Job overview
About the team:
Lambeth Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) PAIRS Team is seeking to recruit an enthusiastic, motivated and experienced CAMHS Practitioner, who has an interest in working with children under the age of 5.
The PAIRS Team works closely with the Lambeth Local Authority, offering group delivery, assessment and brief interventions to children, young people and their families. We are specifically interested in staff with additional training in evidence based therapeutic interventions and group work.
Main duties of the job
About the role:
You will need to have the ability to deliver theraputic groups within the borough of Lambeth. Close working relationships with members of the team and partnership agencies e.g. Social Services, Education and others is essential. You must demonstrate an interest in multi-agency and multi-disciplinary work and be familiar with evidence-based practice. There are excellent opportunities for CPD, in service teaching and supervision within the team and the trust.
You must be able to work independently and have good clinical/therapeutic and case management skills. Lambeth is an inner city, ethnically diverse community so a good understanding of diversity issues is important.
Working for our organisation
Lambeth is a London borough with a population of more than 318,000, of which 63% of residents describe their ethnicity as other than White British & approximately 145 languages are spoken in the borough. There are established Caribbean & Irish communities with newer populations of West African, Portuguese & South American residents.
Lambeth CAMHS employs staff from a variety of disciplines, including creative arts, child psychology, psychiatry, nursing, psychotherapy & family therapy. The service is organised into three sections & delivered from a number of community & hospital sites across the borough. Teams include a generic multidisciplinary Tier 3 services, for Children and Adolescents, as well as a number of specialist teams & services including Youth Offending Team, Children Looked After, Parent and Infant Relationship Service (PAIRS) and the Neurodevelopmental Team.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
You will provide specialist parent & child and group interventions to children and families with moderate to complex presentations.
You will be confident in providing support, advice and intervention to parents and carers in attachment, anxiety and behaviours that challenge.
You will be flexible and creative in responding to the needs of the population of children under 5 years of age, with support from your team and supervision. You will also be able to adapt to working remotely and prioritising access to services and resources.
You will be required to keep up to date clinical records and may be required to prepare court reports.
You will have some specific responsibilities for operational procedures e.g. referral response and processing.
You will work in partnership with Social Services, Parental mental Health/Perinatal, Adult Mental Health, Children’s Centres, Child Health and key partners to support integrated practice and service delivery.
You may be required to contribute to audit or progress reports on specific aspects of the service developments.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. All applicants will require a professional training and relevant CAMHS experience in combination with professional registration with one of the following statutory bodies: the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC), Health & Care Professional's Council (HPC), Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP), The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) or British 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
2. Infant observation training
3. Evidence of CPD- Continuous Professional Development in Child and Adolescent Mental Health or family work trainingy
Experience
Essential criteria
4. Assessed supervised clinical experience working with children and adolescents with mental health problems/needs or clear evidence of transferable skills.
5. Working in collaboration with supervisor, service user, carers and MDT in assessing needs, planning and implementing care.
6. Taking responsibility for care delivery in a specific area and maintaining a safe therapeutic environment.
7. Experience of running/observing parenting groups or clear evidence of transferable skills.
8. A good understanding and some experience of the following: Group, individual and family work, multi-disciplinary work, clinical governance and audit and the process of clinical supervision in CAMHS.
Desirable criteria
9. Experience of working with families in a multiracial urban environment. Experience Working with Looked After Children and foster carers
10. Experience of providing interventions to families with children under 5within a community setting
Knowledge/Skills
Essential criteria
11. A good working knowledge of relational work within an Under 5's infant mental health team. A good working knowledge of difficulties common to infants e.g. attachment difficulties.
12. A good working knowledge of Key legislation relevant to CAMHS setting: The Children Act 1989, 2004 and The Mental Health Act 1983, Human Rights Act 1998 and Mental Capacity Act 2005.
13. A good working knowledge of the London Child protection procedures. Assessment of risk and management of risk factors.
14. A good working knowledge of the principles underlying confidentiality and information sharing. The principles of clinical governance and CAMHS practice.
15. Good written and verbal presentation skills. Basic IT and data entry skills to enter clinical information into databases.
16. Ability to be ‘reflective’ in therapeutic practice and adapt practice from this reflection.
Desirable criteria
17. Training in Circle of Security, Watch, Wait and Wonder, other parenting models.