Senior Practitioner - Nurse/Social Worker/OT - Oxfordshire (Band 6/7) - Single Point of Access [...]

Band 6/7

Main area Single Point of Access - Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Grade Band 6/7 Contract Permanent Hours

• Full time
• Part time

37.5 hours per week (Part time hours considered)

Job ref 267-OC7063994

Site Raglan House Town Oxford

Salary £37,338 - £52,809 per annum/pro-rata - Dependent on experience

Salary period Yearly

Closing 20/04/2025 23:59

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.

We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Job overview

*Developmental Opportunity Available*

Are you a Social Worker, Occupational Therapist or Nurse?

Are you looking for a new challenge to develop your skills in working with children and mental health?

If so, come and join us within the Oxon Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Single Point of Access (SPA) team.

The SPA is the initial contact for all children, young people, families and professionals wishing to contact Oxfordshire CAMHS.

Our team provides consultation, promoting self-help approach where appropriate, giving support, advice and expertise. When required the team will identify the appropriate CAMHS pathway to provide assessment.

The aim is to make it easier to access the most appropriate help, working closely with Children’s social care, GPs, School and Health referrers, as well as local charitable services.

Please apply if you are passionate about working with children and families and have experience within mental health. You will need to have a professional qualification of Social Worker, Occupational Therapy or Nurse, we welcome applications including a range of backgrounds (including children’s, adult, learning disability).

The role would suit applicants who enjoy problem solving, can remain calm under pressure, are able to work as part of a team and be self-motivated.

We can offer this role as a Band 6 to Band 7 developmental opportunity if you're looking to make your first steps into a more senior role.

Main duties of the job

• To promote the mental and emotional health of children, young people, and families in the community. Understanding their needs, identifying risk and support the family in accessing appropriate services.
• To prevent more serious mental health problems in children and young people by early identification of the development of mental health problems.
• To have a wide range of knowledge in approaches to communicating and managing care with families, children and young people.
• To have excellent communication skills and to be able to promote integrated healthcare working internally and externally.

What we are looking for:

• Experience of working with children and young people in a variety of settings
• Experience of work within a multi-disciplinary team and with multi-agency professionals
• The ability to relate and provide accessible services to a diverse community
• The ability to adapt to the fast-paced nature of SPA work, with good IT and computer recording skills to navigate between the various IT systems within CAMHS and the local authority.
• Knowledge and skills in risk assessment, management and safeguarding
• Be able to deliver a range of evidence-based interventions

Working for our organisation

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust provides physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible.

Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive:“Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”

Our values are:“Caring, safe and excellent”

At Oxford Health we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:

• Excellent opportunities for career progression
• Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
• 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
• NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
• Lease car scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists may apply)
• Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We'll provide you with a comprehensive induction programme, including a range of shadowing opportunities to fully support the post holder in the role. The team fully supports and delivers regular managerial, clinical, and safeguarding supervision to build upon confidence, competence and commitment to developing self and the role, so there's plenty of opportunities to share learning and expertise.

As an organisation we offer flexibility in terms of hours and work base. We recognise the importance of flexible working to ensure a healthy work life balance and would be open to the possibility of home working for a proportion of the working week.

We pride ourselves on embedding team cohesion, support and appreciation opportunities over the working week, to support us all in the hard work we deliver. There is excellent work/life balance and ensure we look after staff’s wellbeing.

In this role, you'll be a point of contact in the single point of access; clinical decisions regarding referrals into services, contacting young person/families, offer advice and support to assist whilst waiting for assessment into the services or share information of alternative appropriate provision.

• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the screening and plan of care for clients in line with the service.
• Use highly developed communication skills in working with external agencies/referrers to understand their concerns relating to CYP ensuring that the CYP are offered the right intervention either within the CAMHS service or within the wider provision within Oxfordshire
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for young children and their parents/carers
• Attend multi-disciplinary meetings relating to referrals or clients in treatment, where appropriate.
• Complete all requirements relating to data collection within the service.
• To maintain accurate and accessible health care records according to Trust policy and Information Governance requirements

Person specification

Qualification

• Mental Health or equivalent professional health qualification- e.g. Occupational Therapist, Nurse or Social Worker
• Clinically relevant knowledge acquired through post qualifying

Experience

• Experience of working with children and young people who have mental health difficulties
• Post qualification experience in a mental health setting, working with young people or adults with mental health difficulties

Skills/Knowledge

• Knowledge and understanding of safeguarding risk assessment
• Knowledge and understanding of mental health risk assessment
• To have ability to organise own time and manage work load, and that of junior staff / learners, in relation to service needs and priorities
• To work autonomously within the team
• All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
• Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
• We’re advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
• Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
• We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
• We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Anna Hurst Job title Clinical Team Manager Email address anna.hurst@oxfordhealth.nhs.uk Telephone number 01865 902515 Additional information