Paediatric Mental Health Practitioner

Main area: Paediatric Mental Health Practitioner Grade Band 7

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (Working hours of 16:00 to 00:00 and 14:00 - 22:00 - Monday to Sunday. There will be some daytime working to cover training, study leave, continuous professional development. Job sharing options welcomed and considered.)

Job ref: 387-WC8624-LH

Site: Bristol Royal Hospital for Children

Town: Bristol

Salary: £46,148 - £52,809 pa pro rata

Salary period: Yearly

Closing: 02/03/:59

As an organisation, we recognise the value of a healthy work-life balance. When applying, speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate flexible working, so your work life fits around your home life.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic candidates as they are under-represented within the Trust.

We are a growing, thriving and innovative Children's Emergency Department (CED). Our vision is: To be a world-leading children's emergency department providing the best care for all children.

The CED team consists of a comprehensive medical team, skill mix of nursing team, health care support workers, emergency nurse practitioners, mental health practitioners, and reception admin staff.

The current clinical facilities comprise: a 3 bay resuscitation room (2 trolleys and 1 baby resuscitaire), and 12 clinical spaces. One of these clinical spaces has been transformed into a soft space which is used for those children and young people with mental health needs, learning difficulties, motor difficulties, and neurodiversity.

CED has an opportunity to welcome a specialist role of Band 7 Mental Health Practitioners working across the week. Our vision is to provide expert in-house mental health care and assessment.

Main duties of the job

The role will provide initial assessment, consultation, advice, and signposting, integrated as part of multi-disciplinary whole person assessment. These children and young people can present as a primary mental health crisis or a secondary mental health need. The role also involves cross-department working to assess 16-17-year-olds in the adult emergency department. A central role will be liaison with other services (including General Practice) to support the care with acute, chronic, or co-existing emotional and mental health needs presenting to CED. The individual must be confident in making admission or discharge decisions.

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP) CAMHS intensive outreach team (CIOT) are our closely interfaced partners for planning care & safe, timely transfers and discharges.

Additionally, focus is on an approach which is multi-professional, meeting both primary and secondary mental health presentations collaboratively within CED.

You will be supported by the CED Consultant lead for mental health, the Hospital senior nurse - lead for mental health, and CIOT Hospital Team manager.

We welcome applications from qualified mental health professionals including Registered Mental Health Nurses, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, and Clinical Psychologists who have appropriate experience of mental health assessment and risk assessment. We are also interested in graduates from a relevant discipline with substantial mental health service provision.

Working for our organisation

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) is one of the largest acute Trusts in the country, bringing together a combined workforce of over 13,000 staff and over 100 different clinical services across 10 different sites, serving a core population of more than 500,000 people across South West England. UHBW has been rated by the CQC as 'Good' overall and our staff are proud to deliver excellent care to the people of Bristol, Weston, and beyond.

As a forward-thinking multi-award winning Trust and a digital exemplar committed to improving patient care, our world-leading research and innovations are having a positive local and global impact. Our hospitals are spread across Bristol and Weston; join us and you can enjoy the very best of both worlds; city living within a stone's throw of the countryside or beside the seaside, both with easy access to all that the South West has to offer.

UHBW is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults. As an equal opportunities employer actively working towards a diverse workforce, we aim to recruit and retain a workforce which represents the rich diversity of the local population at all levels and are committed to designing our services around the needs of individual patients and those around them.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For a more detailed job description and main responsibilities, please refer to the job description document attached to this vacancy.

Person specification Public Sector Language Competency

• Be able to speak fluent English to an appropriate standard

Knowledge & Experience

• Experience of clinical mental health working with children, adolescents, or adults
• Expertise in assessing risk and risk management
• Experience of presenting mental health understanding to multi-professional teams
• Experience of working in CAMHS and with CYPS
• Knowledge of Mental Health Act and Children's Act
• Experience of formal teaching/training to health and other professionals
• Experience of work within a health setting
• A commitment to co-design, user participation, and working in ways which are sensitive to and appropriate for the needs of young people and their families
• Experience of using a range of interventions

Skills & Abilities

• Able to assess the mental health needs of patients and families in a physical health setting. This will include the use of standardized measures and assessments.
• Able to generate systemic and individual understandings, and interventions based on applying mental health knowledge to the complex information generated by the family, health, and social care systems.
• Able to demonstrate an understanding of the roles of a mental health professional in relation to a patient, their family, the staff teams, and the wider organisational systems around them.
• Good communication skills with the ability to provide and receive complex and sensitive information in a developmentally and culturally appropriate manner and in highly emotive situations.
• Ability to communicate complex information regarding mental health to staff in an accessible manner (written, verbal, electronic).
• Able to record and provide information and data pertaining to clinical work, activity, and outcomes (written, electronic).
• Able to demonstrate successful use of strategies to prioritise and manage time when there are conflicting demands.
• Able to demonstrate examples of successful commitment to team working.
• Able to demonstrate a realistic awareness of the potential for work-related stress and distress in this type of clinical work plus strategies to manage this.
• Able to demonstrate an understanding of the implications for mental health of a chronic health condition for patients and families.
• Able to teach multi-professional teams on matters of mental health.
• Ability to supervise and provide delegated line-management of band 6, 5 and 4 staff as required.

Education & Training

• Qualification as a Mental Health Nurse, Occupational Therapist, Social Worker, Clinical Psychologist: eligible for registration by the HCPC, MNC, or other relevant professional registration body.
• Registration as appropriate to above.

We hope that you will decide to join us and become part of this exciting journey, helping us to shape our future together.