Go back Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Clinical Nurse Specialist - CAMHS Eating Disorders
The closing date is 17 October 2025
Welcome to CNWL Community Eating Disorders Service for Children and Young People.
Eating Disorders is a specialism within children's mental health, therefore finding candidates with rich experience is really important. It would be fantastic to have staff 'ready-to-go', but we appreciate the need to grow and develop people in this field and improve young people's access to care.
As such we have training in Family Based Treatment (FBT) and Family therapy (FT-AN) for Eating Disorders. The successful candidate will be offered this training as the role requires deliver of these treatments
Main duties of the job
What we do?
The recommended evidence-based intervention indicated for this patient group is Family-Based Treatment FBT, FT-AN, CBT-E, MANTRA for eating disorders. All clinicians in the team are trained to deliver some or all of these interventions. As part of this role, you are expected to deliver FBT or FT-AN, which training will be provided for.
We offer systemic therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, for those who an individual therapy approach is more appropriate. In addition, we also offer a parent group to support those caring for a young person with an eating disorder. We link with CNWL CAMHS for joint work (for co-morbidities) and other agencies as necessary.
The team consists of nursing, occupational therapists, psychologist, assistant psychologists, systemic Family therapist, a dietician, paediatrician and psychiatry. We are expanding into the use of systemic practitioners and developing nurses to the Advanced Clinical Practitioner level. The leads of the service are a Clinical Team Lead, Consultant Psychiatrist, and is linked to the ED service which is overseen by Head of ED and a Clinical Director for ED. More recent developments are improved transition work, development of an Intensive Community Treatment Team and new projects with our neighbours at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
We look forward to welcoming you to our team and helping you to grow. If you have any questions about us and the role please get in touch.
About us
Since Covid-19 we have adjusted our working practices and staff typically work from home 1day a week, dependent on service need. We know staff have lives outside of work, and want to promote balance, therefore we take flexible working seriously. You will be given your own remote working system via laptops to support this.
Our main base is in Chelsea (next to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital). Thanks to the heavy NHS influence many local cafes, restaurants and bars give discounts ranging from 10-20% to all NHS staff. Our second site is based in Harrow at Roxborough Road which is a 5-minute walk from Harrow-on-the-Hill tube station. Clinicians typically work across both sites, which can be discussed with your supervisor.
Apart of the nursing duties, we also facilitating hospital visits across 5 different hospitals within our catchment area in London.
Hear from our staff what it's like working with our CNWL Eating Disorders service, please click on belowvideos
Video 1 - Click HERE
Video 2- Click HERE
Job responsibilities
Typical tasks for this role are:
You will undertake in the processing of new referrals to the service by being apart of the duty rota. This involves telephone enquiries, screening and managing new referrals. You will assess, plan and provide clinical interventions relevant to the patient group such as: FBT, FT-AN, supportive clinical management, and other evidenced based models of care, as well as facilitate physical health monitoring clinics. You will liaise with referrers and offer training, advice and consultation to medical wards, primary and secondary care services and other external agencies as required.
* Working with young people assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating their care.
* Delivering FBT and FT-AN treatments to families
* To develop and maintain therapeutic relationships with young people and their families/carers.
* To liaise with the young persons professional network, keeping them informed of developments and promoting multi agency collaboration. Liaison with Childrens Specialist Services, Educational services, independent sector mental health providers, counsellors and any other professional related to the child.
* To involve the young person, and where appropriate, their families/carers in delivering programmes of treatment for eating disorders.
* To attend and actively participate in clinical meetings as part of the multidisciplinary team such as referrals meetings, case conferences, care reviews, and network.
* To receive supervision of clinical work.
* To maintain clinical records in accordance with the NMC standards for record keeping and adhere to the NMC Code of Conduct and are in accordance with CNWL Trust Policies and Procedures.
* To participate in the recruitment, induction, supervision, appraisal and development of staff, and to conduct formal and informal supervision of junior clinicians.
* Monitoring of physical and mental health issues related to patients with eating disorders.
* To undertake Venepuncture and ECG procedures or willingness to be trained in order to practice these.
* Knowledge of safeguarding issues and management processes.
Another key part of this role is being a FREED Champion. FREED is First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders. It is a service model and care package for 16-25-year-olds who have had an eating disorder for three years or less.
FREED helps young people to access specialised evidence-based treatment quickly. The goal is for treatment to start within 4 weeks of referral to an eating disorder service.
FREED operates as a service within a service. It complements, rather than replaces, existing eating disorder services and treatments.
This includes the following duties:
Involvement in the FREED mini team.
Assessing 16-25-year olds on the FREED pathway.
Attend all age assessment meetings.
Attend the weekly FREED huddle.
Collect data of FREED CYP referrals.
Person Specification
Experience
* Post registration clinical experience
* Experience of working with young people with an eating disorder
* Experience of managing a case load of patients as Keyworker or care co ordination within a ward / community setting
* Experience of supervising student nurses
* Experience of completing a nursing assessment and formulating a safe care plan
* Experience of working therapeutically with patients presenting with an eating disorder and psychiatric/ medical co morbidities
* Experience of completing a specialist assessment for patients with a range of eating disorders within a community setting
* Therapy qualification or therapy skills training relevant to working in eating disorders
* Involvement in audit and research
* Evidence of skills & experience transferable to Eating Disorders
Skills and Knowledge
* Good working knowledge of Care Programme Approach, Mental Health Act, supervised discharge and other current legislation
* Excellent Risk assessment and general Mental Health Assessments skills
* Experience and skills in Assessment and treatment plan for patients with mental health needs.
* Knowledge of eating disorders and current treatment.
* Specialist clinical knowledge relevant to the service, including evidence -based practice
* Working knowledge of all relevant legislation related to CAMHS
* Good physical care skills and knowledge in mental health and specific to eating disorders in children and young people.
* Knowledge of evidenced based treatment for eating disorders in children and young people.
* To undertake full psycho-social, physical, mental health assessments and risk assessments.
* Trained in Venepuncture to participate vene puncture and ECG procedure or willingness to be trained to participate in these physical care skills.
* To foster good working relationships across a multi-disciplinary team.
* Knowledge of boundary issues in mentalhealth
* Ability to work independently and to manage stressful workload and use time effectively.
* Ability to utilize reflective practice in supervision.
* To liaise effectively with other agencies, both statutory and non-statutory.
* Understanding of family/ carer issues.
* Excellent record keeping and report writing skills
* Must be proficient in computer skills to manage computerized patients records
* Skills in family work
* Knowledge of recent issues in nursing and Mental Health Care.
* Ability to manage conflict effectively
Qualifications
* RMN [Current NMC registration]
* Evidence of regular updating in nursing clinical practice since qualification
* Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) Training
* Degree or Post Graduate qualification relevant to the post
Other
* Willingness to work flexible hours to meet the service requirements.
* The postholder must have the ability to understand and implement the Equal Opportunities Policy at a level appropriate to the job.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
£46,419 to £55,046 a yearper annum incl. HCAS
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