Band 7 CAMHS Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Job overview

This specialist CAMHS role is dedicated to improving mental health outcomes for Children in Care and Care Experienced Children and Young People (CYP) across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG). The post holder will provide high-quality, trauma-informed mental health support, including specialist assessment, formulation, risk assessment and management, therapeutic interventions, consultation, and care planning.

The role combines direct clinical work within CAMHS Community Services with one day per week in the CAMHS Getting Advice Triage Team, providing triage, risk screening, consultation and referral management to ensure timely access to appropriate support. Holding a specialist caseload, the practitioner will work collaboratively with children, young people, families, carers and multi-agency partners across health, social care and education to deliver coordinated, relationship-based care, with the child's voice and lived experience central to decision‑making.

As a senior clinician, the post holder will contribute to service development and provide supervision, consultation and support to colleagues, promoting trauma‑informed, evidence‑based practice and specialist knowledge relating to Children in Care. This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced practitioner passionate about improving outcomes for vulnerable children and young people while helping to shape and develop this evolving specialist CAMHS pathway across BNSSG.

Key Responsibilities

• Work across the CAMHS Getting Advice Team and Community Locality Teams, supporting Children in Care and Care Experienced Children and Young People across BNSSG.
• Triage referrals and undertake specialist mental health and risk assessments to ensure timely access to appropriate support.
• Manage a specialist caseload, providing formulation, care planning, evidence‑based interventions and ongoing risk management.
• Deliver trauma‑informed, child‑centred care in partnership with children, young people, carers, families and multi‑agency professionals.
• Provide consultation, advice and specialist mental health expertise to colleagues and partner agencies.
• Contribute to safeguarding processes and promote effective risk assessment and management.
• Support transitions between services, including transition to adult mental health services where appropriate.
• Provide clinical supervision, consultation and support to Band 6 Mental Health Practitioners and wider colleagues.
• Share specialist knowledge of trauma, attachment, mental health and the needs of Children in Care to support workforce development.
• Contribute to service development, quality improvement initiatives and the ongoing enhancement of the specialist Children in Care pathway within BNSSG CAMHS.
• Maintain accurate clinical records and work in line with professional, organisational and statutory requirements.

We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.