Overview
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting a Band 7 Specialist Practitioner for the Birmingham Youth Justice Service. The closing date is 02 November 2025.
The Children and Young People’s division (formerly Forward Thinking Birmingham) currently provides dedicated mental health in-reach support into the city’s Youth Justice Service to support children and young people who may have a mental health need. Birmingham Youth Justice Service is one of the largest in the country.
Often these children find mental health services difficult to access; they are often marginalized and face multiple disadvantages and there are high rates of disproportionality.
The role of the Specialist Practitioner is to overcome these barriers and systemic challenges by working with the Children and Young People and the systems around them to understand their needs and next steps, resulting in timely support and access to services.
Main duties of the job
To contribute to the principal aim of the Youth Justice Service to prevent offending by children and young people, by ensuring that physical, emotional and mental health needs are addressed as a principal factor with all programs of assessment and interventions undertaken by the Youth Justice Service (YJS).
The YJS Specialist Practitioner will ensure that a young person in contact with the youth justice system has the same access to a comprehensive health service as any other young person within the general population. The post holder will deliver a health service to children and young people, to include direct assessment, early intervention and referral for young people, offering advice and consultation on children and young people’s healthcare to colleagues.
The post holder will have responsibility for the management and coordination of health care needs of young people within the criminal justice system. To work within a multi-agency environment with a wide range of professionals across all agencies to meet the physical, emotional and mental health needs of children and young people who are at risk of, or have offended. This will be through a model of consultation and direct delivery.
Key working relationships include service users, parents/carers, health professionals, YJS professionals, substance misuse colleagues, GPs, colleagues in children’s services, education, within the voluntary and private sector.
About us
Welcome to Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. Our 4000 clinical and support staff help us to improve mental health wellbeing and meet the needs of the 70,000 people we serve each year. We provide a range of mental healthcare services across Birmingham and Solihull, as well as specialised services nationally. We also offer medical, nursing and psychology training and are proud of our international reputation for both research and innovation.
Our population is culturally diverse, characterised in places by high levels of deprivation which create an increasing demand for our services and a necessity for us to make sure everyone can access the help they need. We are a team of compassionate, inclusive and committed people working together to provide excellent care to support our community. If you are looking for a place to belong, where you can make a real difference to people’s lives, join our team where our warm welcome is waiting for you.
Job responsibilities
Please see attached Job description and person specification for further details in relation to the main responsibilities of the post.
We highly recommend you submit your application as soon as possible, this post may close earlier than the indicated closing date if a sufficient number of applications are received.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* NMC or HCPC registered professional
* Non medical prescriber
* In depth knowledge of the Youth Offending Service and criminal justice system (Crime and Disorder Act 1998)
Skills and Knowledge
* Knowledge and appreciation of relevant legislation and criminal justice procedures for children
* Understanding of issues related to young people and substance misuse, comorbidity and dual diagnosis
* Skills for assessment of children/young people
* Full driving licence
* Knowledge of various statutory, voluntary and charitable organisations that provide services to children
Experience
* Community experience
* Therapeutic interventions
* Working with Adolescents and their families
* Experience of facilitating service user / care involvement
* Delivering and /or facilitating evidence based interventions to a wide range of service users and carers
* Knowledge around neurodiversity, assessment process and adapting interventions
* Experience of working within a consultation and intervention model
* Experience of clinical audit related work
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.
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
£47,810 to £54,710 a year, per annum, pro rata
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