Senior Mental Health Practitioner Bristol

Job summary

This specialist CAMHS role is dedicated to improving mental health outcomes for Children in Care and Care Experienced Children and Young People (CYP) across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG). The post holder will provide high-quality, trauma-informed mental health support, including specialist assessment, formulation, risk assessment and management, therapeutic interventions, consultation, and care planning.

The role combines direct clinical work within CAMHS Community Services with one day per week in the CAMHS Getting Advice Triage Team, providing triage, risk screening, consultation and referral management to ensure timely access to appropriate support. Holding a specialist caseload, the practitioner will work collaboratively with children, young people, families, carers and multi‑agency partners across health, social care and education to deliver coordinated, relationship‑based care, with the child's voice and lived experience central to decision‑making.

As a senior clinician, the post holder will contribute to service development and provide supervision, consultation and support to colleagues, promoting trauma‑informed, evidence‑based practice and specialist knowledge relating to Children in Care. This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced practitioner passionate about improving outcomes for vulnerable children and young people while helping to shape and develop this evolving specialist CAMHS pathway across BNSSG.

Main duties of the job

Key Responsibilities

• Work across the CAMHS Getting Advice Team and Community Locality Teams, supporting Children in Care and Care Experienced Children and Young People across BNSSG.
• Triage referrals and undertake specialist mental health and risk assessments to ensure timely access to appropriate support.
• Manage a specialist caseload, providing formulation, care planning, evidence-based interventions and ongoing risk management.
• Deliver trauma-informed, child-centred care in partnership with children, young people, carers, families and multi‑agency professionals.
• Provide consultation, advice and specialist mental health expertise to colleagues and partner agencies.
• Contribute to safeguarding processes and promote effective risk assessment and management.
• Support transitions between services, including transition to adult mental health services where appropriate.
• Provide clinical supervision, consultation and support to Band 6 Mental Health Practitioners and wider colleagues.
• Share specialist knowledge of trauma, attachment, mental health and the needs of Children in Care to support workforce development.
• Contribute to service development, quality improvement initiatives and the ongoing enhancement of the specialist Children in Care pathway within BNSSG CAMHS.
• Maintain accurate clinical records and work in line with professional, organisational and statutory requirements.

About us

We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Details

Date posted: 20 August 2026

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 7

Salary: £49,387 to £56,515 a year

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Full-time

Reference number: 342-CAMHS053-0826

Job locations: Barton Hill Settlement, Ducie Road, Bristol, BS5 0AX, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

To assess, develop, implement, and evaluate therapeutic interventions, and to be responsible for the management of your own caseload from referral to discharge.

To carry out specialist and urgent assessments of a young persons mental health needs and associated risks when required, including deliberate selfharm assessments.

To work with children, young people, and their families, promoting opportunities for their maximum engagement and involvement in formulations, care plans, and evaluation of the service they receive.

To work jointly with staff from other agencies in direct work with children, young people, and their families.

When appropriate, to engage in joint work with other specialist CAMHS personnel as agreed with the CAMHS Service Manager.

To develop effective liaison with referrers, and those contributing to referrals to specialist CAMHS, and to guide referrers to appropriate resources for children and young people with mental health needs.

To attend CAMHS meetings and case discussions as appropriate.

To work closely as part of the multidisciplinary CAMHS team.

To practise within current legislations governing the delivery of services to children and young people, including legislation relating to Looked After Children and the safeguarding of children as defined in the Children Act (1989, amended 2004), as well as local guidelines.

To assess safeguarding issues for each case, to practise within local safeguarding guidelines, to share and directly refer concerns when appropriate, and to participate in multiagency safeguarding conferences.

To participate in regular reviews of cases and attend case discussions, conferences and reviews as appropriate.

To comply with the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements of your professional body.

Please contact Lois Richards (Clinical Service Manager) if you would like any further information.

Please see the attached Job Description for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

Person Specification

Qualification

Essential

• Relevant completed professional qualification (e.g. clinical psychology, mental health nursing, social work, family therapy, occupational therapy, accredited CBT, psychotherapy)
• Maintenance of appropriate professional registration (i.e. HCPC, UKCP,NME)

Desirable

• Additional training in assessment and therapeutic approaches in a specialist area relevant to CAMHS
• Experience in a community Adult Mental Health/Young Person service

Experience

Essential

• Knowledge of national and local guidelines/policy regarding provision of public sector services to children/young people and their families
• Experience of risk assessment and management appropriate to children and young people. Including young people who are suicidal and present a risk to self and/or others.
• Experience of multi-disciplinary team working
• Knowledge of working together arrangements in particular, Children in Need assessments, Clinical Risk assessment and Child Protection guidelines

Desirable

• Experience in a community CAMHS service

Skills

Essential

• Ability to work with children, young people and families from a wide range of social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds
• Ability to organise and prioritise client caseload
• Ability to be flexible about where the child and family are seen e.g. clinic, school or home
• Ability to be sensitive to complex emotional issues
• Ability to write concise reports for referrers, families and other agencies
• Ability to communicate sensitive and difficult information to clients and their carers
• Ability to establish and maintain good working relationships with other professionals within the team

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name: Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Address: Barton Hill Settlement, Ducie Road, Bristol, BS5 0AX, United Kingdom

Employer's website: http://www.awp.nhs.uk/about-us/working-for-us/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact: Clinical Service Manager, Lois Richards, lois.richards@nhs.net, 01173408570

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.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.