Job Summary
We have an excellent opportunity for a Band 5, full-time, 37.5 hours per week position within CAMHS, based in Lower Henwick Farm, Thatcham but will also be supporting the two other localities, Wokingham and Reading.
The Specialist Community Teams are looking for a Child and Family Mental Health Worker to join our multi-disciplinary team to effectively support our young people in the community.The role includes delivering support to young people both individually in the young person’s home, clinic, school and or via digital media.You will be expected to work within this complex and variable setting, with supervision. You will report to and work in collaboration with senior colleagues, to deliver care in order to maximise each young person’s individual potential.
This post includes working with families and/or carers in collaboration with other members of the multi-disciplinary team. You will work with community services such as children’s social care and other Local Authority and voluntary sector colleagues. Ideally, you will have some experience in CAMHS, be thoughtful and reflective, and have the flexibility to integrate into a multi-disciplinary team. We welcome applicants who have skills (or transferable skills) in working with young people with mental health needs and have ideally also worked with their parents/carers. You’ll find we offer a positive team environment.
Main duties of the job
- You will provide brief interventions and support for young people, who require the support of multi-disciplinary team to meet their needs.
- You will be working with young people who may have self-harmed and/or expressed suicidal thoughts. You will therefore need to be aware of risk identification and management (with support of a case holding Clinician).
- You will work with parents/carer of the young people (where clinically indicated) offering support, advice and psychoeducation.
- You will work with the young person to ensure they are heard, validated and their needs are understood.
- You will play an important key role in liaising with multi-agency partners to ensure the young person’s needs are communicated and all agencies work collaboratively together.
- You will work closely with the wider CAMH services in Berkshire as well as local authority and education colleagues and other services/agencies as required.
- You will be supported, guided and supervised by senior clinicians in the team.
- You will receive training to enable you to offer interventions to support young people.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The must haves for this role:
- Degree or HNC/HND or similar in relevant subject with extensive relevant work experience or short courses to degree equivalent level.
- Previous experience of working directly with young people, families and multi-agencies.
- Personal resilience, good listening skills and empathy.
For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification.
We strongly encourage you to review how you meet the criteria in the person specification and write about this point-by-point in your supporting statement for the best chance of being shortlisted.
Were committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.
Person Specification
Education/Qualifications/Training
Essential
- Degree or MSc in a subject relevant to the post (e.g Social work, OT, Mental Health, Child Development, Youth work, Offending etc) OR
- HNC/HND or similar in relevant subject with extensive relevant work experience or short courses to degree equivalent level
Continuous Professional Development
Essential
- Commitment to Continuing Professional Development
- Evidence of relevant training
Previous Experience
Essential
- Previous work directly with children, young people, families as well as working with multi-agencies
- Significant experience in a mental health or social care setting, working with children, young people and families.
- Experience undertaking assessments of needs
- Working with people in their own homes and the community
- Significant experience of risk management while working independently with vulnerable people in high distress in community settings
- Working with and co-ordinating mult-agencies to ensure young care is joined up and their holistic needs are identified and met
Desirable
- Specialist skills acquired through engagement with different groups of vulnerable children and parents (offending, substance misuse, refugees.)
- Experience of managing groups of parents providing psychoeducation around childens mental health and/or parenting
- Experience of working with children and young people whose needs have been identified as needing CAMHS Tier 3 or 4 interventions, including profoung self-harming and suicidality
- Experience of providing consultation/guidance relating to systemtic issues, attachment and delivering training to teams of professions
- Work within an NHS CAMHS setting liasing with appoprirate qualified staff co-delivering joint pieces of therapeutic interventions to patients/families
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
Essential
- Listening and advocacy skills, empathy, and ability to lead others
- Personal resilience and ability to work under pressure within a crisis service
- Good IT skills and experience of recording about clients’ needs
- A keen attitude to learning and working in a team
Desirable
- A good understanding of attachment theories and their clinical applications onto family work
- A good working understanding of and/or training on main therapeutic interventions, ie CBT/DBT/psychodynamic/person centred approaches
- Ability to work autonomously and prioritise own workload
- Excellent oral and written communication skills where there are barriers to understanding
- To have a working knowledge of financial benefits for families eg Carers Allowance, DLA, carer support options, respite/breaks, local groups/carer support, housing issues, employment and educational issues, mental health treatments and diagnoses
- To have knowledge and understanding of a wide range of working procedures and practices, ideally within Berkshire Foundation NHS Trust and Social Services, and knowledge of Health Authority Structure, charitable & voluntary organisations.
Additional Requirements
Essential
- Ability to work flexibly
- Ability to travel to multiple sites across the Trust
- Clean driving license and access to personal vehicle
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Closing Date: 26 January 2025
