Central Screening Team Mental Health Clinician in Leatherhead

Are you an experienced and passionate mental health professional looking to make a real difference for children and young people? Join our Surrey-wide Central Screening Team and play a pivotal role in ensuring children, young people and families receive the right support, at the right time, through the right service.

We are seeking four Band 7 Central Screening Clinicians to join the innovative and dynamic Mindworks Surrey team. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the heart of a county-wide service, helping to shape care pathways and improve outcomes for children and young people across Surrey.

We're looking for motivated clinicians who are:

• Experienced in working with children and young people within mental health, health, social care or related services.
• Skilled in assessment, risk management and clinical decision-making.
• Confident communicating with families, professionals and partner agencies.
• Passionate about improving access to support and delivering excellent outcomes.
• Adaptable, resilient and able to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Able to offer flexibility.

Main duties of the job:

• Provide expert telephone screening and triage for urgent and specialist referrals.
• Assess clinical need, risk, safeguarding concerns and urgency using advanced clinical judgement.
• Make autonomous decisions regarding referral prioritisation and allocation.
• Allocate referrals to the most appropriate Surrey pathway, including:
• Urgent Care
• Community Eating Disorder Service (CEDS)
• Mindworks Hubs (Community Mental Health Teams)
• School-Based Needs Service (SBN)
• Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIIP)
• Children with Disabilities Team (CLD)
• Transfer of Care and Adult Mental Health Liaison
• Voluntary Sector Alliance Services
• Demonstrate knowledge of the Neurodevelopmental pathway, including School Consultation and medication referral processes.
• Develop safety plans and provide advice where appropriate, escalating urgent referrals in line with local guidance.
• Support Hub Screening Clinicians with routine referrals when urgent demand allows.
• Provide clinical advice and consultation to colleagues and partner agencies.
• Promote consistent decision-making through supervision, reflective practice and adherence to local guidance and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Support the induction, supervision and development of junior staff and students.
• Act as a clinical role model, promoting evidence-based practice and Trust values.
• Communicate effectively with children, young people, families and professionals.
• Provide timely clinical advice to referrers, GPs, schools, social care, acute hospitals and partner organisations.
• Build effective relationships across the Mindworks Alliance and represent the Access and Advice Team at meetings where appropriate.
• Present complex cases during team meetings, supervision and formulation discussions.
• Support safe and timely patient flow by ensuring referrals are screened and allocated promptly.
• Work closely with the Administration Team to manage referrals, telephone enquiries, and email inbox.
• Provide timely clinical decisions to support referral processing and allocation.
• Ensure all clinical decisions are accurately documented on the electronic patient record.
• Escalate operational or capacity concerns to the Service Manager.
• Support service performance by maintaining accurate records and contributing to KPI reporting.

Person Specification:

• Qualifications: Registered Mental Health Professional (RMN, Social Worker, Occupational Therapist or equivalent).
• Experience: Extensive experience as a band 6 Nurse / Occupational Therapist or Social worker.
• Desirable: Experience of supervising or mentoring others.
• Essential: Experience of telephone or remote clinical triage, assessment and clinical decision-making within a mental health setting.
• Desirable: Experience of working effectively within multi-agency systems, including schools, social care, GPs, acute services and voluntary sector organisations.

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 to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.