Youth Ambassador

We are pleased to offer this exciting opportunity to join our West London Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, asYouth Ambassador.

We are seeking to recruit a number of experts by experience with great communication skills and a willingness to help CAMHS shape the services we deliver.

We are on a significant journey of transformation in the quality of services provided, through greater co-production with service users and parent/carers, and addressing long-standing inequalities. Increasingly, we are leading and collaborating working closely with Integrated Care Partnerships and at the wider system level, as a strong voice for integrated services and the most vulnerable in society.

Key areas of interest and/or experience of CAMH services
- Neurodevelopmental services
- Care leavers
- Eating Disorders services
- Learning Disabilities services
- Crisis care pathway

As a CAMHS Ambassador you will champion the needs of the children and young people (CYP) using our commissioned services in ensuring their and their carers and families views are heard and acted upon.

You will need to be confident, engaging and compassionate, able to extend warm and welcoming invitations to young people using our services working with them to shape and influence services, development, provision and redesign based on their experiences of using our commissioned services.

This is a new post therefore although it has clear parameters and expectations there will be opportunities to positively shape and influence the role and build and develop important relationships with stakeholders and partners.

Key Duties
- Working with Children, Young People (CYP) /families/carers/local community groups to build relationships and develop a strong, vibrant and lasting resource that can help shape our service
- Working with CYP and families/carers in groups to enable them to contribute to service development and service improvemen
- Setting up; chairing and co-chairing of meetings when appropriate e.g. participation workshops and Forums. Ensure Participation forum meeting invitations are sent out, minutes and actions are taken during the meeting and circulated to the group in good time
- With support, lead on developing more engagement for participation forums, create training and activity opportunities and engage clinical staff to joi
- Provide a positive challenge to senior leaders in relation to all aspects of service design and delivery for people using the service and their families/carers.
- With support, confidentially develop networks of young people, families/carers that would like stay involved with the CAMHS participation wor
- With support, think of innovative ways of measuring and reporting the progress and success of the PC’s CYP participation and engagement work
- Where indicated using local escalation processes to raise with senior Team if local resolution is not possible.
- Maintain accurate records and comply with local procedures for record keeping, confidentiality and security.
- Representing CAMHS both internally/externally at a local and national level where relevant

Improving quality and outcomes
- Supporting the young people, families and carers to ensure their voice is heard and they are seen as equals in the care pathway.
- Sharing concerns and/or escalating unresolved concerns to the Quality & Patient Safety Manager as required.
- Provide a positive challenge to senior leaders in relation to all aspects of service design and delivery for people using the service and their families/carers.
- Maintain accurate records and comply with local procedures for record keeping, confidentiality and security.
- To encourage more CYP service users and carers to participate in quality improvement initiatives
- Play a key role in promoting the value of lived experience in quality improvement and service development initiatives.
- Developing new and innovative ways of taking feedback from people using our commissioned services and their families/carers.

Promoting equality and reducing inequalities
- To uphold organisational policies and principles on the promotion of equality.
- To create an inclusive working environment where diversity is valued, everyone can contribute, and everyday action ensure we meet our duty to uphold and promote equality.
- Highlight where there may be a need for reasonable adjustments
- Working to ensure that all CYP using our services have an equal and fair opportunity to participate including the often marginalised or underrepresented groups.

Promoting Rights and Signposting
- Sharing information to support understanding and preparing for Collaborative Care Plans
- Family and individual’s rights including legal frameworks (MHA, MCA, Human Rights Act, Child and Families Act).
- The community teams and their roles (CYPS, CAMHS, IASS, CCGs).
- To support CYP ambassadors while involved and engaged in the project work and ensure they feel comfortable to bring their voice to the table.

Developing a