Job summary
- Main area
- Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent: 3 days a week - 9am to 5pm
- Hours
- Part time - 22.5 hours per week (3 days a week - 9am to 5pm)
- Job ref
- 333-G-CA-1580-A
- Employer
- Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Ash Tree Clinic, Harrow CAMHS
- Town
- South Harrow
- Salary
- £53,751 - £60,651 pro rata inc HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 18/09/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
NHS AfC: Band 7
CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run.
Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference. We’re proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.
We are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ only the best people, and our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries.
We offer a generous relocation package (subject to eligibility assessment) and flexible working options, including bank assignments for most roles. For more information on these and other benefits of working for us, see our Benefits, Reward and Wellbeing page
Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others.
CNWL NHS Foundation Trust are committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices to protect children and vulnerable adults.
Job overview
What we are looking for?
We are delighted to offer a Band 7 Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist post based at Harrow CAMHS.
Harrow CAMHS is looking for a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist (Part time(3days), band 7) to join our friendly, supportive, and experienced multi-disciplinary specialist mental health service.
We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled clinician who is able to maintain clinical curiosity and keen to engage in reflective practice as well as be able to be an advocate for children, young people and families’ needs.
Clinicians who have previous experience within CAMHS settings and working with young people who have complex needs would be of benefit
This post is a great opportunity for newly qualified or early career child and adolescent psychotherapists who are passionate about working with young people and their families.
We would also welcome applications from candidates who will be obtaining relevant qualification for this post this summer
What will we provide you?
The post provides an excellent opportunity for clinicians to develop their skills and knowledge via regular clinical supervision, being part of Quality Improvement (QI) projects, CPD opportunities as well as multi-disciplinary working within experienced team of Family Therapists, Psychotherapists, Nurses, Child Wellbeing Practitioners, Psychiatrists and Clinical/Counselling Psychologists/DBT Therapists
To find out more about working in CAMHS please CLICK HERE for one of our CAMHS video
Main duties of the job
What does the post entail?
You will help the service to provide specialist mental health and neurodevelopmental assessments alongside specialist psychotherapeutic interventions and contributing to specialist support plans for the care of children and young people who are looked after. You will contribute to highly specialist assessments and intervention for a broad range of complex mental health concerns and neurodevelopmental differences experienced by children, young people and families within a socially, economically and culturally diverse London borough.
In your role as Harrow Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, you will provide a qualified specialist child and adolescent psychotherapy service to children and young people with mental health problems across all sectors of care as part of a multi-disciplinary CAMHS team. You will offer specialist psychotherapeutic assessment and therapy to service users and their families/carers and advice and consultation on their care to non-psychotherapist colleagues and the professional network involved in their support. As the post holder, you will work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures. You will utilise research skills for audit to support policy and service development; and undertake research within the area served by the service and of relevance to young people their families and carers.
Working for our organisation
We're passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care in a community setting or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do. Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people. We are always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our young persons, colleagues, teams and the Trust.
With every new employee we are hoping to find our future leaders and well support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career. With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, emotional disorder, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Enhancement Treatment, learning disabilities and more whatever stage of your career you're at, there's always a place for you at CNWL.
You will work from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm service for young people experiencing mental health problems in Harrow area. The post will be based within the Ash Tree Clinic, South Harrow and the post holder will be expected to maintain the close links with the Hospital.
The Ash Tree Clinic (Harrow CAMHS) is easily accessible by train from Kings Cross station, Oxford Circus, Euston, and Victoria, within around 45 minutes.
As an NHS Trust, we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues, and your patients when working in our healthcare settings
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments of children and young people referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources.
- Formulate and implement plans for the formal treatment and/or management of the child/young person’s problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings
- Be responsible for implementing a range of psychotherapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, grounded in the principles and techniques of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. These will include long and short term interventions as appropriate to need
- Evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
- To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of children and young people whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
- Contribute directly and indirectly to a framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all children and young people of the service, across all settings and agencies serving children and young people with learning disabilities and mental health problems/challenging behaviour.
- To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual children and young people.
- Act as case worker, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of CAMHS care plans including children and young people, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
- Communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of children and young people under their care and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary care.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Masters level preclinical training at an Association of Child Psychotherapists recognised training school; – post graduate doctoral level training in clinical child psychotherapy at a training school accredited by the Association of Child Psychotherapy or Association of Child Psychotherapists Statement of Equivalence
Desirable criteria
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications in relevant fields in health, social care or education settings
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of specialist psychotherapeutic assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and their parents as a full member of a multidisciplinary team located in community, primary care, outpatient or inpatient setting.d their parents as a full member of a multidisciplinary team located in community, primary care, outpatient or inpatient setting.
- Experience of working with a wide variety children, adolescents across the whole age range (0-18) and their parents, and presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity and complexity.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working in different CAMHS Tiers.
- Experience of the application of child psychotherapy in different cultural contexts.
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychotherapeutic assessment, intervention and management.
- 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 both within and outside the NHS.
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and adolescents including child protection procedures and policies
- Ability to tolerate anxiety without recourse to premature action whilst appreciating the role of the supervisor
- Awareness of the implications of working within a managed system.
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of NHS, Social Care and Education Structures, National policies and frameworks.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
- Knowledge of research methodology and outcome research design and ability to critically interpret research findings
OTHER
Essential criteria
- Ability to form good working relationships with others in a multidisciplinary setting.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice.
Desirable criteria
- Ability to teach and train others and present the work of child psychotherapists within public, professional and academic settings
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
- Sarah Kavanaugh
- Job title
- Lead Psychotherapist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0208 869 5500
- Additional information
Dr Sean McArdle, Lead Clinical Psychologist and Borough Therapy Lead for Harrow CAMHS
[email protected] or Tel: 0208 869 4500 or 07732825190
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