Senior Practitioner - Nurse/Social Woker/OT - Oxfordshire

Are you a Social Worker, Occupational Therapist or Nurse? Are you looking for a new challenge to develop your skills in working with children and mental health?

If so, come and join us within the Oxon Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Single Point of Access (SPA) team.

The SPA is the initial contact for all children, young people, families and professionals wishing to contact Oxfordshire CAMHS.

Our team provides consultation, promoting self help approach where appropriate, giving support, advice and expertise. When required the team will identify the appropriate CAMHS pathway to provide assessment.

The aim is to make it easier to access the most appropriate help, working closely with Children’s social care, GPs, School and Health referrers, as well as local charitable services.

Please apply if you are passionate about working with children and families and have experience within mental health. You will need to have a professional qualification of Social Worker, Occupational Therapy or Nurse, we welcome applications including a range of backgrounds (including children’s, adult, learning disability).

The role would suit applicants who enjoy problem solving, can remain calm under pressure, are able to work as part of a team and be self-motivated.

Main duties of the job

To promote the mental and emotional health of children, young people, and families in the community. Understanding their needs, identifying risk and support the family in accessing appropriate services.

To prevent more serious mental health problems in children and young people by early identification of the development of mental health problems.

To have a wide range of knowledge in approaches to communicating and managing care with families, children and young people.

To have excellent communication skills and to be able to promote integrated healthcare working internally and externally.

The Candidate should have the following:

- experience of working with children and young people in a variety of settings
- experience of work within a multi-disciplinary team and with multi-agency professionals
- the ability to relate and provide accessible services to a diverse community
- the ability to adapt to the fast-paced nature of SPA work, with good IT and computer recording skills to navigate between the various IT systems within CAMHS and the local authority.
- knowledge and skills in risk assessment, management and safeguarding
- be able to deliver a range of evidence-based interventions

Working for our organisation

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust provides physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East 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”

At Oxford Health 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 may apply)
- Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We'll provide you with a comprehensive induction programme, including a range of shadowing opportunities to fully support the post holder in the role. The team fully supports and delivers regular managerial, clinical, and safeguarding supervision to build upon confidence, competence and commitment to developing self and the role, so there's plenty of opportunities to share learning and expertise.

As an organisation we offer flexibility in terms of hours and work base. We recognise the importance of flexible working to ensure a healthy work life balance and would be open to the possibility of home working for a proportion of the working week.

We pride ourselves on embedding team cohesion, support and appreciation opportunities over the working week, to support us all in the hard work we deliver. There is excellent work/life balance and ensure we look after staff’s wellbeing.

In this role, you'll be a point of contact in the single point of access; clinical decisions regarding referrals into services, contacting young person/families, offer advice and support to assist whilst waiting for assessment into the services or share information of alternative appropriate provision.