Clinical Lead

North Kent Mind is looking for an experienced and confident Clinical Lead to oversee safe, consistent and high-quality clinical practice within the new Medway Therapeutic Alliance. This is an exciting role at the heart of our mobilisation, helping shape a trauma-informed, needs-led CYP offer from day one.

You'll provide senior clinical oversight for all North Kent Mind delivery within the Alliance, including supervision for therapists, Triage Leads and Care Coordinators. You will lead on clinical risk, transitions and complex case decision-making, ensuring strong safeguarding and clinical governance across the service. Working closely with the Director of CYP Services, Project Lead and partners' clinical leads, you'll help embed clear pathways, robust risk processes and reflective practice across the team.

We're looking for someone who brings a recognised therapy qualification, substantial CYP clinical experience and confidence supporting others in a supervisory or senior role. You will need strong judgement, the ability to work within safeguarding frameworks and a commitment to delivering high-quality, consistent support for children, young people and families.

If you're passionate about clinical quality, enjoy leading others and want to help shape an ambitious new service for Medway, we'd love to hear from you.

Purpose of the post

The Clinical Lead will provide senior clinical oversight for North Kent Mind's delivery within the Medway Therapeutic Alliance, ensuring that clinical practice is safe, consistent and aligned with the specification. They will oversee clinical governance across North Kent Mind's direct delivery pathway within the Alliance and contribute to the wider Alliance governance arrangements, working alongside other partners' safeguarding and clinical leads for complex cases and best practice.

The post-holder will provide monthly clinical supervision, lead on clinical decision-making for complex cases and transitions, and maintain high standards of risk management, care planning and clinical documentation. They will play an active role in the Alliance-wide safeguarding and clinical governance arrangements, supporting escalation discussions, reviewing shared risks and leading on the development of safe, consistent safeguarding pathways across all partners.

This is an exciting time to join the service as we mobilise a new model, strengthen local partnerships and develop clinical systems that will shape CYP delivery across Medway. The Clinical Lead will play a key role in driving forward new initiatives, embedding best practice and contributing to a strong, reflective clinical culture across the Alliance.

Structure of the Post

The Clinical Lead sits within the Senior CYP Team and reports to the Director of Children & Young People's Services. They hold direct line management responsibility for the Triage Leads and Care Coordinators (3.5 FTE total), ensuring safe triage, risk screening and care coordination across the MTA pathway. They also provide monthly clinical supervision to practitioners delivering therapeutic interventions under the Alliance.

The post-holder will work closely with the Service Delivery Manager (operational delivery), the Project Lead (strategic oversight and partnership coordination) and the Analytical Lead (data, performance and quality). They will sit within North Kent Mind's wider safeguarding structure, working alongside the CEO, Deputy CEO, Director and Deputy Director of CYP Services and the Adult Safeguarding Lead. In the absence of the Director of CYP Services, the post-holder will report directly to the Deputy CEO to ensure continuity of safeguarding governance and clinical decision-making.

The post is based at the North Kent Mind Offices in Chatham, working within a busy open-plan environment. Given the clinical and safeguarding responsibilities of the post, the role requires 80% in-person working (approx. 2.5 out of 3 days as 0.6FTE). Remote working can be used for report writing and preparation, but the majority of duties need to be delivered on site. Any changes to this must be agreed in advance with the Director of Children & Young Persons services, in line with the organisations flexible working procedure.

Some travel to other sites or external meetings will be necessary, for which travel expenses are payable. It is a condition of employment that the post-holder is willing to work from any North Kent Mind site within reasonable distance.

A: DUTIES OF THE POST: GENERAL

These duties apply to all North Kent Mind Staff, whichever service they work for:

1. To work within a framework which:

i. Abides by all the policies of North Kent Mind, including Equal Opportunities, Confidentiality, GDPR, and Health and Safety.

ii. Promotes Social Inclusion, Empowerment, Well-being, and the Recovery Model

iii. Respects, encourages, and builds on individual clients' coping strategies, skills, and autonomy, and is in keeping with the conduct, performance and ethics as declared by the Health and Care Professions Council.

iv. Maintains good liaison with any other outside agencies as is necessary.

v. Promotes good joint working, links, and cross-referral with all North Kent Mind colleagues.

vi. Adheres to the principles of the Social Care Standards as defined by the GCSI.

1. To participate in supervision and appraisal

2. To attend staff meetings and team meetings

3. To attend training/meetings and some annual events as required

4. To undertake any other duties which the CEO or Board of Trustees may, from time to time, reasonably delegate, or assign.

B. DUTIES OF THE POST: SPECIFIC

The post-holder will be responsible for the following key areas of work, ensuring that clinical practice across North Kent Mind's contribution to the Medway Therapeutic Alliance is safe, effective and aligned with agreed standards.

Clinical Governance & Quality

• Lead the clinical governance function for North Kent Mind's delivery within the Medway Therapeutic Alliance.
• Contribute to Alliance-wide clinical governance arrangements, supporting consistent practice across all partners.
• Maintain and develop the clinical governance framework, ensuring policies, procedures and clinical pathways remain up to date and reflective of best practice.
• Oversee clinical quality assurance activity, including case audits, record reviews and reflective learning.
• Provide clinical leadership for complex decisions, including escalation, transition and step-up/step-down pathways.
• Work with the Director of CYP Services to ensure learning from incidents, safeguarding concerns or quality issues is embedded into practice.

Safeguarding & Risk Management

• Offer senior clinical input into safeguarding and risk discussions, providing cover for the Director of CYP Services when required.
• Support the triage and care coordination team with risk screening, prioritisation and decision-making.
• Ensure risk assessments, safety plans and care plans meet required standards and are updated in a timely manner.
• Attend multi-agency meetings as required to support safe information sharing and collaborative decision-making.

Clinical Supervision & Professional Support

• Provide monthly clinical supervision to therapists and practitioners delivering interventions under the Medway Therapeutic Alliance.
• Support reflective practice, formulation, and the development of clinical confidence across the team.
• Offer ad hoc clinical guidance to practitioners when additional support or escalation is needed.
• Support the ongoing development of the clinical skills within the team, identifying training needs and contributing to professional development planning.

Line Management of Triage & Care Coordination

• Line manage the Triage Leads and Care Coordinators (1.5 FTE), providing regular supervision and clear expectations.
• Oversee the quality and consistency of triage activity, including risk screening, decision-making and recording.
• Ensure care coordination activity supports timely, safe and personalised transitions across the pathway.
• Work with the Service Delivery Manager to ensure triage and allocation processes align smoothly with operational delivery.

Pathway Oversight & Integration

• Provide clinical oversight of the referral, triage and allocation process, ensuring CYP are directed to the most appropriate support.
• Work with subcontractors' clinical leads as required to maintain consistency in clinical decision-making.
• Support safe and timely transitions for CYP with needs above the Alliance threshold, including collaborative working with external partners.

Service Development & Innovation

• Contribute clinical expertise to the development of new initiatives, resources and materials for CYP, families and professionals.
• Review and sign off clinical content for resources such as Waiting Well materials and video content, including workshops.
• Provide clinical insight into service improvement work, including the refinement of service pathways and clinical documentation.
• Support the embedding of the i-THRIVE framework across the Alliance.

Partnership Working & Representation

• Act as a senior clinical representative for North Kent Mind at Alliance meetings and relevant multi-agency forums.
• Build strong working relationships with clinical leads, safeguarding leads and operational leads across partner organisations.
• Support constructive, solution-focused discussions when responding to clinical or risk-related challenges.

C: QUALIFICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

The post-holder will have substantial experience providing therapeutic support, clinical oversight or governance within children and young people's mental health, wellbeing or early-help settings. They will be confident managing complex clinical decision-making, including risk assessment, escalation and transition planning, and will have experience contributing to multi-agency safeguarding processes.

The Clinical Lead will be able to provide clear, supportive clinical supervision, lead reflective practice and ensure high standards across documentation, planning and risk management. They will also have experience working collaboratively across teams and partners, supporting a strong and consistent clinical culture within a developing service.

The Clinical Lead will be expected to have:

• A recognised therapeutic qualification (e.g. counselling, psychotherapy, CBT, creative therapies, systemic practice or equivalent)
• Accreditation or working towards accreditation with BACP, UKCP, BABCP, HCPC or an equivalent body
• A recognised qualification in clinical supervision, or willingness to complete this within an agreed timeframe
• Evidence of ongoing professional development relevant to clinical leadership, governance or therapeutic practice
• Strong digital literacy, including confident use of case management and clinical recording systems.

Closing date: we may close early if we receive sufficient applications). Interviews will take place in early January.

Job Types: Part-time, Permanent

Pay: £43,158.24-£47,130.12 per year

Expected hours: 22.5 per week

Benefits:

• Bereavement leave
• Company pension
• Health & wellbeing programme
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person