Job summary
- Main area
- Therapy Services
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time
- Job share
- Job ref
- 334-CLI-7218468
- Employer
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- William Geoffrey House
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £54,320 - £60,981 per annum inclusive of HCAs
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 22/07/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Senior CAMHS Practitioner band 7 – Lighthouse team
NHS AfC: Band 7
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.
We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.
We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.
The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.
Our Values
We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.
As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.
Job overview
Job Overview
Lambeth CAMHS is looking to recruit an experienced and motivated Practitioner for our Lighthouse Team. This is an exciting time to join the team, which is currently expanding its offer to children, young people and their families.
Job Purpose
You will be one of a team of five Clinicians and will be responsible for the daily CAMHS front door to Lambeth CAMHS. This includes screening and managing new referrals to the service. A key part of this is contacting children, young people and/or their families within 28 days of the referral, and offering brief advice and safety planning. You will also respond to urgent queries when a named care coordinator is not available. You may also be required to offer face-to face and video appointments to children and young people and a caseload as the service develops.
An understanding of different mental health disorders, risk assessment and safety planning is essential for this post. Applicants must hold registration with a statutory body, as detailed in the person specification.
Working Pattern
The post is full time permanent Monday to Friday predominately within normal working hours however the successful candidate may be required
to have a degree of flexibility to meet the service needs
Work location
The role will be predominately based at Lambeth CAMHS with some opportunity to work from home as agreed with the team lead. Lambeth
CAMHS is situated close to Vauxhall and Kennington stations.
Main duties of the job
You will join a team of three Clinicians and will be responsible for the daily CAMHS duty system. This involves: screening and managing all new referrals; carrying out telephone triage, advice, and safety planning to children, young people and their families. This includes telephone follow up to children and young people who have attended A& E. You will respond to telephone queries and support colleagues in the team and wider service as needed.
In addition, you may be required to offer face-to-face or video appointments to children and young people and to manage a caseload as needed by the service.
In the absence of the named care coordinator, you may be required to provide cover.
You will share responsibility for ensuring the team achieves positive clinical outcomes for children, young people and their families and that these are evidenced by performance indicators such as activity data, targets and quality measures. The Lighthouse Team has particular responsibility for targets on waiting times, ensuring service users are contacted within 28 days. You will be required to participate in audit, evaluation and research as needed.
You will work with other CAMHS practitioners in the service from all disciplines. You will be a member of a number of internal and external professional networks to ensure care plans for individual children and services across agencies are coordinated efficiently and effectively.
Working for our organisation
LONDON BOROUGH OF LAMBETH
Lambeth has a population of 317,800 (GLA 2020). Lambeth’s population is highly diverse, a characteristic visible in the breadth of ethnic and cultural traditions seen throughout the borough. It is estimated that 63% of the population describe their ethnicity as other than White British; 23% describe their ethnicity as Black (11% Black African, 7% Black Caribbean and 5% Other Black), 22% White Other and 6%as Asian. The Annual population survey estimates that a third of Lambeth’s residents are non-UK born. Of these non-UK born, 40% are of wider European origin, 20% are of African origin; and 20% of Central or South American origin. Nearly 150 languages are spoken as the first language in the homes of Lambeth school children. Portuguese, Spanish and Somali, are the most commonly spoken other languages in Lambeth.
BENEFITS
We are committed to ensuring our staff get the most out of their benefits package and understand the importance of a healthy work life balance.
There is an extensive range of excellent benefits for you and your family. We want you to feel like you are part of a close knit team at SLAM. It’s
important to us that you feel valued and appreciated and that is why we have a comprehensive benefits package on offer. This includes:
• Generous pay, pensions and leave
• Work life balance,
• Career development
• Car lease
• Accommodation
• NHS discounts,
• Counselling services
• Cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Childcare vouchers
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Service and Team responsibilities
- Participate as a multi-disciplinary team member in the setting and reviewing of therapeutic aims, objectives, standards and strategies to provide a high standard of care to clients and their families.
- To ensure that all recording and reporting of client contact is timely, accurate, up to date and of good quality and within CAMHS & professional standards of record keeping. To collect & collate information about individual clinical activity on ePJS.
- Work with the team and clients to maintain a safe therapeutic environment.
- Work to assure the quality of care through achieving high operational standards in clinical systems.
- To maintain and ensure good professional standards and attitudes towards the care and treatment of children, young people and their families.
- To link with other statutory and voluntary agencies and professionals as well as other CAMHS Teams in terms of referrals and joint work. Maintain good relationships and clear lines of communication within the boundaries of confidentiality, with other professional agencies and departments, providing specialist advice and support where appropriate.
- Contribute to the effective functioning of the team and service through attendance at relevant meetings, taking responsibilities within the service as appropriate and negotiated with the line manager.
- Supervise junior members of the team (Band 6) or trainees from any discipline.
Clinical - Individual
- Assume responsibility for the daily duty system, particularly ascertaining the level of risk, and agreeing safety plans as and when necessary.
- Use individual, group work, family work, advice and supervision according to the needs of children and young people and have a flexible and innovative approach to planning packages of care.
- Maintain good relationships and clear lines of communication with other professional agencies and departments, providing specialist advice and support where appropriate.
- Contribute to service development and take a lead on audit within the duty team
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- All applicants will require a professional training and relevant CAMHS experience in combination with professional registration with one of the following statutory/regulatory bodies: the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) , Social Work England, Health and Care Professional's Council, Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP),The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)
- Relevant professional training will include: •First level nursing qualification/registration RMN or RSCN or HV with related CAMHS experience or any as below: • First level qualification in Occupational therapy, Clinical or Counselling Psychology, Social work, or equivalent with related CAMHS experience. • Qualification as a Systemic Psychotherapist (Family Therapist) with relevant CAMHS experience. • First level qualification in art, play, drama, music therapy or psychotherapy (leading to a registered qualification with one of the above statutory bodies) with related experience in the psychological aspects of caring for children and adolescent with mental health problems/needs
Desirable criteria
- Further post qualifying training and education in working with children and adolescents with mental health problems
Experience
Essential criteria
- Assessed supervised clinical experience working with children and adolescents with mental health problems/needs or clear evidence of transferable skills
- Working in collaboration with supervisor, service user, carers and MDT in assessing needs, planning and implementing care
- A good understanding and some experience of the following: Group, individual and family work, multidisciplinary work, clinical governance and audit and the process of clinical supervision in CAMHS
- Experience in carrying out specialist child and adolescent mental health assessments and treatments add which required
- Experience of assessing risk and safety planning within a mental health setting.
Desirable criteria
- Working with families in a multi-racial urban environment
- Working with Looked After Children and foster carers
Knowledge / Skills
Essential criteria
- Ability to work therapeutically with the client group, using a range of therapeutic interventions
- Good written and verbal presentation skills
- Good working knowledge of Mental health disorders in children and adolescents
- Knowledge of assessment of risk and management of risk factors
- Evidence of using child protection in practice effectively
Desirable criteria
- Research informed and evidence based methods of assessment, treatment and case management
- Experience working with neurodiversity
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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
- Michael Brodie
- Job title
- Clinical Service Lead - Lighthouse team
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0203 228 7370
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