Clinical Team Leader

Colegio Santa Teresa del Niño Jesús - Martínez - Buenos Aires; London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000

Job description

Welcome to CNWL Mental Health Inpatient Services for Children and Young People. Lavender Walk is an inpatient unit looking after children and young people aged 13 -18. We are looking to recruit a Clinical Team Leader for a fixed term 12 month contract from all nursing backgrounds to broaden and develop the experience and skill mix available to young people at Lavender Walk.

We need innovative, dynamic people interested in developing their leadership skills in a supportive and highly skilled team. There will be opportunities to develop your therapeutic skills with our psychology, family therapy and occupational therapy leads.

Set in the heart of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, Lavender Walk is a Tier 4 Adolescent Unit which aims to provide a comprehensive assessment, diagnosis and treatment package, for young people with mental health conditions whose level of need can no longer be met safely in the community. We work collaboratively with the patients, their family and carers, and local voluntary services.

We appreciate that not everyone has provided care for young people, but if you’re a Registered Paediatric, General, Mental Health or Learning Disabilities Nurse, with experience of working on a ward, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re passionate about young people’s mental health outcomes, and strive to deliver first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care. Here at Lavender Walk you will be supporting young people to build resilience, better coping strategies and healthy relationships.

Who are we?

The team consists of two consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists, junior doctors, nurses, psychologists, occupational therapists, family therapists, support workers, a ward manager and matron. We also have a fantastic on-site school with an outstanding team of teachers and visiting tutors for music, art therapy and drama therapy.

What do we do?

We work closely with young people and their families to understand their problems, provide a comprehensive assessment, diagnosis, formulation and treatment plan to allow for them to return to their homes safely as quickly as possible. We treat a wide variety of psychiatric illnesses such as psychosis, mania, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and post traumatic stress disorder. We don’t currently treat young people with primary eating disorders or those requiring naso-gastric tubes.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working in our healthcare settings.

CNWL have a pioneering history improving health outcomes in people’s lives, by providing physical and mental health services at GPs, clinics, hospitals, and in the community.

We understand that staff are the heartbeat of our organisation, and offer substantial range of benefits locally, in addition to the standard NHS discounts.

We take flexible working seriously, and will always be open to discussion to meet our workforces competing work life demands.

Our base is in the Chelsea area, next to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Thanks to the heavy NHS influence many local cafes, restaurants and bars give discounts at 10-20% to all NHS staff. As well as Better Gym offering a 50% discount to all staff.

Typical tasks for this role:

1. To support the ward manager in leading day-to-day running of the ward.
2. To lead on nursing feedback in ward round and other professional meetings.
3. To take on the Primary Nurse role for individual young people.
4. To assist in the development of junior staff and act as a role model to them.
5. To ensure the provision of excellent, evidence-based nursing care for the children, young people (CYP) and their families at all times.
6. To put children, young people, their families and carers at the centre of everything we do.
7. To ensure the provision of a welcoming, caring, clean and safe environment for the CYP and their families.
8. Recognising escalation in behaviour or shift in ward dynamics and proactively address this with staff or young people.
9. Monitoring observations and ensuring safe practice and act appropriately and in line with unit procedure.
10. Supervising junior staff and students to ensure the delivery of safe and effective care.

For further details / informal visits contact:

Name: Lucy Cooper
Job title: Ward Matron
Email address:

Additional contact information: Please contact during working hours Monday- Friday to discuss post.

Person specification

Education/ Qualifications:

Essential criteria
Maximum score 4
Registered Mental Health Nurse at degree or diploma level.
NMC Registered Nurse (Child) (or Registered Nurse) relevant to area of practice CAMHS Mental Health

Desirable criteria
Maximum score 4
Degree level qualification
NVQ D32/33 Assessors course

Experience/Skills

Essential criteria
Maximum score 12
Teaching, supervision and managerial experience of coordinating and managing patient care
Knowledge of mental disorder, child development, mental health law and legislation and the nursing process
Understanding of professional and current issues in children’s and mental health nursing.
Understanding of resource management, health and safety, clinical risk and quality issues
Handling safeguarding issues according to Trust policies and procedures
Understanding or evidence of fulfilling PREP requirements for Revalidation Awareness of equality and diversity

Desirable criteria
Maximum score 4
Experience of working in a mental health setting post-registration
Basic counselling skills

Special Aptitudes/Abilities:

Essential criteria
Maximum score 8
Demonstrates an understanding of and empathy to the needs of children & young people
Ability to effectively communicate with children, young people and their parents
Ability to effectively communicate with other professionals, in person and on the phone
Basic understanding of budget and resource management

Desirable criteria
Maximum score 2
Ability to understand and work with challenging behaviour

Personal Characteristics:

Essential criteria
Maximum score 10
A genuine interest in working within this specialism.
A good level of fitness and mobility
Shows evidence of common sense, tolerance and empathy
Shows a mature, accepting warm attitude
Demonstrates professionalism (in accordance with the NMC Code of Conduct) and good interpersonal relationships at all times.