Specialist Clinical Psychologist/ Family Therapist (CLA&Return Home)inLondoninLondonPUBLISHED FRI 28 MAR 2025

This is an exciting opportunity for a clinician with experience of working with Children Looked After (CLA) to join an experienced CAMHS team that is co-located with Children's Social Care. This specialist role will be across two services areas:

• delivering our core clinical model in CLA and Fostering
• supporting reunification of children and young people with their birth families.

The core clinical role has a consultative focus, including offering group and individual consultation to Social Workers. The role will have a small clinical caseload of direct work with CLA, carers and birth parents.

This role has an exciting additional focus on reunification. It will involve both direct and indirect clinical intervention with young people, birth parents and the wider network to support successful reunification.

Our work is framed within a stepped model of care; and is guided by Islington CLA's Practice Models (DDP, Mentalisation, Motivational Practice, Return Home).

We are a dynamic, multidisciplinary team and offer opportunities for continued professional development and reflective practice.

We encourage applications from all sections of the community to develop a team which is more representative of our client groups.

• To provide specialist mental health advice and consultation to social workers in the Children Looked After Service to support their practice and management of young people presenting with a range of presentations and needs.
• To attend group supervision, sharing clinical and mental health knowledge and expertise to contribute to case discussion.
• To facilitate consultations with social workers and supervising social workers, to enhance their trauma-informed, relationship based-practice with children and caregivers.
• To provide specialist mental health assessment, formulation and interventions with children, young people and care-givers
• To provide specialist evidence-based intervention for looked after children and carers, drawing on innovative ways of engagement and intervention.
• To provide specialist evidence-based interventions for birth parents which will aid reunification, including processing of their experiences of having a child removed and relational work to rebuild the parent-child relationship.
• To formulate and devise clinical management plans for a range of specialist psychological interventions; individual, family and group.
• To provide reports and communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, as required.
• To liaise with professionals in health, mental health, education, social care and voluntary sector services, as required.

About us

MAIN DUTIES Consultation and Clinical Work

To provide highly specialist mental health advice and consultation to social workers Islington's service for CLA and Care Experienced Young People - to support their practice and management of children and young people aged 0-18 with a range of presentations and needs.

To attend group supervision, sharing clinical and mental health knowledge and expertise to contribute to case discussion.

To facilitate individual and joint consultations with social workers, supervising social workers, and other professionals in the parenting team, to enhance their trauma and DDP informed practice.

To facilitate individual and joint consultations specifically focussing on reunification and repair of parent-child relationships

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills of the CLA workforce and to support embedding of the social work practice model.

To provide specialist assessment and intervention for young people looked after, leaving care, their carers, families and professional networks, using evidence based and innovative ways of engagement and intervention. It is expected that 20% of the job plan would be allocated to direct clinical work, whether with foster carers, keyworkers or young people.

To formulate and devise clinical management plans for a range of specialist psychological interventions; individual, family and group.

To provide high quality reports and communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, as required.

To liaise with professionals in health, mental health, education, social care and voluntary sector services, as required

To work autonomously providing a specialist clinical service within

To ensure the regular use of routine outcomes as part of evaluating the impact of the clinical, consultation and other work offered.

To have due regard for your own personal safety and that of children/carers, adhering to moving and handling regulations, restraining policies and ensure the safe positioning of self and others

To conform to the provisions of the Health and Safety Act and to comply with local statutory training including the appropriate level of Child Protection, on an annual basis or as required.

Teaching, training and supervision

To attend regular clinical supervision and participate in team and service training, as required.

To provide clinical supervision and line management of trainees and other CAMHS staff, as required by the team and service.

To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical staff as required.

To continue to develop skills in professional post-graduate teaching, training, consultation and supervision

Management, policy and service development

To provide line management for junior clinicians within the service as required by the Team Managers.

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To be involved, as appropriate, in the recruitment, short listing and interviewing of CAMHS Clinicians and Assistant Clinicians.

To attend, as required, a range of interagency meetings to represent the team in a delegated role, offering guidance, where appropriate, ensuring that issues relating to the service are noted and brought to the attention of the Team manager.

To assist, in the integration and development of user participation, outcomes measures, and evidence-based treatment approaches in line with the wider CAMHS strategy for service improvement.

Research and service evaluation

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members

To contribute to service development (and if necessary, undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research).

General

To demonstrate anti-discriminatory practice in all aspects of the role

To ensure the development and maintenance of the highest personal standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holders line manager.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues of relevance to the service and client group.

To undertake such other duties and responsibilities, appropriate to the grade of the post, as may be agreed with Manager Community CAMHS.

To be cognisant and respectful of Whittingtons ICARE values and Islington Vision and Priorities