Job description

Job responsibilities

As a senior practitioner within the team, you will hold a caseload of complex cases involving a range of mental health presentations, often alongside safeguarding concerns, family adversity, trauma, neurodevelopmental differences, emotional dysregulation and multiple interacting risks. You will utilise systemic formulation to understand the child or young person's difficulties within the context of their relationships, family dynamics, community and wider professional systems, ensuring interventions are collaborative, culturally responsive and outcome focused.

You will undertake comprehensive mental health assessments, deliver systemic interventions to children, young people and families, and contribute to screening and Single Point of Access activity. The role requires confidence in managing complexity, undertaking risk assessments and working with families where there may be significant safeguarding concerns, conflict, uncertainty or risk. You will contribute to multi-agency planning and decision-making, ensuring children and young people receive timely and appropriate support.

A key aspect of the role will be using systemic principles to influence the professional networks around children and families. You will provide consultation, mentoring and reflective support to colleagues, helping to develop systemic thinking across the service and supporting practitioners to understand and respond effectively to complex family and professional dynamics.

You will work closely with health, education, social care and voluntary sector partners, contributing to training, service development and partnership working. As a Level 3 practitioner, you will be expected to take a lead role in supporting colleagues with complex case discussions, contributing specialist systemic expertise whilst promoting high-quality, trauma-informed and relationship-based practice across the service.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• A recognised professional qualification in Social Work, Nursing, Psychology or a related profession, together with a relevant post-qualifying mental health qualification at Diploma level or above.
• A recognised qualification in Systemic Family Practice, with experience of applying systemic formulation and intervention within children's mental health services.

Knowlege

Essential

• Advanced knowledge of systemic theory and practice, including the application of systemic formulation to understand the interaction between mental health difficulties, family relationships, wider systems and contextual factors affecting children and young people.
• Advanced knowledge of child and adolescent mental health, risk assessment, safeguarding, trauma, attachment and neurodevelopmental presentations, including how these influence assessment, intervention and decision-making in complex cases.
• Highly developed systemic assessment and formulation skills, with the ability to analyse complex presentations, hold multiple perspectives and deliver effective interventions with children, young people, families and wider professional networks.
• Ability to work autonomously with complex and high-risk cases, exercising advanced professional judgement in relation to safeguarding, self-harm, suicidality and mental health risk, whilst providing consultation and support to colleagues and partner agencies.

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience of undertaking complex mental health assessments and delivering systemic interventions to children, young people and families presenting with significant mental health difficulties, family adversity, trauma, neurodiversity, and multiple interacting needs.
• Significant experience of managing complex and high-risk presentations, including safeguarding concerns, self-harm, suicidality and emotional dysregulation, whilst contributing to EDT, multi-agency decision-making, risk management and care planning processes.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Nottingham City Council

Address

Loxley House

Station Street

Nottingham

Nottinghamshire

NG2 3NG

United Kingdom

Employer's website

http://emss.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)