SPA Triage Clinician

Job responsibilities

The Single Point of Access operates between 08:00 and 18:00 and offers flexible working patterns to meet your needs and the needs of the service in line with the Trust blended working model.

The Single Point of Access is based in Maidstone Studios, easily accessible by car and offers a range of facilities including a restaurant and ample safe parking.

We value team involvement in service improvement and your professional development.

The post-holder will be a graduate qualified health care professional (e.g. nurse, social worker, occupational therapist), or will have substantial CAMHS clinical experience and where appropriate will be fully registered with the appropriate professional or regulatory body (e.g. HCPC, NMC). They will have extensive clinical experience working with children and young people with emotional wellbeing and mental health difficulties. In addition, they will need to evidence that they are able to provide children, young people and their families with information and education thereby ensuring they have meaningful choices regarding interventions. They will need to demonstrate that they have a wide range of knowledge in approaches to communicating and managing care.

The SPA receives, and directs referrals from across Kent and Medway providing advice, information, consultation and support to all referrers and a range of other local services.

The SPA works closely with the CAMHS locality teams and aims to respond earlier to children and young peoples needs in order to help prevent, reduce or delay the need for more specialist interventions.

The service is driven by the principles underpinning the national CYP-IAPT programme (Children and Young Peoples Improving Access to Psychological Therapies); evidence-based interventions, routine measurement of outcomes, access to high quality training and supervision for professionals and true co-production with children and young people.

Care pathway leads and practitioners ensure that a high quality, timely, accessible and evidence-based service is available to all children and young people who need it. This means establishing and maintaining excellent working relationships with the SPA, wider social, health and voluntary services.

The Single Point of Access receives referrals for children and young people, with emotional wellbeing and mental health difficulties, but has since expanded to include referrals for ADHD, ASC and Learning Disability, as well as taking 111 call for CYP who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. The referrals we receive are for a broad range of challenges, and the post holder will be able to develop knowledge and skills in the areas of mental health, neurodevelopment and crisis response.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.

Use of AI

Please see attached document regarding acceptable use of AI during the recruitment process.

Qualifications

Essential

• Successful completion of a graduate training (e.g. nursing, social work, occupational therapy) or equivalent substantial CAMHS clinical experience
• To be eligible for registration as a full member of the appropriate professional body (e.g. HCPC, NMC) where appropriate
• Clinical practice in the assessment and treatment of young people

Desirable

• minimum 4 years experience
• Previous practice working in CYPMHS or related child health wellbeing service
• Previous experience in risk assessment and risk management

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with difficult, disturbed or challenging children/young people requiring skilled and complex interventions
• Experience of working with children and adolescents with co-morbid difficulties and special needs. (i.e. combination of organic and emotional deficits, such as autistic spectrum disorders and trauma).
• Experience of working therapeutically with parents/carers/families of children and young people with complex mental health problems
• Experience of using observation (eg. In school contexts) to contribute to assessments of children.
• Experience of carrying out generic assessment with other colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of assessment carried out autonomously in order to determine the most appropriate treatment plan from a range of options for the child/young person.
• Experience of providing individual interventions with a wide variety of children and young people, from 3 to 19 years old- presenting problems at the most severe end of the spectrum.

Desirable

• Extended specialist training
• Practiced in managing difficult conversations
• Experience of change management

Knowledge

Essential

• An awareness of NHS Plan, NSF and clinical governance priorities
• Knowledge of child and adolescent mental health and mental health disorders
• Knowledge in identifying safeguarding concerns and how to address concerns

Desirable

• Knowledge of child development and development disorders

Skills

Essential

• Basic awareness of IT and IT skills
• High level communication skills
• The ability to consider they young person systemically

Desirable

• Able to articulate a good understanding of Children's Well-being servces
• Demonstrate confidence and eagerness to learn

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).