have sufficient understanding of the English language.
5. To practice in a way which is inclusive and considerate of the needs of each individual in the system including family members in their varying developmental stages and current emotional state.
6. To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options taking into account highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the child, family or group, and their difficulties.
7. To exercise full autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, and formulate effective care plans in collaboration with the client and family. To undertake risk assessment and risk management relevant to individual patients, including protective and risk factors present in the network of significant relationships, and to do this using the knowledge of the multi professional context that is a mental health service for the locality.
8. To work jointly and collaboratively with other team members in order to enhance and develop work with families by providing specialist knowledge and skills.
9. To provide specialist consultation, advice and guidance to other professionals at all levels working with families both within the service and in partner agencies. This will include liaison and working with professional networks involved with highly complex, emotive and often conflictual issues such as those involving child protection, deliberate self harm, violence, trauma, suicide risk, criminal offending behaviour, sexualised behaviour, and mental health problems of parents.
10. To maintain current knowledge of the operation of video equipment and promote ethical and effective use in line with Directorate policy. To introduce this practice to families in a sensitive way, and to advise and instruct clinicians in other disciplines and systemic psychotherapy trainees on the fitting and appropriate use of this therapeutic tool. To use video tape review to enhance the skills of colleagues and to help parents understand their family’s difficulties, dilemmas, and traumatic experiences.
11. To act as care coordinator, as required, taking responsibility for initiating, planning and review of care plans and giving consideration to the views of patients, their family, carers, referring agents and other professionals involved in the network of care. This includes organising complex professional network meetings.
12. To work in accordance with CAMHS and team objectives by adhering to Trust and Directorate policies, including risk assessment in all work, ensuring care plans are in place, recording up to date, attending and contributing a systemic view in case discussion and team meetings.
13. To be an active member of the professional clinic.
14. To contribute to overall service delivery and development as required.
15. To attend monthly professional’s meetings and team meetings.

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that welcomes and supports individuals of all abilities. Remember, if you meet the minimum criteria for this role and you have a disability, you can be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme.

If you have declared you are part of the armed forces community, you may be asked to provide evidence during the recruitment process. If you misrepresent this information, your offer may be withdrawn. For Armed Forces specific support, see our webpage: https://oxleas.nhs.uk/armed-forces-community/

We monitor applications for any behaviour that could create an unfair advantage, and we check all references carefully. You are likely to be tested on your experience at interview, so be honest and make sure all the information in your application is correct.