Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist in London

We care for you as much as you care for others. There’s a place for you at CNWL. We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people. We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career. With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you’re at, there’s always a place for you at CNWL.

Main duties of the job:

• To provide a qualified specialist child and adolescent psychotherapy service to children and young people with mental health problems across all sectors of care as part of a multi-disciplinary CAMHS team.
• Providing specialist psychotherapeutic assessment and therapy to service users and their families/carers and advice and consultation on their care to non-psychotherapist colleagues and the professional network involved in their support.
• The post holder will work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures.
• They will utilise research skills for audit to support policy and service development; and undertake research within the area served by the service and of relevance to young people their families and carers.
• The post holder will provide generic CAMHS assessment and intervention as well as providing specialist psychotherapeutic interventions and contributing to specialist support plans for the care of children and young people who are looked after.
• They will contribute to highly specialist assessments of children with complex mental health presentations.
• The post will also include one day a week with Hillington U5 service.
• The post holder will provide brief psychotherapy to families and consultation to professionals and parents.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

• Provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments of children and young people referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources.
• Formulate and implement plans for the formal treatment and/or management of the child/young person’s problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• Be responsible for implementing a range of psychotherapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, grounded in the principles and techniques of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
• Evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of children and young people whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• Contribute directly and indirectly to a framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all children and young people of the service, across all settings and agencies serving children and young people with learning disabilities and mental health problems/challenging behaviour.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual children and young people.
• Act as case worker, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of CAMHS care plans including children and young people, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
• Communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of children and young people under their care and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary care.

Person specification:

• Qualifications: Masters level preclinical training at an Association of Child Psychotherapists recognised training school; post graduate doctoral level training in clinical child psychotherapy at a training school accredited by the Association of Child Psychotherapy or Association of Child Psychotherapists Statement of Equivalence. Pre-qualification training and qualifications in relevant fields in health, social care or education settings.
• Knowledge & Skills: Skills in the use of complex methods of psychotherapeutic assessment, intervention and management. Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS. Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and adolescents including child protection procedures and policies. Ability to tolerate anxiety without recourse to premature action whilst appreciating the role of the supervisor. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. Knowledge of NHS, Social Care and Education Structures, National policies and frameworks. Knowledge of research methodology and outcome research design and ability to critically interpret research findings.
• Experience: Experience of specialist psychotherapeutic assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and their parents as a full member of a multidisciplinary team located in community, primary care, outpatient or inpatient setting. Experience of working with a wide variety children, adolescents across the whole age range (0-18) and their parents, and presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity and complexity. Experience of working in different CAMHS Tiers. Experience of the application of child psychotherapy in different cultural contexts.
• Others: Ability to teach and train others and present the work of child psychotherapists within public, professional and academic settings.

CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run. Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference. We’re proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff. We are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare.

We aim to employ only the best people, and our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries. We offer a generous relocation package (subject to eligibility assessment) and flexible working options, including bank assignments for most roles. For more information on these and other benefits of working for us, see our Benefits, Reward and Wellbeing page.

Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others. CNWL NHS Foundation Trust are committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices to protect children and vulnerable adults.