CAMHS Senior Liaison Practitioner in Wakefield

We are looking for an experienced Senior Liaison Practitioner who enjoys working in a fast-paced environment, can make sound clinical decisions under pressure and wants to play a key role in supporting children and young people presenting in a mental health crisis. This role is within the CAMHS Crisis Team and is mainly based within the general acute ward at Pinderfields General Hospital. The role aims to support children and young people who present to Accident and Emergency (A&E) and paediatric wards and require mental health assessment and support.

You require extensive experience working with children and young people in a mental health setting. The job role requires direct clinical work with children and young people who are presenting in a crisis and/or acutely unwell. You would be required to liaise with other agencies involved in the young person's care to ensure the best outcome possible and work within least restrictive practice. You would support the acute ward to risk assess, safety plan and care plan to manage risk whilst admitted to the ward and navigate the best outcome for the child/young person. You require a professional registration to apply for this role and the teamwork between 8am-8pm, 365 days of the year.

Main duties of the job:

• Direct clinical assessment and brief intervention to children and young people who are currently on a general hospital ward usually waiting assessment or a mental health inpatient bed/safe discharge.
• Facilitate and support a safe discharge where possible to ensure working within least restrictive practice guidelines.
• Work collaboratively with external services/agencies to ensure smooth handover and communication.
• Attend escalation meetings to ensure the child/young person has the right support in place and that the young person is placed in the right setting for their presentation.
• Daily mental health reviews when there are young people on the paediatric wards with mental health presentations.
• Offer clinical supervision and training to the staff on the acute wards.
• Work in the community to prevent admission to hospital where possible, with increased intervention/support via home visits.
• Advise the acute wards in relation to risk assessment and care planning to keep children and young people safe whilst admitted to their hospital.

We are a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental health and learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and are the lead for the West Yorkshire secure provider collaborative. Our mission is to help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do this by providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employ staff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make a difference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourage and welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we value diversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities. Being a foundation Trust means we’re accountable to our members, who can have a say in how we’re run. Around 14,300 local people (including staff) are members of our Trust. Join us and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improving the mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet and help each year. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.

Details:

• Date posted: 14 August 2026
• Pay scheme: Agenda for change
• Band: Band 7
• Salary: £49,387 to £56,515 a year
• Contract: Permanent
• Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working
• Reference number: C9378-W1517A
• Job locations: Block 9 Fieldhead Hospital Wakefield WF13SP United Kingdom

Job responsibilities:

This job description is an outline of the main duties of the post. The post-holder will be required to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade as directed. The content of this post will be reviewed in consultation with the post-holder when necessary and in line with the service developments.

• To provide highly specialist skills and expertise, facilitating interventions of the highest quality in the field of mental health, including emergency assessments and intensive interventions with children, young people and their families.
• To work autonomously and collaboratively within the MDT, providing consultation and teaching for other agencies/professionals.
• To provide supervision and teaching to all other disciplines within CAMHS and to deputise as agreed for the team leader.
• To promote safeguarding and the welfare of children and young people.

KEY RESULT AREAS:

• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility in accordance with the Trust Policies and procedures.
• The post-holder will have highly developed skills in assessing the needs of children and their carers based on the analysis of highly complex facts and situations.
• Interventions will be planned based on the assessment information and interpretation of this.
• The clinical assessment will include gathering appropriate historical information from the child and family, allied to clinical observation of family relationships and mental state of the child and other family members, and obtaining relevant information from other agencies.
• Offering highly specialist expertise in child and adolescent mental health, ensuring clear documentation in all appropriate case notes and sharing assessments and information with the family and all relevant professionals.
• To undertake highly specialist initial assessments of young people following acts of serious self-harm and attempted suicide in line with evidence-based practice.
• To undertake highly specialised risk assessments following referral for presentations requiring urgent mental health or psychiatric assessment and plan relevant interventions.
• To implement intensive interventions with young people and their families, as relevant to the post-holder’s main clinical role, i.e. group and individual work, systemic family interventions.
• The post-holder will provide therapeutic care to emotionally demanding clients in highly emotive situations.
• The post-holder will develop and maintain therapeutic relationships with children and carers.
• This will include cases of high complexity which require more specialised levels of assessment and therapeutic skills.
• As part of the multi-disciplinary team, the Senior Mental Health Practitioner will deliver and devise complex packages of care.
• Provide individual and family review/follow-up sessions to children, young people or their carers.
• To take a lead role in setting guidelines and standards that will ensure all young persons identified with complex problems are discharged from Specialist CAMHS with an appropriate package of care from universal services.
• The post-holder will have skills to communicate highly complex information regarding personal psycho-social problems in an empathic and supportive way using the highest level of interpersonal skills in situations which can be highly emotional and sometimes antagonistic.
• Service users and families may have difficulty or be reluctant to understand what is communicated to them.
• Communicate complex, sensitive or contentious information utilising highly developed interpersonal skills.
• Take into account issues of confidentiality and the consent of Adults and Young People.
• Considering and assessing a child’s maturity to consent.
• To work with children, young people (0-18) and their families, liaising with external agencies, e.g. Education, Social Services and Paediatric Services.
• Presenting problems are frequently complex and require that sophisticated packages of care are negotiated and delivered.
• To actively promote user/carer involvement in all aspects of care planning/delivery whilst respecting the rights, capabilities and wishes of the individuals concerned.
• To apply a sound knowledge of safeguarding children and guidelines in clinical work.
• To deputise for the team leader in his/her absence.
• Apply Trust policies and procedures in instances of aggression, acute distress and disturbed mental health presentations.

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to have their up-to-date flu vaccination to protect staff and patients. At the time of advertising, this role does meet the minimum requirements set by UK Visas and Immigration to sponsor candidates to work in the UK. We look forward to receiving your application.

Person Specification:

• Experience:
• Essential: Experience of delivering training to others, extensive experience in identified portfolio requirements, substantial post qualification experience, some of which must be working with children, young people and their carers in a mental health or other complex care setting, experience of working in different cultural contexts, knowledge and experience of working with Equality and Diversity, multidisciplinary team working, inter-agency liaison and consultation, experience of providing highly specialist advice and supervision to other professionals, knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance for working with children, young people, mental health and safeguarding, evidence of advanced clinical/therapeutic knowledge and skills in mental health, extensive experience in assessment and risk management and ability to implement evidence-based practice, advanced experience of safeguarding children and young people.
• Desirable: Experience of community settings.
• Physical Attributes:
• Essential: Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post, a satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).
• Personal Attributes:
• Essential: Able to work autonomously and as part of a team, commitment to multi-agency approach/working, ability to work and make decisions under pressure, calm, confident, innovative, creative and assertive, ability to make and lead decisions under pressure/crisis situations, willingness to be flexible and adaptable in accordance with changing service priorities, commitment to challenging discrimination and improving accessibility of services, ability to cope calmly in a crisis, to demonstrate good self-care and encourage the same in team members.
• Special Knowledge/Skills:
• Essential: Excellent verbal and communication skills, ability to manage own caseload and to be a self-reliant and autonomous practitioner, excellent negotiation skills, and problem-solving skills, customer service orientation, excellent record keeping and report writing skills to include care planning and risk assessments, IT skills.
• Qualifications:
• Essential: Relevant professional qualification, e.g. nursing, or other professional allied to medicine, post qualification training in identified portfolio, e.g. LD, LAC, eating disorder, Dip SW or relevant mental health profession, a teaching and assessing qualification, membership of professional body.
• Desirable: Post graduate qualification in mental health (e.g. CBT, Family Therapy, Counselling), Masters Level qualification, formal management/supervisory qualification.

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 called CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions. Applicants must have current UK professional registration.