Senior Clinical Fellow - CAMHS Psychiatrist

This is a role to support the psychiatry team in Islington CAMHS. The role has emerged due to a vacancy in one of the CAMHS Senior trainee (ST) posts allocated in Islington CAMHS, part of the GOSH rotation, from February 2025. It is a 6 months fixed term role and will be suitable for those who wish to obtain additional experience in child & adolescent psychiatry, and those who are considering a career in child and adolescent psychiatry and would like to gain skills and competences in the discipline. This is a full time post but applications for less than full time roles, or job shares, will also be considered. The post holder will join three consultant child and adolescent psychiatrists (2.7WTE). The service hosts three core trainees in psychiatry from the Royal Free and UCLH rotation. Although this is a trust grade post, the clinical duties and teaching components are the same as in our deanery funded training posts. The post holder will receive weekly supervision by a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and will be supported in developing their clinical skills and expertise in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Please note that this post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Main duties of the job

• Provide psychiatric assessment, including risk assessment, shared decision-making with patients/parents/carers and treatment for children and young people referred to the service.
• Work in partnership with young people, parents and carers to develop effective, evidence based management plans with ongoing review of the formulation and of these management plans.
• Provide psychiatric consultation, advice, and appropriate support to colleagues within CAMHS as well as to professionals in the wider network of the child, young person or family.
• Clinical liaison with clinicians in other community and specialist children’s services as well as with specialist inpatient or other residential services.
• Support and develop links between the team, primary care, other local services and schools.
• Be responsive and flexible in seeing children and families for urgent assessment where there is risk of self-harm or suspicion of severe mental illness.
• Contribute to quality improvement through audit/QI of both psychiatric and multidisciplinary team work.

Working for our organisation

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• The post holder will be expected to work with local managers and professional colleagues in the efficient running of the service.
• The post holder and the consultant child psychiatrists are line managed by the child psychiatry Clinical Lead, Dr Aspa Paspali, within CAMHS and ultimately are clinically accountable to the Clinical Director in the Children and Young People’s Services.
• Subject to the provisions of terms and conditions of service, the post-holder will be expected to observe the agreed policies of the NHS Islington Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service and the procedures drawn up in consultation with the profession on clinical matters.
• The post holder will be expected to adhere to Trust policies.
• Islington Community CAMHS has eight WTE administration staff managed by a CAMHS Admin Manager. There is comprehensive admin support for appointment systems within the teams and throughput of work for all types of admin support is within appropriate service standards.
• Office accommodation for Community CAMHS is restricted. All clinical staff are allocated specific desk space in shared offices. The post holder will have access to a desk top PC or laptop. There is IT support from the IT Department.
• All medical staff are expected to comply with Health and Safety policies.

Person specification

• Qualifications
• MB BS or equivalent
• Candidates must hold current full or limited registration with the GMC
• MRCPsych or equivalent
• Section 12 approval
• Clinical Experience
• At least three years full time or equivalent training in a recognised psychiatry training scheme.
• Additional experience in CAMHS, paediatrics or general adult psychiatry
• Skills & Knowledge
• Ability to work effectively as a team member
• Ability to prioritise and organise clinical and supporting activities
• Good clinical knowledge and excellent clinical skills, including psychopharmacology, risk assessment and management, assessment and management of neurodevelopmental conditions and common psychiatric condition

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS

To comply with the Trust’s Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This will require you to:

• Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with the London Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures.
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing.
• Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines.
• Participate in required training and supervision.
• Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct.

Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.