Senior Mental Health Practitioner

There is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Edge of Care Team that is working across health and social care to support children, young people and families in Halton.

This is a newly created team and works across Halton Borough Council and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

We are looking for an experienced practitioner who is keen to continue their career and use their skills in working with children and families who require intensive support.

It would be expected that the practitioner would have expertise and experience of working with children and families.

This team will work alongside Child in Need and Child Protection Teams within Children's Social Care in Halton supporting those families who are on the edge of care.

This will take place in a newly refurbished community centre in Runcorn as well as in the home and community.

The clinician will support children and families directly and also offer consultation and supervision to others around the child and family.

They will be responsible for supporting the mental health needs of the child and family and will consider any suitable interventions and support required.

There will be an expectation to offer supervision to staff within the service and also to offer consultation and support to other agencies in order to improve outcomes for families in Halton.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will demonstrate an attitude which respects and values service users' and their carers.

The post holder will embrace the core values of the organisation and adopt the principles of Recovery and THRIVE. These principles will recognise the need to :

Promote safe practicesValue the aims of service usersWork in partnership and offer meaningful choiceBe optimistic about the possibilities of meaningful changeValue social inclusion

The team promotes the Thrive model of service delivery and so is continually developing innovative and creative practice - so the successful candidate will share our enthusiasm and hard working approach.

About us

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

The toll for the Mersey Gateway Bridge will be paid along with regular travel expenses

Job responsibilities

CLINICAL To hold a caseload of both specialist and generic work dependant on clinical competence and experience.

To undertake assessments, treatment and consultation work based upon a conceptual framework and employing research based evidence..

To provide direct therapeutic interventions in line with the grading of the post, including assessments, formulation and therapeutic input into children, young people and families referred into the service.

Undertake risk assessments and care plans accordingly, in line with the THRIVE framework

To work in ways that are sensitive to the needs of children and young people families from a wide range of racial, cultural and religious backgrounds.

To be responsible for the screening of referrals to children and Young Peoples services.

To participate directly in the teams duty rotas.

To exercise responsibility and autonomy, within supervisory, managerial and accountability structures, for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients

To deliver care co-ordination, ensuring effective assessment, care planning and risk management processes are maintained.

Involve the views of children, their families, referring agents and other professionals involved in the network of care including organising multi-agency meetings.

To produce a clinical formulation and intervention plan founded on evidence based practice in co-operation with the child young person and carers

To hold responsibility for standards of clinical practice within area of specialist knowledge

To work jointly and collaboratively with other team members in order to enhance and develop the provision of services to young people and their families.

To have an effective knowledge base of other modalities so as to engage and work effectively with colleagues in other disciplines.

To provide consultation, advice and guidance to junior colleague.

To promote effective multi-agency work. To contribute theoretical knowledge to the process of managing risk within the multi-agency network

Undertake risk management for all children including the protective and risk factors present in the network of significant relationships.

Identify and respond appropriately to child protection issues, as described with the guidelines of Local Safeguarding Childrens Board and Northwest Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust safeguarding policies

Maintain clear and comprehensive electronic clinical records, to ensure information is accurate and complies with Data Protection Act and professional body and Trust standards.

To engage with using routine outcome measures as clinically appropriate including their use in clinical practice and inputting data into clinical records.

To work collaboratively with children, young people and their families and contribute to the trusts service user participation agenda.

COMMUNICATION To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both multi and uni disciplinary care.

To effectively communicate professional opinions, verbally and in writing to other relevant professionals.

Attend Child Protection Case conferences as a representative from children and young peoples mental health services.

Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information to children, young people and families and to other professionals with in young peoples services.

Communicate effectively with children, young people and their carers, when in crisis and in challenging family situations

Organise and facilitate multi-agency meetings and reviews

Elicit highly sensitive information using engagement / communication skills which are appropriate to the young persons stage of developmentWork, as part of an integrated multi professional team, ensuring good communication and working relationships with other professionals

Provide written reports detailing the progress of the mental health intervention.

TEACHING, TRAINING AND SUPERVISION. Participate in regular supervision, engage in reflective practice and committed to continued development.

To provide training to other professionals to improve mental health knowledge and skills in line the transformation of children and young peoples mental health services

To provide specific training and / or presentations to other agencies, statutory and voluntary, and promote and deliver specialist training programmes

To contribute to training placements for a range of professional disciplines from different background so that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to positive change.

To assess trainees competencies and write placement reports for trainees in line with Trust, professional body regulations

Work collaboratively with partner agencies within the principles of THRIVE.

This will include joint working; consultation; and training aiming to develop joint working across agencies.

Maintaining registration / accreditation requirements in accordance with the appropriate professional body in line with their professional qualification.

Be accountable for own clinical practice and professional behaviour

MANAGEMENT, POLICY AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT Identify priorities within and initiatives within the service and advice managers on the level of resources for service development.

Contribute to the services evidence based practice by engaging with audits and evaluations as appropriate

To contribute to recruitment processes by assisting with shortlisting, interviewing and the induction of recruited staff.

To support the workload of colleagues within the service through co-working practices.

RESEARCH AND SERVICE EVALUATION To maintain an up to date knowledge of the evidence base in relation to mental health knowledge and other interventions.

To contribute to planning and implementing systems for evaluation and monitoring of therapeutic practice and outcomes of clinical work within the service.

Participate in research, evaluation and audit in response to the clinical and professional interest of the post, and to monitor standards, quality and consumer reaction to the provision of services in accordance with NICE guidance

Participate in appropriate audit. Quality assurance programmes and research as directed.

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT To receive and engage in regular clinical supervision in accordance with Trust Clinical Governance Standards and the Code of Practice and ethical guidelines of professional body

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice through active participation in internal and external CPD training in consultation with the post holders service manager to meet professional body requirements for CPD andregistration.

To contribute to the development of best practice in the service by taking part in regular supervision and appraisal and maintaining awareness of current developments in the field.

To maintain professional body registration.

Person Specification

Knowledge / Experience

• Experience of mental health assessments and therapeutic interventions with children and young people with mental health problems and their families
• Skilled in the ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing, clinical sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Experience of working with a wide variety of patient groups that reflect the full range of clinical severity including a high degree of professionalism in the face of emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Experienced in and the ability to undertake case management and the supervision of students as required
• Knowledge and skills in the complete range of approaches within the field as required to meet the needs of different patients and settings.
• Level of knowledge of the mental health needs of children and adolescents.
• Have experienced in providing risk assessments
• Must demonstrate ability to be self-reflective and to organise own supervision appropriately
• Ability to work within a culturally diversive community in a wide variety of contexts including highly specialist skills for working in settings outside the clinic.
• Ability to take full clinical responsibility for patient care and treatment, both as a care co-ordinator and within the context of a multi-disciplinary team
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist therapies in specific difficult to treat groups.
• A level knowledge of theory and practice of specialist therapy / interventions
• Experience of delivering teaching, training.
• Experience in consultation to other professional and non-professional groups Information technology and management skills using word processing, spreadsheets, database and presentation software.
• Level of knowledge and / or training and other psychological therapies
• Knowledge and skills in providing consultation to other professionals and non-professional groups

Qualifications

Values

Skills

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.

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