The Role of Primary Mental Health Workers

Primary mental health workers are located in Safeguarding Team's. They carry out and assist with/advise on assessments of children and young people In Need where the child’s emotional wellbeing is the predominant issue. This does not include working with Looked After Children, who will receive services as required from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

1. They also hold formal consultations with other professionals about their work with children both at the assessment and the service delivery stages;
2. If an assessment by a primary mental health worker is required as a result of a consultation, they will contact the child within 10 working days and start the assessment within 10 working days;
3. The primary mental health workers will also undertake direct work with children with identified needs. Alternatively they will pass referrals to the core CAMHS service or carry out joint work with CAMHS or other professionals and/or support other professionals in delivering emotional help to children in need;
4. The decision as to whether to undertake direct work, joint work or make a referral to CAMHS will depend on the severity of the individual needs of the child concerned;
5. Where a service is provided to other professionals or directly to children and young people, the Primary Mental Health Worker must ensure that data is recorded as required for service monitoring purposes and send service quarterly monitoring reports to the Children's Commissioning Team on the date required. A monitoring form is available for this purpose;
6. At the point when the service ends - whether in a planned or unplanned way - the Business and Commissioning Team will obtain service user feedback from the child and family, and from the professionals involved.