Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Riverside Unit

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust; Bristol; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000

Job description

Are you passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of young people?

We are seeking to appoint two passionate, highly motivated, and enthusiastic Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists to join the Riverside Adolescent Unit.

This is an exciting opportunity for experienced senior clinicians to provide clinical leadership, support team development, and play a key role in shaping the service ahead of its planned reopening in 2025. You will take a pivotal role in developing and delivering the clinical model, helping to ensure the service is ready to meet the needs of young people requiring specialist mental health care.

You will work as part of a skilled, multidisciplinary team dedicated to creating a centre of excellence for adolescent mental health care. The Riverside Adolescent Unit, based at Blackberry Hill Hospital in Bristol, is a General Adolescent Unit providing care for young people aged 13-18 who require intensive assessment and treatment for severe mental health difficulties that cannot be effectively managed by community CAMHS.

The unit supports a wide range of complex presentations, including psychosis, mood disorders, severe anxiety, and eating disorders. With 12 inpatient beds and 4 dedicated day programme places, the service is committed to delivering high-quality, person-centred care in a collaborative and supportive environment.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will provide direct patient care while taking on a clinical leadership role for our newly designed unit. You will be instrumental in shaping and implementing our clinical model.

Working alongside your consultant colleague, you will serve as the named consultant and responsible clinician for a proportion of young people on the unit.

You will oversee their care under the Mental Health Act, managing all aspects of the legal process, including acting as the Responsible Clinician for Mental Health Act Tribunals.

You will oversee referrals, conduct initial assessments, and respond to requests from community CAMHS for a Tier 4 opinion. In collaboration with the senior leadership team, you will contribute to the Access Assessor role for referrals within the local area.

Clinical duties will include initiating and reviewing medication, chairing CPA meetings, attending weekly ward rounds, liaising with families/carers, and linking with the community CAMHS teams (3 Bristol CAMHS teams, South Glos CAMHS and North Somerset CAMHS).

You will work as part of the Provider Collaborative for adolescent inpatient care for the South West of England. This includes regular liaison with the other 3 adolescent inpatient units within the South West and the respective intensive outreach teams, reviewing all referrals and complex presentations and providing and receiving peer support.

You will be part of the Riverside Operational Management Group.

About us

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust), a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care. We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B& NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset. Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the accompanying job description for full details on the roles and responsibilities of this post.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Fully registered with the GMC with a licence to practise at the time of appointment.
• Include on the Specialist Register or within 6 months of gaining CCT in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
• Approved clinician status OR able to achieve within 3 months of appointment.
• MB BS or equivalent medical qualification.

Desirable

• Relevant Higher Degree e.g. MD, PHD, Msc or other additional clinical qualifications
• MRCPsych or MRCPsych equivalent approved by the Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Additional clinical qualifications

Experience

Essential

• Wide breadth of clinical experience working with children and young people with mental health problems and their families
• Knowledge and evidence of participation in CPD.
• Evidence of effective multidisciplinary team involvement.
• Evidence of effective multi-agency working

Desirable

• Specific additional therapy training (e.g. Positive Behavioural Support, CBT, systemic therapy, DBT etc.)

Personal Skills

Essential

• To possess leadership skills and be able to work collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team.
• Ability to manage own time, workload and prioritise clinical work
• Able to demonstrate excellent communication skills, in order to effectively work with patients, carers and staff.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills

Clinical Skills

Essential

• Skills in psychiatric assessment, formulation and risk management (including safeguarding) as well as psychopharmacology in children, neurodevelopmental disorders and attachment difficulties.

Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding of the management skills required to function successfully as a Consultant.

Teaching

Essential

• Commitment to and experience of undergraduate and postgraduate learning and teaching.
• Understand principles of teaching.

Research & Audit

Essential

• Experience or involvement in a research project and publication.
• Ability to supervise junior medical staff undertaking research projects.
• Experience of carrying out an audit project

Management

Essential

• Evidence of management/leadership skills training.

Employer details

Employer name

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Address

Woodland View (Brentry Site)
Thornfield Road
Bristol
BS10 6NB

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

342-RVN046-SSC-PP