Mental Health Lead for Children

Job Introduction

Are you a social work professional with an interest in children's mental health?

With a County wide remit you will provide support, guidance, advice and direction to children’s social care services in relation to children’s mental health. Being the interface between children’s social care and children’s mental health services to promote a joined-up approach to working with children where there are mental health concerns.

You'll also work with commissioners within children’s social care and health to assist with the  procurement of services, particularly in relation to joint responsibilities under the Mental Health Act (1983/2007) Section 117 aftercare. Combining health and social models of intervention is more likely to promote resilience and recovery for vulnerable children.

A key function of this role is to challenge dominant medical perspectives of mental health and ensure that children’s social work issues and themes are considered by mental health services in their work with children.

You'll provide training and guidance across children’s services to deliver practice improvement and be responsive to local and national developments.  Undertaking the role of an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) on behalf of Staffordshire County Council ensuring that the wider AMHP service is supported with matters involving AMHP assessments of children. As well as mentoring and supervision of a small number of AMHP's employed in children's services. 

Main Responsibilities

You'll also:

• provide professional guidance and support to practitioners and managers with case work and promoting enhanced knowledge and skills in relation to children's mental health.
• maintain local processes for the interface between the Emotional Well-Being Service, Community CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) teams and the Children and Families service.
• deliver mental health training in order to enhance the knowledge base and skills of Children and Families teams.
• update staff within Staffordshire Health Care Trust(s) with relevant children’s social care developments, practice and policies in order to promote their understanding of children’s social care. 
• act as a professional lead and represent the Children and Families service at various National and strategic mental health forums. Working with senior managers on local, regional and national opportunities for improvement across the children’s mental health sector. This will include contributing towards new and developing initiatives across Staffordshire
• Take responsibility for maintaining a database of all Staffordshire children admitted and discharged from inpatient services and produce reports to Strategic Leads in order to understand the local population of children cared for through inpatient settings
• undertake Mental Health Act Assessments x 2 days per working month, in line with AMHP duties on behalf of Staffordshire County Council. To support AMPH’s across Staffordshire to develop their understanding of the children’s perspective

The Ideal Candidate

You'll be a qualified Social Worker and have additional professional qualifications that evidence skills and knowledge in working with or mentoring others as well as:

• an approved mental health practitioner, AMHP and be registered with Social Work England.
• experience of working at a senior level in a local authority.
• have good knowledge of relevant legislation in respect of children's social care and mental health.
• the ability to lead service change and improvements and be able to quickly build and maintain strong and credible stakeholder relationships.
• excellent communication skills and be able to promote learning and wok collaboratively in a complex field of practice in order to promote shared learning and joint working.

Recruitment Timeline:

Shortlisting by 13 November 2024
Interviews week starting 25 November 2024

Don’t feel you meet all the requirements? We value transferable skills, experiences, and qualifications so consider applying anyway or for an informal chat about the role please contact Clive Cartman-Frost, Head of Access to Services at: clive.cartman-frost@staffordshire.gov.uk

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too. 

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. 

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post. 

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.