Specialist Mental Health Practitioner - Children in Care

NHS; Exeter; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading health organization is seeking two full-time Senior Mental Health Practitioners to support care experienced children in Exeter. This role involves specialist assessments, delivering therapeutic interventions, and providing clinical supervision within a multi-disciplinary team. Applicants should have relevant professional qualifications and experience in children's mental health. The posts are fixed-term for 8 months, offering opportunities for career development in a compassionate, supportive environment.

Benefits

Regular clinical supervision

Ongoing professional development

Qualifications

• Experience working collaboratively with service users and families.
• Experience in a multi-disciplinary team.
• Expertise in mental health assessments and therapeutic interventions.

Responsibilities

• Provide professional consultation and undertake comprehensive assessments.
• Deliver evidence-based interventions for mental health issues.
• Supervise junior staff and contribute to service development.

Skills

Collaborative work

Mental health assessment

Evidence-based interventions

Risk assessment

Supervision skills

Education

Professional training relevant to mental health

Professional registration (NMC, HCPC, etc.)

Continuous Professional Development

Job description

We are recruiting two full-time Band 7 Senior Mental Health Practitioners to join Children and Family Health Devons Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences Pathway within the Child in Care Mental Health Team. These are fixed-term posts for 8 months and offer valuable career development within an established and highly experienced service.

This is an excellent opportunity for experienced mental health professionals to take on a senior clinical role supporting care experienced children and young people with complex emotional and mental health needs.

You will provide specialist assessment, formulation, intervention and professional consultation, ensuring high-quality, evidence-based support for children, young people, their carers and associated professionals. You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team supporting presentations such as anxiety, depression, self-harm and trauma. The role includes risk assessment and management, collaborative care planning, and delivery of therapeutic interventions in line with NICE guidance. You will also provide clinical supervision, consultation and training to colleagues, supporting learning and development across the pathway.

We offer regular clinical supervision and ongoing professional development within a collaborative and supportive working environment.

If you are a dedicated and compassionate mental health professional committed to improving outcomes for care experienced children and young people, we welcome your application.

Main duties of the job

• Provide professional consultation within a multi-agency context.
• Undertake comprehensive assessments and develop collaborative care plans with children, young people, carers and associated professionals.
• Deliver evidence-based interventions including CBT, DBT-informed approaches and systemic family work.
• Manage a caseload of care experienced children and young people with moderate to severe mental health difficulties, ensuring person-centred, high-quality care.
• Work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team and liaise with wider health, education and social care partners.
• Assess and manage risk, implementing safeguarding procedures as required.
• Provide supervision and support to junior staff, trainees and multi-disciplinary colleagues.
• Contribute to service development through audit, quality improvement and participation in shaping service pathways.
• Maintain accurate clinical records and uphold professional and organisational standards.

About us

Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD) comprises an Alliance of NHS organisations working together to improve health outcomes for children and young people in Devon.

CFHD provides integrated care and treatment for children and young people across physical and mental health which are provided by Torbay and South Devon Foundation Trust and Devon Partnership Trust. We are working closely with other organisations and providers to ensure we deliver locality and county-wide based integrated access to all of our services.

CFHD works closely with our local universities of Plymouth, Exeter & the Peninsula Medical School where we support students in clinical training placements and in addition support our own staff to undertake post graduate training.

Our integrated care and treatment has been developed and refined in partnership with children, young people and their families/carers.

We would like the people who work for Children and Family Health Devon to be understanding, patient and respectful. They should be trustworthy and make us feel safe and comfortable. It is important that they use their skills and experience to listen carefully in a non-patronising and non-judgemental way. When staff are positive and friendly, they help to create an environment that is informal and without pressure.

Our vision is to be a successful, vibrant, partnership that benefits the communities we serve.

Job responsibilities

Full Vacancy details can be found on the attached Job Description/Person Specification. Please refer to your suitability to the post in your supporting information from the role requirements or person specification

Person Specification

Experience

• Experience of working collaboratively with service users and their families/carers, including using goal-based care and routine outcome measures in practice.
• Experience of working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team and across agencies
• Experience of undertaking specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions for in the area of childrens mental health, with the ability to work with complex needs and undertake risk assessments

Qualifications

• Professional knowledge acquired through degree supplemented by specialist training or equivalent experience to Masters level with a relevant core professional training e.g. Psychological profession, Nursing, Clinical Psychology, Social Work, Occupational Therapy Training in an evidence-based therapeutic approach
• Professional registration/accreditation with a recognised body, e.g. NMC, HCPC, Social Work England, UKCP, BABCP
• Training in supervision and/or leadership skills or willing to work towards
• Evidence of Continuous Professional Development

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.