Employer Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Brookside Family Consultation Clinic Town Cambridge Salary £38,682 - £46,580 per annum pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 10/12/2025 23:59
Band 6
Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and motivated CAMHS Practitioner to join the Neurodevelopmental CAMHS team in Cambridge. We work with children and young people with moderate to severe mental health disorders with coexisting ASD and ADHD, providing comprehensive assessment and intervention. You will join a supportive team who are passionate about making a difference to young people and their families.
We welcome clinicians from a variety of backgrounds to apply including Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Social Work, Arts Therapists, Teaching, Counselling or within a psychological therapy. The ideal candidate will have a strong team and work ethic, sense of autonomy, interest and experience of working with young people, accompanied by an ability to work under considerable pressure at times. This post is open to professionals with the right attributes to enhance a team.
In return we will provide the necessary support to ensure your development within your role. We are keen to support and develop our staff based on their individual needs identified throughout appraisal process. We routinely offer ADOS training as well as training to suport with working with young people with neurodevelopmental needs.
If you are looking for a new challenge, enjoy variety in your work and wish to be part of a multidisciplinary team striving to make a difference for our community by supporting young people their families, then we want to hear from you.
Main duties of the job
- To provide specialist evidence-based assessment and individual work to children and adolescents with mental health difficulties.
- To offer advice and consultation on young people’s psychological care to both professional colleagues and staff from other agencies.
- To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of both the trust’s and CAMHS’ policies and procedures.
Working for our organisation
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share our vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.
Please be advised we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at www.cpft.nhs.uk
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities
- To work as an integral member of the CAMHS Neurodevelopmental Team, providing comprehensive mental health and diagnostic assessments demonstrating the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of data from a variety of sources including, self- report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi- structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, a range of direct work and evidence-based therapeutic intervention. To have the ability to utilize specialist knowledge to make decisions about a child or young person’s mental health needs.
- To participate in the prevention and early detection of emotional and mental health difficulties in children and adolescents referred to the service.
- To participate in the planning and delivery of evidence‑based therapeutic programmes e.g. CBT and Parenting programmes on both an individual and group basis to children and young people and their families.
- To develop formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon mental health theory and evidence and which incorporates developmental interpersonal, societal, cultural and biological factors.
- To evaluate and make treatment decisions in collaboration with the CAMHS Neurodevelopmental Team and in consultation with an accredited CAMHS therapist about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, carers or group.
- To be responsible for terminating intervention in consultation with other professionals involved.
- To use routine outcome monitoring to inform clinical practice through supervision and care planning.
- To participate in the team’s use of routine outcome monitoring to inform service design across CAMHS
- To educate and involve children and young people and family/carers, in their care/support plan and provide opportunities or service users to contribute to assessment and the development of service provision.
- To contribute to the development of systems for the management of referrals including screening, filtering, redirecting and fast tracking referrals as appropriate.
*DVLA have a number ofreciprocalarrangements with overseas countries, for further information please visit the DVLA website
Person specification
Education/Qualification
- A recorded/registered qualification in one of the following at graduate level in nursing, social work, occupational therapy, arts therapy, teaching, counselling or within a psychological therapy.
- Training in an evidencebased intervention recommended by NICE Guidelines relevant to Neurodevelopmental Disorders/CAMH i.e. CBT/CAT
Experience
- Post‑qualification experience in assessment and treatment of children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders, using evidencebased therapeutic intervention recommended by NICE Guidelines where applicable
- Experience of working in a service where clinical outcome demonstrated via agreed measurement tools
Skills & Abilities
- Able to manage mental health risk effectively
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
- Good knowledge of mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders
- Good knowledge of safeguarding legislation
- Sound knowledge of risk assessment
- Knowledge of one therapeutic intervention recommended by NICE guidelines or relevant to Neurodevelopmental Disorders/CAMHS
Other
- Willingness to embrace integrated model and new ways of working
- Willingness to be flexible in approach and attitude
Here at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) we are dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion. We deliver many of the NHS services that are provided outside of hospital and in the community such as physical, mental health and specialist services.
We are a health and social care organisation, offering a wide range of services, including:
- Integrated physical and mental health services for adults and older people;
- Specialist mental health and learning disability services;
- Children’s community services in Peterborough;
- Ground‑breaking research
We strongly encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly from under‑represented groups including disabled people and members of our ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities. For further information about our positive equality, diversity and Inclusion work, please visit https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/equalityanddiversity .
CPFT is looking to build upon its pool of temporary workers with Temporary Staffing Services (TSS). You will be asked at interview if you would be willing to register with TSS. This is an excellent opportunity for those looking to take on additional hours that are flexible around your personal circumstances.
Please be advised that in line with the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List, 2020 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust currently are unable to accept applications from overseas candidates whose country of residence is classed as a ‘Red List’ country.
Applicants who require entry into the UK will be required to provide a valid police certificate from the relevant authority from each country (except the UK) where the applicant has been present for 12 months or more, 10 years before the date of visa application, while aged 18 or over.
If you are successful at interview you will be subject to pre‑employment checks, including a DBS (if appropriate), references and Occupational Health. To ensure a smooth process please bring all identity documents to your interview. A list of required identity documents will be attached to your interview invitation.
All communications will be sent to you via TRAC Systems. By applying for this post you are agreeing to CPFT transferring the information contained in this application to TRAC. If you are made an offer, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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.
