Job summary
Are you an experienced and inspirational clinical leader looking to shape the future of children's mental health services?

We are seeking an ambitious and innovative Clinical Service Lead to lead our Horizon Service, a key component of Lewisham CAMHS that supports children and young people experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties. This is an exciting opportunity to join a forward-thinking, high-performing service at a pivotal time of transformation.

As Clinical Service Lead, you will provide strategic, operational and professional leadership to a passionate multidisciplinary team delivering specialist assessment, intervention and care co-ordination for children, young people and their families. You will play a central role in ensuring services remain safe, effective, responsive and focused on achieving meaningful outcomes.

The Horizon Service sits within the Getting More Help domain of the THRIVE Framework and operates across Lewisham's four Integrated Neighbourhood Teams. This provides a unique opportunity to lead truly integrated, place-based care, working alongside colleagues from health, education, social care, primary care and the voluntary sector to improve the lives of children and young people.

Main duties of the job
As Clinical Service Lead for the Horizon Service, you will provide strategic, operational and clinical leadership to a multidisciplinary team. You will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality and outcome-focused services, while driving service transformation, quality improvement and innovation. The role offers the opportunity to shape integrated neighbourhood-based care, working closely with partners across health, education, social care, primary care and the voluntary sector to improve access, experience and outcomes for children and young people. You will lead service performance, workforce development, governance and safeguarding, whilst contributing to the wider strategic development of Lewisham CAMHS. We are looking for an experienced and inspiring leader with a strong background in children's mental health services and a passion for improving outcomes for young people. You will bring excellent clinical leadership skills, the ability to lead and motivate multidisciplinary teams, and experience managing complex services, demand, capacity and performance. You will be confident working across organisational boundaries, building effective partnerships and influencing service development at a system level. Strong analytical, communication and problem-solving skills are essential, alongside a commitment to innovation, inclusion, quality improvement and continuous learning.

About us
At Lewisham CAMHS, we're building something special. We are transforming the way children and young people access mental health support through integrated neighbourhood teams, strong partnerships and a shared commitment to excellence. Our culture is collaborative, compassionate and ambitious, with leaders empowered to innovate, challenge traditional ways of working and drive meaningful change. You'll join a welcoming and highly skilled team that values professional curiosity, continuous learning and mutual support, giving you the opportunity to grow your career while making a lasting difference to children, young people and families across Lewisham.

Job responsibilities
The Clinical Service Lead will provide strategic, operational and professional leadership to the Horizon Service, a specialist CAMHS service supporting children and young people with moderate to severe mental health difficulties. Working across Lewisham's Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, the post holder will lead a multidisciplinary workforce to deliver high-quality, safe and effective mental health care, ensuring services are responsive to the needs of local children, young people and families. The role is responsible for service performance, governance, workforce leadership, safeguarding, quality improvement and service transformation. The successful candidate will work closely with partners across health, education, social care and the voluntary sector to develop integrated pathways, improve access and outcomes, reduce inequalities and contribute to the ongoing development of neighbourhood-based models of care across Lewisham CAMHS. Main Responsibilities

• Provide strategic, operational and clinical leadership for the Horizon Service.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team, ensuring high standards of care and professional practice.
• Drive service performance, quality improvement and delivery against national and local targets.
• Oversee demand, capacity, referrals, waiting lists, caseload management and patient flow.
• Ensure robust governance, safeguarding, risk management and patient safety processes are in place.
• Lead service transformation and innovation to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.
• Develop strong partnerships with education, social care, primary care, health and voluntary sector organisations.
• Support workforce development, recruitment, retention and staff wellbeing.
• Contribute to the strategic leadership and future development of Lewisham CAMHS and integrated neighbourhood services.

This is an exciting senior leadership opportunity to shape the future of children's mental health services in Lewisham. The successful candidate will play a key role in driving transformation, influencing system-wide developments and improving outcomes for children and young people, while working within an ambitious, innovative and supportive CAMHS leadership team.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Qualifications and Professional Registration: Entry-level qualification: appropriately registered Educational/ Clinical/Counselling psychologist, Systemic Family Therapist, Psychotherapist, Nurse, OT, Social Work CBT Therapist and registration with relevant UK governing body
• Completed training course in clinical supervision. (A/I/R)
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by relevant Professional body e.g. HCPC/UKCP/RCN/ SWE/ BABCP (A/I)

Desirable

• CPD in Quality Improvement or similar
• PG qualification in Leading on Transformation & Change in CYP mental health and wellbeing services

Experience
Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in CAMHS. (A/I)
• Experience of supervising and having completed the relevant training.
• Experience of managing financial budgets
• Experience of carrying out research, audit or service evaluation projects.

Desirable

• PG qualification in CYP MH supervision course
• Experience of leadership within a CAMHS setting.
• Experience of leading quality Improvement Projects

Knowledge & Skills
Essential

• Advanced theoretical knowledge of psychosocial theories of mental health and the evidence base for the relevant treatment.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities
• Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care. To deliver psychological therapy with due regard to individual difference.
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
• Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups

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. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

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