Specialist Mental Health Practitioner in Oxford

Main area CAMHS Grade Band 8a Contract Fixed term: 9 months (and would consider secondment) Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 267-OC8145708

Employer Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Maple House Town Oxford Salary £57,528 - £64,750 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 06/10/2026 23:59

Band 8a

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.

We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Good luck and we hope to hear from you.

Job overview

Are you a Registered mental health professional seeking a new challenge?

We are seeking a full time Specialist Mental Health Practitioner to join our team on a fixed term, maternity cover. The Thames Valley-wide programme for children and young people with complex needs is centred around the implementation of a practice framework known as the ‘Framework for Integrated Care’. It is designed to improve outcomes for a cohort of vulnerable children and young people with complex needs who experience some of the highest levels of health inequality in society.

The framework focuses on trauma-informed practice, cross-agency working and achievement of consensus across professionals and family by clinical formulation and support for professionals and others who are directly involved with young people.

Clinicians working within the new development will be involved in direct clinical work, interprofessional liaison and training. The scope of work and understanding of intervention will broader than that encountered within most existing CAMHS provision.

In Oxfordshire, clinicians will be co-located with a range of other services already working along the lines of the FIC frequently with young people with complex needs (regional forensic CAMHS, Horizon (team for young people who have experience sexual trauma)). These services already have strong links with other teams across CAMHS, within children’s social care, youth justice, education and the voluntary and community sector.

Main duties of the job

• Provide expert care to patients on their caseload. Providing skilled assessment, treatment, supervision and consultation within CAMHS
• Provide expertise and specialist advice, supervision, guidance and consultation to other professionals delivering complex interventions and to contribute directly to young people’s assessment and treatment
• Make and receive referrals
• Set and improve standards and quality in expert field, with other disciplines, the wider organisation and across organisational boundaries
• Contribute to the education, training and development of other clinical staff and partner agencies

Working for our organisation

Oxford Health is a great place to work and to be able to showcase the best of yourself when making an application please read the “candidate guide to making an application” and ensure your supporting statement is tailored to the role you are applying for and addresses any essential criteria.

As a Trust we provide physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and Northeast Somerset. Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible. Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive: “Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”

Our values are: “Caring, safe and excellent”

We offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:

• Excellent opportunities for career progression
• Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
• 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
• NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
• Competitive pension scheme
• Lease car scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists apply)
• Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.

The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview, and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.

Qualifications

• Registered RMN, OT, Social Worker or Psychological Therapist
• Masters degree directly related to specialism
• Highly developed interpersonal skills for delivering key messages to a range of stakeholders
• Resilience under situational pressure, professional challenge and change. Ability to work flexibly to the needs of the locality, service, patients, families and carers.
• Public speaking competence, with evidence of presentation at strategic, national/international level

Knowledge

• Commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
• Experience/skills of working with young people in mental health settings
• Published papers
• All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
• Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
• We’re advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
• Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
• We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
• We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
• Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

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