Job summary
Internal only - Full Time 37.5 hours per week

We currently have an exciting opportunity for a Mental Health Practitioner to join our Assessment and Primary Intervention Team (APIT) on a permanent, full-time basis.

APIT is a multidisciplinary team that plays a vital role in the delivery of high-quality services within Barnsley CAMHS. We strive to promote and improve the mental health and well-being of children and their families by offering assessment and intervention, tailored to their individual needs.

We are looking for an experienced Mental Health Practitioner for this exciting and varied role. You would be part of a thriving team of professionals, who are passionate about their work and supportive of each other. Staff well-being is embedded within the service and we offer a comprehensive induction, as well as opportunity for skill development, training and supervision.

We would love to hear from you if you would like to discuss this role or come for an informal visit.

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to have their up-to-date flu vaccination to protect staff and patients.

At the time of advertising, this role does meet the minimum requirements set by UK Visas and Immigration to sponsor candidates to work in the UK. We look forward to receiving your application.

Main duties of the job
This role involves providing high quality assessments for young people being referred into CAMHS and brief interventions for presentations such as anxiety and low mood. The role also involves working in close collaboration with the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) under the Branching Minds (BM) initiative. This serves as the front door to childrens mental health services in Barnsley and as such ensures that young people access the appropriate services in a timely way. As a Mental Health Practitioner, you would have a key role in coordinating referral reading, risk screening and signposting, as well as liaising with our local partners in health, education and social care.

You will work collaboratively with the families, carers, and young people, adapting your approach to meet their needs. This includes working with clinical complexity, multi-agency working and consideration of neurodiversity.

The wellbeing of our team is of high priority. We will support the right candidate to work flexibly, as we believe in a positive work life balance. You will be provided with robust managerial and clinical supervision. We have excellent training opportunities and will support you with your own professional development.

Please do ensure you meet the essential requirements for this post before applying.

About us
We are a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental health and learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and are the lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission is to help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do this by providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employ staff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make a difference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourage and welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we value diversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Being a foundation Trust means were accountable to our members, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people (including staff) are members of our Trust.

Join us and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improving the mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet and help each year.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.

We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.

Details
Date posted: 18 September 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working
Reference number: C9378-B2376
Job locations: New Street Health Centre, Barnsley, S Yorkshire, S70 1LP, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
The post-holder will:

• Provide assessment and treatment to children and young people with mental health needs;
• Work autonomously and collaboratively within the MDT, providing consultation for other agencies/professionals;
• Promote the safeguarding and welfare of children and young people.

To provide routine and urgent assessment and interventions to young people with a wide range of emotional and psychological problems who are referred to specialist CAMHS, in keeping with evidence based practice with supervision from a senior clinician within professional guidelines and within the overall framework of the teams policies and procedures.

KEY RESULT AREAS:

• 1 To support the ongoing process of delivering a comprehensive CAMHS system.
• 2 To provide assessment, interventions, therapy to children, young people with the most severe, complex and persistent mental health problems, including those who are severely mentally ill or at suicidal risk and where appropriate, families as both an autonomous practitioner and as part of a multidisciplinary team in a variety of settings to address need. This will include working with the CAPA model.
• 3 To apply a sound knowledge of safeguarding children and guidelines in clinical work.
• 4 To be committed to a quality approach for patient care.
• 5 The post-holder will demonstrate high levels of concentration and provide sustained effort in assessment of complex family issues.
• 6 To manage own caseload, accessing support and guidance appropriate to individual need.
• 7 To operate within the clinical and case management supervision framework.
• 8 To provide training, consultation and supervision to other service providers, partner agencies and junior members of staff as required regarding intensive interventions with children, young people and families.
• 9 To participate in the development, audit and review of this extension to existing service provision.
• 10 To undertake extended hours of work alongside fellow specialist CAMHS practitioners.
• 11 To work collaboratively with all services to provide coherent and co-ordinated mental health services for children and young people as well as other significant partners, ensuring timely transition and relevant consultation, training and support to universal services and targeted groups.
• 12 To use a range of Information Technology systems (including Rio) ensuring high quality data is collected appropriately, kept securely and confidentially
• 13 To participate in an agreed clinical audit programme for the service, and ensure lessons learnt from both audit and clinical incidents are reported.
• 14 To comply with both clinical and corporate governance frameworks.
• 15 To support the engagement of service stakeholders and users in the development and monitoring of service delivery and identify opportunities for service improvement and redesign.
• 16 To actively promote user/carer involvement in all aspects of care planning/delivery whilst respecting the rights, capabilities and wishes of the individuals concerned.
• 17 To work in an innovative and child, young person and family centred way, in a culture of continuous improvement and learning.
• 18 Apply Trust policies and procedures in instances of aggression, acute distress and disturbed mental health presentations.
• 19 To maintain relevant professional registration
• 20 To identify and communicate any concerns through the relevant management processes.
• 21 To demonstrate continued practice development and engage in annual appraisal.

For full job description, please see attached supporting documents.

We are aware that an increasing number of applicants are using AI technology to generate responses on NHS Job application forms. Over reliance on AI-generated content in application forms is strongly discouraged and we will conduct a thorough screening process before selecting candidates to progress to the next stage. If you are using AI to enhance your application, please disclose this in your NHS Jobs application form.

Person Specification
Special Knowledge/Skills
Essential

• Good verbal and communication skills
• Ability to manage own caseload
• Good negotiation skills, and problem solving skills
• Customer service orientation
• Effective record keeping and report writing skills to include care planning and risk assessments.
• IT skills.
• Have good team working skills. Be able to work across disciplines with an ability to predict and manage inter-disciplinary tensions and foster good working practices.

Physical Attributes
Essential

• Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).

Qualifications
Essential

• Relevant professional qualification, e.g. nursing, or other professional allied to medicine
• Dip SW or relevant mental health profession
• Membership of professional body

Desirable

• Post Registration qualification e.g. degree
• Post graduate qualification in mental health (e.g. CBT, Family Therapy, Counselling)
• A teaching and assessing qualification.

Experience
Essential

• Substantial post qualification experience, some of which must be working with Children, young people and their carers in a mental health or other complex care setting
• Multidisciplinary team working
• Inter-agency liaison and consultation
• Experience of supervising/mentoring junior staff
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance e.g. NHS plan, Mental Health Legislation, Childrens act, Education Act, Working Together, Childrens NSF, Every Child Matters, etc.
• Clinical/therapeutic knowledge and skills in mental health.
• Experience in assessment and risk management and ability to implement evidence based practice
• Proven ability to work with other agencies and disciplines and in partnership with other organisations.
• Experience of safeguarding children and young people.

Desirable

• Experience of community settings
• Experience of working in different cultural contexts
• Knowledge and experience of working with Equality and Diversity.

Training
Desirable

• Training and experience relating to specialist CAMHS
• Experience of delivering training to others

Personal Attributes
Essential

• Able to work autonomously and as part of a team
• Commitment to multi-agency approach
• Ability to work and make decisions under pressure.
• Calm, confident, innovative, creative and assertive
• Clarity of decision making
• Willingness to be flexible and adaptable in accordance with changing service priorities.
• Commitment to challenging discrimination and improving accessibility of services.
• Ability to cope calmly in a crisis
• To demonstrate good self care and encourage the same in team members
• A Current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability)

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: South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust
Address: New Street Health Centre, Barnsley, S Yorkshire, S70 1LP, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Rebecca Jury, rebecca.jury@swyt.nhs.uk

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.