Mental Health Practitioner in Castleford

Job Summary

Are you passionate about helping young people with mental health problems? Are you looking for an opportunity to develop and share your skills and knowledge in mental health? If you answer yes to these questions, then Wakefield Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is the place for you!

We are looking for an experienced and confident Mental Health Practitioner who is able to work within a busy team. You must have significant and demonstrable experience of working with young people and their families, who can often present with a range of complex mental health needs. You will manage your own caseload, providing a range of high-quality care appropriate to the young persons needs which will include risk assessment and management, consultation and evidence-based interventions.

You must have a comprehensive range of skills and knowledge to deliver clinical aspects of the role in order to be able to provide a range of appropriate clinical interventions and assessment and be competent to do this work as an autonomous practitioner within professional practice guidelines and a structured supervision framework.

Main duties of the job

• Hold and manage a caseload independently.
• Provide thorough risk assessments and care planning.
• Provide therapeutic intervention through both 1:1 work and group work with young people in the locality.
• Provide urgent assessments when required.
• Work in a trauma-informed way.
• Work with other agencies; schools, social care etc.

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.

About Us

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 were accountable to our members, who can have a say in how were 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 expects all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.

We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary.

Details

• Date posted: 12 October 2026
• Pay scheme: Agenda for change
• Band: Band 6
• Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year
• Contract: Permanent
• Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working
• Reference number: C9378-W1520A
• Job locations: Airedale Health Centre, The Square, Fryston Road, Castleford, WF10 3JJ, United Kingdom

Job Description

The post-holder will:

• Provide assessment and treatment to children and young people with mental health needs;
• Work autonomously and collaboratively within the MDT, providing consultation for other agencies/professionals;
• Promote the safeguarding and welfare of children and young people.

To provide routine and urgent assessment and interventions to young people with a wide range of emotional and psychological problems who are referred to specialist CAMHS, in keeping with evidence based practice with supervision from a senior clinician within professional guidelines and within the overall framework of the teams policies and procedures.

Key Result Areas

1. To support the ongoing process of delivering a comprehensive CAMHS system.
2. To provide assessment, interventions, therapy to children, young people with the most severe, complex and persistent mental health problems, including those who are severely mentally ill or at suicidal risk and where appropriate, families as both an autonomous practitioner and as part of a multidisciplinary team in a variety of settings to address need. This will include working with the CAPA model.
3. To apply a sound knowledge of safeguarding children and guidelines in clinical work.
4. To be committed to a quality approach for patient care.
5. The post-holder will demonstrate high levels of concentration and provide sustained effort in assessment of complex family issues.
6. To manage own caseload, accessing support and guidance appropriate to individual need.
7. To operate within the clinical and case management supervision framework.
8. To provide training, consultation and supervision to other service providers, partner agencies and junior members of staff as required regarding intensive interventions with children, young people and families.
9. To participate in the development, audit and review of this extension to existing service provision.
10. To undertake extended hours of work alongside fellow specialist CAMHS practitioners.
11. To work collaboratively with all services to provide coherent and co-ordinated mental health services for children and young people as well as other significant partners, ensuring timely transition and relevant consultation, training and support to universal services and targeted groups.
12. To use a range of Information Technology systems (including Rio) ensuring high quality data is collected appropriately, kept securely and confidentially
13. To participate in an agreed clinical audit programme for the service, and ensure lessons learnt from both audit and clinical incidents are reported.
14. To comply with both clinical and corporate governance frameworks.
15. To support the engagement of service stakeholders and users in the development and monitoring of service delivery and identify opportunities for service improvement and redesign.
16. To actively promote user/carer involvement in all aspects of care planning/delivery whilst respecting the rights, capabilities and wishes of the individuals concerned.
17. To work in an innovative and child, young person and family centred way, in a culture of continuous improvement and learning.
18. Apply Trust policies and procedures in instances of aggression, acute distress and disturbed mental health presentations.
19. To maintain relevant professional registration
20. To identify and communicate any concerns through the relevant management processes.
21. To demonstrate continued practice development and engage in annual appraisal.

We are aware that an increasing number of applicants are using AI technology to generate responses on NHS Job application forms. Over reliance on AI-generated content in application forms is strongly discouraged and we will conduct a thorough screening process before selecting candidates to progress to the next stage. If you are using AI to enhance your application, please disclose this in your NHS Jobs application form.

Person Specification

Training

• Training and experience relating to specialist CAMHS
• Experience of delivering training to others

Special Knowledge/Skills

• Good verbal and communication skills
• Ability to manage own caseload
• Good negotiation skills, and problem solving skills
• Customer service orientation
• Effective record keeping and report writing skills to include care planning and risk assessments.
• IT skills.
• Have good team working skills. Be able to work across disciplines with an ability to predict and manage inter-disciplinary tensions and foster good working practices.

Qualifications

Essential

• Relevant professional qualification, e.g. nursing, or other professional allied to medicine
• Dip SW or relevant mental health profession
• Membership of professional body

Desirable

• Post Registration qualification e.g. degree
• Post graduate qualification in mental health (e.g. CBT, Family Therapy, Counselling)
• A teaching and assessing qualification.

Experience

Essential

• 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
• Multidisciplinary team working
• Inter-agency liaison and consultation
• Experience of supervising/mentoring junior staff
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance e.g. NHS plan, Mental Health Legislation, Childrens act, Education Act, Working Together, Childrens NSF, Every Child Matters, etc.
• Clinical/therapeutic knowledge and skills in mental health.
• Experience in assessment and risk management and ability to implement evidence based practice
• Proven ability to work with other agencies and disciplines and in partnership with other organisations.
• Experience of safeguarding children and young people.

Desirable

• Experience of community settings
• Experience of working in different cultural contexts
• Knowledge and experience of working with Equality and Diversity.

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Able to work autonomously and as part of a team
• Commitment to multi-agency approach
• Ability to work and make decisions under pressure.
• Calm, confident, innovative, creative and assertive
• Clarity of decision making
• 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
• A Current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability)

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).

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: South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust

Address: Airedale Health Centre, The Square, Fryston Road, Castleford, WF10 3JJ, United Kingdom

Employer's website: https://www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)

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