Permanency service
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Permanency Service (CAMHS PS) support the mental health, emotional wellbeing and safety of children up to the age of 18 who are looked after by West Sussex children’s social care or are living under a special guardianship order and have never been in care.
Who are we
We are a multi-disciplinary team of clinical psychologists, systemic family psychotherapists, child psychotherapists and art psychotherapists. We are all highly trained and are specialists in working with children and young people who are placed away from their birth parents and who are experiencing emotional, relational and behavioural difficulties as a result of early adversity and multiple losses.
We support children who are being looked after by West Sussex County Council (WSCC) or who are in a special guardianship placement in West Sussex and who are experiencing complex emotional and psychological difficulties.
We work with children and young people aged 0-18 living in West Sussex, who are:
- Looked after by West Sussex County Council either in a permanent placement or where there is a plan for permanence. This could be in foster care or in a residential placement.
- Living under a special guardianship order and have never been in care.
We recognise that young people, their families and carers are often part of a large network. Our team of psychological therapists provide consultation and advice to this network. We work closely with foster carers, residential workers, social care workers and schools to best support the emotional needs and mental health of children and young people.
Our interventions include:
- Support to networks around the child/young person to develop a shared understanding of their strengths and needs and develop a multi-agency care and risk management plan.
- Therapeutic parenting groups for carers to enhance the provision of attachment and trauma informed therapeutic care.
- Support to carers including consultation to West Sussex residential teams.
- Family and parent-child work.
- Individual psychotherapeutic interventions with children and young people.
Referrals for the CAMHS Permanency Service are made by West Sussex County Council social workers to the Therapeutic Access Panel (TAP). This panel is comprised of a range of professionals including social care, education and health services. Their role is to provide advice and support regarding appropriate care planning and who is best placed to offer a service.
When a referral is considered appropriate for the CAMHS Permanency Service, an initial consultation will be offered within 28 working days. During this initial meeting, a care and risk management plan is developed, and a written report is shared within 10 working days of this first meeting.
Information discussed within sessions is treated as confidential. However, if we are concerned about the safety of a young person or anyone else, we will share this information with other professionals as part of the Child Protection & Safeguarding policy. If this is the case, we will always try to inform those involved about how we are proceeding.
We welcome feedback of your experience of the service you have received. You can do this in a number of ways.
- Complete feedback postcards that are available in our waiting room.
- Complete the experience of service questionnaire which will be given or sent to you during our work together.
Your therapist will also ask you for your views about your experience, what is working well and things you would like to be different.
We are located next to Shoreham-by-Sea train station. There is no parking available on site, however parking is available on the local side streets.