CAMHS CWP Specialist Practitioner

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

The Lewisham CAMHS Children's Wellbeing Service (CWP) is an early intervention service designed to help meet the mental health needs of children and young people with mild to moderate mental health difficulties.

Our service is underpinned by the principles of The Children and Young People's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme (CYP IAPT), which aims to improve existing children and young people's Mental Health Services working in the community.

Value and facilitate authentic participation of young people, parents, carers, and communities at all levels of the service.

Provide evidence-based practice and are flexible and adaptive to changes in evidence.

Are committed to raising awareness of mental health issues in children and young people, and are active in decreasing the stigma around mental ill-health.

Demonstrate accountability by adopting rigorous monitoring of the clinical outcomes of the service.

Actively work to improve access and engagement with services.

Main duties of the job

Lewisham CWP Service is expanding and therefore looking for a passionate CAMHS practitioner to strengthen our early intervention offer for Lewisham children, young people, and their families. As a post holder, you will have some caseload and direct patient contact work. You will also be responsible for supporting and supervising Children's Wellbeing Practitioners, trainees, and CAMHS practitioners, as well as managing the delivery of the CWP Service:

• Supporting trainees and Children Wellbeing Practitioners to deliver evidence-based interventions for mild to moderate mental health difficulties, including ensuring the quality of care and safeguarding risks.

The post holder will play an important role in bridging with other internal and external colleagues from other services, working in a multidisciplinary team in a diverse community, and assisting CWP Services to develop better services in response to community needs. This includes overseeing group intervention, using data to monitor performance, and spotting the need for change.

The post holder will use their specialist intervention skills to work with children and young people who exceed the threshold for guided self-help but meet the i-TRIVE Getting Help domain criteria.

About us

Lewisham CAMHS Service

The Directorate is committed to a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, 4 tiered Service and has been at the forefront, nationally, of developments at Tiers 1 and 2 with Child Mental Health Specialists based in the community and working in GP practices, schools, and Early Years Centres. Lewisham CAMHS has teams based on three locations, including Horizon, the Neuro-developmental Team, and the Paediatric Liaison Service.

Job responsibilities

Clinical and Client Care

• Manage day-to-day clinical risks and clinically advise team members on courses of action.
• Enhance accessibility to GP Youth Clinic and mental health services for CYP in Lewisham.
• Provide specialist psychosocial assessments, formulations, and interventions for CYP.
• Support and empower children, young people, and families to make informed choices about the intervention.
• Support CYP experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties and their families in the self-management of presenting difficulties through evidence-based interventions.
• Work in partnership with families to provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions.
• Assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• Act as care co-ordinator sharing responsibility for the oversight of cases within the CWP that require step up to Specialist CAMHS.
• Provide support for CWP and others in using CYP IAPT compliant routine outcome measures.
• Ensure clear objectives are identified, discussed, and reviewed with CWPs on a regular basis as part of their continuing professional development.
• Develop and help deliver workshops, groups for children and young people or parents in communities.
• Provide consultation and training to other professionals in the GP clinic.

Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• Ensure that the staff and service take account of service user views in their day-to-day practice and respect diversity.
• Contribute to the effective functioning of the team and service through innovative evidence-based clinical practice.
• Contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• Be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• Advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.
• Liaise with referrers, GPs, and other professionals concerned with clients to develop and review care plans.
• Utilise theory, evidence-based literature, and research to support evidence-based practice.
• Work in partnership with other CAMHS teams, third parties, and GPs to increase accessibility to services.

Policy and service development

• Implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and propose improvements.
• Contribute to service development through appropriate projects related to the CWP Team and GP youth clinic.
• Contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services.

Care or management of resources

• Take care of, and use carefully, the Trust's equipment and physical resources.
• Ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

Management and supervision

• Share day-to-day responsibility for the quality of delivery of clinical care with the Service Manager and other colleagues.
• Provide clinical supervision for junior colleagues of the team.
• Ensure that conditions of service and HR procedures are followed within the team.
• Contribute to the effective functioning of the team and service through chairing/leading relevant meetings.
• Deputise for the service lead or other clinicians in case supervision, assessment, and review clinics.
• Comply with the trust and professional standards of conduct, performance, and ethics.

Teaching and Training

• Ensure that the team has a learning environment conducive for CAMHS trainees, oversee placements, and provide supervision.
• Undertake teaching and training within the CWP.
• Develop and deliver training for members of the community.
• Contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the CWP service.

Record-keeping and Information Governance

• Ensure that team members follow systems of safe practice and operational policies are adhered to.
• Ensure that all recording and reporting of client contact is accurate and up to date.
• Monitor and improve the standard of service delivery of the team through clinical governance procedures.

Research and development

• Establish and maintain evidence-based practice including the development of relevant evidence-based treatments.
• Implement new service protocols, audit, and development.
• Initiate and carry out appropriate research where appropriate.

Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• Receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior clinician.
• Ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with professional and Trust requirements.
• Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice.

General

• Travel as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• Be aware of risks relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour among the client group.
• Respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Doctorate or MSc qualification in Clinical Psychology, Child Psychotherapy, or Family Therapy/Systemic Psychotherapy with extensive experience in using CBT as a treatment modality.
• Healthcare Professional (HCP) professional registration NMC, HPC/HCPC, ACP, BPS, or UKCP.
• Min 2 years CAMHS experience - NHS, private, or 3rd sector service.
• Formal DBT training and/or training in parenting intervention provision.
• Experience in design and delivery of Workshops, groups, and interventions to patient target audience.
• Formal training in clinical supervision, Pg Cert IAPT Supervision (CWP) or equivalent experience.

Experience

• Experience and ability to function as a specialist practitioner in CAMHS.
• Experience of working as a case manager in CAMHS using evidence-based practice.
• Evidence of good practice in CAMHS assessments including assessing risk, behaviour, performance, and family functioning.
• Evidence of providing culturally adapted CAMHS interventions.
• Evidence of experience of clinical governance, Outcome Measures, and audits.
• Experience of undertaking qualitative and quantitative research methodology.

Knowledge / Skills

• A good working knowledge of typical mental health disorders in CYP.
• Ability to assess and manage risk utilising appropriate safeguards.
• The information governance and new rules around GDPR as it relates to clinical confidentiality.
• Evidence of competency in clinical judgement.
• Ability to work to short deadlines and be innovative.
• Knowledge of the principles of clinical governance and CAMHS practice.
• Evidence of organisational skills to deliver targets and meet deadlines.
• Good IT skills and able to manage digital resources.

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 to check for any previous criminal convictions.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

£54,320 to £60,981 a year inclusive of Inner HCAs

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working, Compressed hours