Duty Clinician - CAMHS Practitioner

Job summary
Kensington and Chelsea CAMHS is a very warm and friendly team which welcomes new skills and new ideas. It is part of Central and North West London (CNWL) Foundation Mental Health Trust. We are committed to collaborative multi-disciplinary work and there are very good links with partnership agencies in the borough.

Our front door is one of our service priorities, and we are currently able to offer face to face appointments to children and young people within less than 4 weeks of receiving a referral. You will be part of this well performing team.

This is an exciting opportunity to part of a busy integrated CAMHS service. We are seeking to recruit a full-time permanent Band 6, Duty Clinician- CAMHS Practitioner based at 1B Beatrice Place, W8 5LW.

We are looking for a suitably qualified and highly motivated individuals with a range of assessment skills and significant experience of supporting children, young people and their carers, as well as experience of working with professionals from other agencies. We encourage applications from Nurses. In the past, the role has been held by nurses, social workers, SPA clinicians and other allied health professionals.

The candidates will be able to demonstrate a high degree of autonomous working.

Main duties of the job
You will be part of a Duty team responsible for the daily duty system, which involves: assessing all new referrals; responding to telephone queries; case managing occasional cases who are waiting for finalised care plans, and supporting the team where necessary.

The post holder will be responsible for operating within a multidisciplinary team, for providing on-going clinical support and assessment of the child or young people with emotional wellbeing needs (both routine and urgent risk) who access CAMHS.

In addition, you may be required to offer face-to-face follow-up appointments to children and young people who have attended A&E.

You will need to evidence the ability to work to high standards, showing good time management and be able to prioritise your work effectively.

About us
To find out more about working in CAMHS please CLICK HERE for one of our CAMHS video.

Kensington and Chelsea CAMHS is a Specialist CAMHS (Tier 3) which consists of three sub-teams - Emotional Disorders Team; Enhanced Treatment; and Neuro-developmental team. There is also an Early Intervention Service, as well as separately-commissioned Youth Justice Liaison, LAC CAMHS, and Under-5's Mental Health teams. The team encompasses a wide range of expertise, including in Neurodevelopmental needs, Learning Disability, substance misuse, youth offending work and multi-cultural engagement. The service has a commitment to user participation.

The successful applicant will have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare setting.

Details
Date posted: 14 October 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £47,951 to £56,863 a year per annum including HCAS
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 333-G-CA-1779
Closing date: 27 October 2026

Job responsibilities

• Assume responsibility for the daily duty system, particularly ascertaining the level of risk, and agreeing safety plans as and when necessary.
• To participate on the local duty rota providing a more urgent response to issues when required.
• Support to parents and young people seeking help between clinic appointments, while in waiting lists or when in crisis.
• Provide initial assessments of children and young people referred to the team.
• Use individual, group work, family work, advice and supervision according to the needs of children and young people and have a flexible and innovative approach to planning packages of care.
• Maintain good relationships and clear lines of communication with other professional agencies and departments, providing specialist advice and support where appropriate.
• Complete signposting and social prescribing after CAMHS assessments.
• To ensure that all recording and reporting of client contact is timely, accurate, up to date and of good quality and within CAMHS and professional standards of record keeping. To collect and collate information about individual clinical activity on SystmOne.

Person Specification
Education and Qualifications (Essential)

• All applicants will require a professional training and relevant CAMHS experience in combination with professional registration with one of the following statutory bodies: the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC), Health Professional's Council (HPC), Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP), The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)
• Relevant professional training will include: First level nursing qualification/registration RMN or RSCN or HV with related CAMHS experience or any as below: First level qualification in Occupational therapy, Clinical or Counselling Psychology, Social work, or equivalent with related CAMHS experience. Qualification as a Systemic Psychotherapist (Family Therapist) with relevant CAMHS experience. First level qualification in art, play, drama, music therapy or psychotherapy (leading to a registered qualification with one of the above statutory bodies) with related experience in the psychological aspects of caring for children and adolescent with mental health problems/needs

Education and Qualifications (Desirable)

• Further post qualifying training and education in working with children and adolescents with mental health problems.
• CYP-IAPT Therapy Training
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Training in Clinical supervision
• Research

Previous Experience (Essential)

• Assessed supervised clinical experience working with children and adolescents with mental health problems/needs or clear evidence of transferable skills
• Working in collaboration with supervisor, service user, carers and MDT in assessing needs, planning and implementing care
• Taking responsibility for care delivery in a specific area and maintaining a safe therapeutic environment
• A good understanding and some experience of the following: Group, individual and family work, multidisciplinary work, clinical governance and audit and the process of clinical supervision in CAMHS

Previous Experience (Desirable)

• Experience of teaching, training and / or supervision.
• Relevant research and its application to assessment, treatment and case management of CAMH disorders.
• Research informed and evidence based methods of assessment, treatment and case management.
• Proven ability to work within a changing environment
• Working with families in a multicultural environment
• Working with Looked After Children and foster carers
• Experience in carrying out specialist child and adolescent mental health assessments and treatments

Personal (Essential)

• Ability to contain and work with organizational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others.
• Able to build constructive relationships with warmth and empathy, using good communication skills.
• Treats service users with respect and dignity at all times.
• Enthusiastic, flexible and confident approach to working.
• Able to prioritize own workload and meet performance requirements for the role.
• Willingness and ability to learn new skills and adapt to change.

Other (Essential)

• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
• Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behavior
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.

Knowledge and Skills (Essential)

• Knowledge and skills in assessment intervention
• A good working knowledge of mental health disorders in children and adolescents
• A good working knowledge of difficulties common to Looked After Children e.g. attachment difficulties
• A good working knowledge of The Children Act 1989, 2004 and The Mental Health Act 1983, Human Rights Act 1998 and Mental Capacity Act 2005
• Assessment of risk and management of risk factors
• The principles of clinical governance and practice.
• The principles underlying confidentiality and information sharing.
• Ability to work therapeutically with the client group, using a range of therapeutic interventions
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Ability to take on new concepts and forward thinking
• Good written and verbal presentation skills and ability to communicate effectively by telephone and also by email.
• Basic IT and data entry skills to enter clinical information into databases
• Ability to work within a changing environment
• Ability to be 'reflective' in therapeutic practice and adapt practice from this reflection
• Demonstrate an ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Excellent time management skills
• Evidence of competency in risk assessment
• Evidence of using child protection
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information including diagnoses and formulations to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
• Experience of assessing mental health risk and safeguarding concerns.
• To have an understanding of the 2014 Children and Families Act in regards to children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND)
• To have an understanding of the graduated approach to support SEND, including using of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea SEND local Offer.
• In particular, knowledge and experience of the Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) process.
• Ability to maintain accurate, timely, concise and legible clinical records both electronically and handwritten, which adhere to the CNWL policies

Knowledge and Skills (Desirable)

• Knowledge of CAMHS legislation
• Knowledge and experience of research methodology

Employer details
Employer name: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Address: 1B Beatrice Place, Marloes Road, Kensington London, London, W8 5LW, United Kingdom
Employer's website:

For questions about the job, contact:
Team manager - KC CAMHS, Nataly Figueroa, View email address on meeveem.com, View phone number on meeveem.com

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. Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Applicants must have current UK professional registration.