Manager, Enhanced Care Referral Team in Northampton

The closing date is 17 February 2026. On the back of the successful pilot project, an exciting opportunity has arisen within the CAMHS Provider Collaborative to lead the Enhanced Care Referral Team (ECRT), providing both clinical and operational leadership to this highly impactful regional service in a substantive post. Following a successful bid for funding, the ECRT was launched to deliver face-to-face assessments for young people referred for potential inpatient admission. The service was designed to ensure timely, high-quality decision-making grounded in a holistic understanding of each young person's needs, promoting strong collaboration between community and inpatient services.

The postholder will provide leadership to the ECRT, coordinating day-to-day service delivery across the region. The team comprises a Service Manager and three Senior CAMHS Mental Health Practitioners. The role involves direct clinical leadership alongside multi-professional collaboration to deliver high-quality face-to-face assessments for young people under consideration for inpatient care. The primary focus is to ensure safe, effective and responsive pathways including management of referrals, assessment, formulation and complex communication with inpatient colleagues, outpatient colleagues, young people and their family/carers -- with the aim of reducing unnecessary admissions where possible. Where admission is required, the postholder will support bed management and communication with the young person's systems.

Main duties of the job:

• To effectively manage a high functioning CAMHS team.
• To ensure the smooth operation of the ECRT.
• To undertake complex mental health assessments on young people who are referred for consideration of inpatient admission, formulate a decision regarding admission and be able to competently and sensitively deliver outcomes and rationale to CAMHS colleagues, young people and their families and wider networks.
• To effectively communicate across the children and young peoples network in the East Midlands and beyond.
• To have a strategic view on service development in line with local and national agendas relating to CAMHS.
• To provide synthesised data regarding the teams performance to local and regional boards and meetings.
• To provide and support team development in line with trust guidelines on supervision, appraisal and training.
• To promote and nurture professional relationships within the Provider Collaborative and beyond.

About us:

NHFT is an NHS Community and Mental Health Foundation Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in hospital settings and in the community. We provide over 200 services across the county - as well as some specialist services in bordering and nearby counties. We work together with our partners to ensure that everyone who comes through our doors receives compassionate, person-centred care, regardless of their background or circumstances. NHFT promotes a culture of learning, to improve the care and safety of our patients and colleagues. We have achieved our 'outstanding' rating by encouraging opportunity, innovation, development and growth across our workforce.

Person Specification:

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills enabling good working relationships with others across professional boundaries.
• Ability to inspire others and lead collaboratively.
• Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult situations.
• Maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of conflicting priorities and agendas.
• Works well under pressure and is proactive, willingness to work flexibly including non-social hours, good organisational and time management skills, ability to plan and prioritise own workload.
• Relevant Core Professional qualification in mental health care; Evidence of continuing professional development in a related area; Postgraduate Short Courses and experience; Evidence of professional registration; Training in one or more additional specialised areas of practice including children and young people; Educated to Masters' Degree or PG Dip in relevant field or able to demonstrate equivalent skills and abilities to work at this level.
• Experience of working as a senior clinician in clinical settings which meet the core competencies of the post.
• Experience of managing complex cases within a mental health service.
• An extensive range of clinical experience within the speciality or within a care pathway.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
• Experience of supervision of less experienced practitioners within the MDT.
• Skills in service evaluations and service relevant research.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Experience of assessing and treating patients across the full range of care settings.
• High level of working knowledge of the policy guidance and legislation specifically relating to children and young people.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the patient group and mental health, including the Mental Health Act and issues of capacity and consent.
• Detailed knowledge of child safeguarding procedures.
• Understanding of the principles of capacity management and bed management procedures.
• Well-developed knowledge in the practice of specialist therapies in Children and Young People within a stepped model of care.
• Extensive knowledge of evidenced based psychological therapies from a range of modalities, including systemic working.
• Understanding of the acuity and demands of CYP inpatient services.
• Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands.
• Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options.
• Able to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise.
• Effective organiser, influencer and networker.
• Ability to work across boundaries and look for collective success, listens, involves and respects and learns from the contributions of others.

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.