University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW)
Mental Health Practitioner
The closing date is 24 May 2026
We are excited to be recruiting for a thoughtful, compassionate Mental Health Practitioner to join our committed and supportive multi-disciplinary team under the NHS Children and Young People Gender Service (South West) CYPGS SW.
It is provided by a large multi-disciplinary team (MDT). As part of this team, the Mental Health Practitioner will provide specialist assessments, and be part of the evolving evidence base for the field of gender care. All staff working in the CYPGS SW are very well supported through multi-disciplinary working, individual supervision, drop in case discussion, Academy of Royal Colleges specialist children’s and young people’s gender service training programme. There are weekly clinical development meetings. We value the provision of evidence-based care delivered by highly skilled compassionate clinicians.
Our service has purpose-built accommodation with high quality clinical space for face to face and remote appointments. We offer outreach clinics in Devon and Cardiff. The opportunity for hybrid working would make this post suitable for clinicians from outside the Bristol area.
CPD is highly valued in this team with weekly clinical development meetings, provided by clinicians within the team and external, to ensure high level clinical skill. In addition, we also provide team Away Days for team and service development and for more in depth clinical skills training. For example, we recently held an ACT training Day for all clinical staff.
Main duties of the job
- To offer clinical work consistent with the Cass Review and the 2026 Service Specification for CYP Gender Services.
- As part of a team provide psychological assessments and organise complex clinical information into a clear case formulation.
- To analyse, synthesise and summarise large amounts of clinical information.
- To have therapy training (e.g., CBT, family therapy) to be able to support and deliver interventions for clients in the CYP Gender Service.
- To provide evidence-based and culturally appropriate interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
- To assess and monitor risk and develop appropriate risk management plans in liaison with safeguarding and senior professionals.
- To take responsibility for initiating, planning, and reviewing care plans with CYP of low to medium complexity, including liaison with local services when required.
- To contribute to the effective working of the CYP Gender Service – South West and to a psychologically informed holistic care framework for the service.
- To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services.
- To liaise with referrers, health, education, and social care professionals concerned with clients to develop and review care plans.
For more details, please refer to the attached JD.
Person Specification
Experience
- Experience of clinical mental health working with children, adolescents or adults.
- Expertise in assessing risk and risk management.
- Experience of biopsychosocial assessment.
- Experience of presenting mental health understanding to multi-professional teams.
- Experience of working within a health, CAMHS or Education setting as a therapist.
- Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team.
- Experience of formal teaching/training to health and other professionals.
Knowledge
- Knowledge of Mental Health Act and Children’s Act.
- Knowledge of the Cass Review.
Qualifications
- Qualification as a Mental Health Nurse, Occupational therapist, Social Worker, Clinical Psychologist: eligible for registration by the HCPC, MNC or other relevant professional registration body.
- Registration as appropriate to above professional qualification.
- Post registration therapy qualification and experience of using it with children, young people and parents.
Skills
- Able to assess within a biopsychosocial model the needs of patients and families.
- Able to work with the team to formulate cases and provide appropriate therapeutic interventions from established therapy and developmental models.
- To be able to work with wider systems including education, health and social care systems.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to provide and receive complex, sensitive and often contentious information in a developmentally and culturally appropriate manner and in highly emotive situations.
- Ability to communicate complex information to children, families and staff in an accessible manner (written, verbal, electronic).
- Able to record and provide information and data pertaining to clinical work, activity and outcomes (written, electronic).
- Able to demonstrate successful use of strategies to prioritise and manage time when there are conflicting demands.
- Able to demonstrate examples of successful commitment to team working.
- Able to demonstrate a realistic awareness of the potential for work related stress and distress in this type of clinical work plus strategies to manage this.
- Able to travel to regional and outreach clinics across the South West Peninsula and Wales as required (E) – therefore ability to drive is highly desirable.
- Able to teach multi-professional teams on matters of mental health.
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.
£39,959 to £48,117 a year (Band 6 subject to AfC consistency checks)
#J-18808-Ljbffr…