Job summary
- Main area
- CAMHS Health & Justice
- Grade
- Band 7
- Contract
- 1 year (Fixed term end date will be determined after pre-employment checks have been completed)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 371-CFS697
- Employer
- Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- CAMHS Health and Justice , Wokingham Hospital
- Town
- Wokingham
- Salary
- £50,008 - £56,908 per annum ( Incl of HCAS)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 06/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Advanced Mental Health Practitioner
Band 7
Job overview
Are you an experienced Mental Health professional wanting to work within a supportive specialist CAMHS team?
Will you thrive working within a multi-disciplinary system to provide a high quality mental health service to young people in West Berkshire?
There is an opportunity to join our specialist CAMHS Health and Justice Team for a 12 month fixed term contract.
You will need to have a recognised professional registration and demonstrable experience working within Children and Young People’s mental health services.
You will engage with a network of multi-agency professionals and processes, working alongside the Youth Justice Teams in West Berkshire.
There will be excellent in-house induction, high quality supervision and training opportunities including working alongside other highly skilled teams - for example opportunities to work with forensic CAMHS.
You will spend time every week visiting the three local authorities we work closely with. Otherwise, you will be based at our Erleigh Road office with the flexibility to work from home.
We are interested to hear from applicants at Band 6 and Band 7 level. We are considering full time and part time applicants for this role.
Main duties of the job
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To deliver a high-quality mental health service to young people known to Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham YJTs.
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To provide specialist assessment and therapy, offer consultation on clients’ care to non-clinical colleagues and to other, non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.
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To work in a trauma informed way. This means facilitating and collaborating in multiagency formulation meetings, devising multiagency intervention plans and offering ongoing supervision and coaching to professionals so that interventions are therapeutic, streamlined and developmentally appropriate for the young person.
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To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of clinical practice within the YJTs.
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To utilise research skills to contribute to audit, policy and service development and research. To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the team.
Working for our organisation
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health and community health services trust. Rated ‘outstanding’ by the CQC, we’re committed to providing the best possible care to people across Berkshire. As an employer, we’re committed to offering an inclusive and compassionate environment where our people share in a sense of belonging and are supported to flourish.
Our values at Berkshire Healthcare are:
- Caring for and about you is our top priority
- Committed to providing good quality, safe services
- Working Together with you to develop innovative solutions
Your wellbeing is important to us. Some of the benefits of working for us include:
- Flexible working options to support work-life balance
- 27 days’ annual leave rising with service + opportunity to buy and sell
- Generous NHS pension scheme
- Excellent learning and career development opportunities
- ‘Cycle to Work’ and car leasing scheme including electric vehicles
- Access to a range of wellbeing tools and services
- Discounts at hundreds of popular retailers and restaurants
- Staff networks for race, diversity, disabilities, the environment and armed forces community to support equality
- Generous maternity, paternity, adoption and special leave
- Free parking across Trust sites
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The “must haves” for this role:
1. A core qualification and recognised professional registration e.g. NMC, HCPC
2. Experienced in working with Children and Young People’s mental health services
3. Demonstrable experience in working with mental health complex needs
For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification.
We strongly encourage you to review how you meet the criteria in the person specification and write about this point-by-point in your supporting statement for the best chance of being shortlisted.
We’re committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.
We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please don’t hesitate to call: Liudmila Knowles on 01189046780 or email: [email protected] who’ll be delighted to help.
Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible.
Person specification
Education/Qualifications/Training
Essential criteria
- Recognised and relevant qualification as below: Registered mental health nurse, Social Worker or OT
- Registration with NMC, HCPC, Social Work England or other recognised professional body.
- Significant post-qualifying experience of undertaking comprehensive assessment of mental health needs, developing care plans and offering appropriate support based on the formulation of presenting difficulties
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of work with service users with high risk presentations and undertaking risk assessment and risk management plans.
- Experience of working within mental health settings supporting children, adolescents and their families.
Desirable criteria
- A supervisory qualification in the relevant professional discipline.
- Experience of contributing service improvement initiatives.
- Experience of assessing and treating clients across a wide range of care settings.
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria
- Knowledge and skills to assess acute mental health crisis and deliberate self-harm.
- Demonstrates up to date knowledge of legislation and national strategies and requirements for CAMHS.
- Experience of managing complex caseloads and applying a range of interventions.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues across agencies.
- Ability to work to timescales and comfortably cope in pressurised situations, applying practical problem solving skills in everyday and complex situations.
- Ability to work autonomously and effectively in a team, reprioritising work to reflect changing needs.
- Competent IT skills and the ability to navigate around various systems and software packages (such as outlook, databases, e.g. RiO, MS Office and internet).
Desirable criteria
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
- Ability to motivate and inspire others and to support others to develop increased skill and competence.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Knowledge of the Youth Justice system
Other
Essential criteria
- Able to maintain professional boundaries and conduct.
- Car owner/driver and possess full UK driver’s licence or evidence of ability to travel independently between locations to fulfil the requirements of the position.
Desirable criteria
- Supportive approach towards colleagues and service users. Enthusiastic, self-motivated team player.
- Able to negotiate, be confident and assertive.
Applicant requirements
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Liudmila Knowles
- Job title
- CAMHS Berkshire Link Team Manage
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01189046780
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