OXFORD DEANERY SPECIALTY TRAINING PROGRAMME
IN CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY
About Oxford Deanery
The Oxford Deanery covers the counties of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, with
Banbury and Milton Keynes in the North, to Reading and Slough in Berkshire and High Wycombe and
Aylesbury in the West.
The Oxford Deanery is part of NHS South of England which comprises South Central, South West
and South East Coast Strategic Health Authorities. The Oxford Deanery is responsible for the training
of some 1500 trainees.
The Oxford Deanery is a relatively small deanery with a defined geographical area
which serves as a single unit of application. In the majority of cases successful
candidates will be asked to preference their choice of location for either one or two
years. Some programmes will require successful candidates to indicate a location
and specialty. Future placements will usually be based on individual training and
educational needs. Please note that applications are to the Oxford Deanery as a
whole. This may mean that you may be allocated to any geographic location
within the Oxford Deanery depending on training needs.
GENERAL ORIENTATION TO THE SCHEME
There are eight full-time specialist trainee placements in the Oxford Deanery Higher Training
Scheme, based in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Milton Keynes. This provides a balanced and
comprehensive training fully approved by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Full-time trainees have three one-year placements out of the eight available within the Deanery
programme. Flexible training can also be undertaken in the specialty, in which case the programme
will last five years divided into four attachments of fifteen months each. All StRs are subject to
annual assessments under the ARCP process.
The Oxfordshire placements are:
 Boundary Brook House, Oxford (Oxford City Tier 3 CAMHS (1 post), Tier 4 Neuropsychiatry
Outpatient Service (1 post))
 Highfield Family and Adolescent Unit, Oxford (in-patient service) (1 posts)
 Tier 3 CAMHS Teams in Abingdon and Banbury (1 post each)
The Berkshire placements are:
 the Berkshire Adolescent Unit at Wokingham Hospital (in-patient service) (1 post)
 Tier 3 CAMHS and Paediatric liaison service at 3 Craven Road, Reading (1 post)
The Milton Keynes placement is:
 Tier 3 CAMHS, Eaglestone Health Centre, Milton Keynes Hospital (1 post)
There are excellent opportunities for involvement in teaching and research, including supervision of
research in trainees' own special interests. The University Department of General Psychiatry is
based at the Warneford Hospital with Professor John Geddes as its head. There is a University
Section of Child Psychiatry also based at the Warneford Hospital, the section is led by Professor
Alan Stein.
The variety of experience available in each placement is set out in detail below.
DETAILS OF INDIVIDUAL PLACEMENTS
OXFORD HEALTH NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
OXFORD CITY TIER 3 CAMHS (1 POST)
Consultants: Dr Anne Stewart, Dr Simone Forlee and Dr Marian Perkins
The Oxford City CAMHS team is a busy service with an experienced multidisciplinary team. The
team provides the possibility of a broad experience of generic child and adolescent work as well
as the possibility of some general hospital liaison and specialist experience in working with
young people with eating disorders.
TIER 4 NEUROPSYCHIATRY OUTPATIENT SERVICE (1 POST)
Consultant: Dr Marian Perkins
The neuropsychiatry team is a specialist Tier 4 community service providing assessments and
interventions for young people with complex neuropsychiatric presentations. The service currently
provides for Oxfordshire bit its remit is likely to cover Buckinghamshire as well in the near future.
HIGHFIELD FAMILY AND ADOLESCENT UNIT (INPATIENT SERVICE (1 POST)
Consultant: Dr Tony James
Highfield Family and Adolescent Unit, situated in the grounds of Warneford Hospital, is an established
unit providing the base for the Regional Psychiatric Adolescent Service; a completely new purpose-built
unit is currently under construction. The multidisciplinary team provides a comprehensive experience in
the assessment and treatment of a wide range of clinical disorders in adolescents and their families. The
age range of the adolescent patients is from thirteen to eighteen years. There is scope for both brief and
long-term treatment utilising the full range of treatment techniques. The specialist trainee will be able to
obtain supervised experience in family therapy, individual and group psychotherapy, and in cognitive
behavioural techniques and psychopharmacology. A school forms an integral part of the unit and the
teachers work closely with the therapeutic team. The service has very well established links with
agencies in the community.
The specialist trainee will have ready access to the academic training programme and to lectures
and conferences in the University Department of Psychiatry and Section of Child Psychiatry. There
are teaching commitments to undergraduates and postgraduates, and also opportunities for lecturing
outside the unit.
BANBURY TIER 3 CAMHS(1 POST)
Consultants: Dr Rosie Shepperd, Dr Evie Manganari
The Banbury specialist CAMHS serves a population of 170,000. The purpose-built facility has
numerous clinical rooms, a family therapy viewing room as well as rooms for sole use of clinicians,
including an STR.
The children and adolescents seen represent a wide range of simple and complex cases, providing
excellent training for competency assessments, differential and co-morbid diagnoses and
differentiation, and patient-specific treatment programmes.
There is a very wide range of trainee experience in this placement such as individual and joint
assessments with other professionals including a psychologist, social workers, CPNs and
occupational therapists. A particular feature of the placement is the paediatric liaison provided to the
Horton Hospital, both to the A&E ward and the assessment of self-harm.
The team in Banbury offers a range of
adolescents.
multidisciplinary therapeutic skills for children and
ABINGDON TIER 3 CAMHS (1 POST)
Consultants: Dr Emma Fergusson, Dr Tanya McGregor Dr Isabel Paz,
The South Oxfordshire Specialist CAMHS service is located in Abingdon. The team provides
services to Abingdon, with outreach clinics in Didcot, Henley, Wantage, Thame and Berinsfield. The
population served is currently 240,000 and hence affords excellent experience in a communitybased team. Children and adolescents from 0-18 with a wide range of psychological difficulties are
seen.
Specific features of the post include a broad catchment area of a mixed urban and rural nature,
interactions with other agencies and the possibility of inter-agency working, as well as excellent
opportunities for liaison and consultation with schools, social services, educational psychology,
health visitors and GPs. This reflects the emphasis of this team on multi-agency, multi-professional
approach to assessing and treating children and adolescents with psychiatric difficulties.
CONSULTANT STAFF BASED IN OXFORDSHIRE
Dr Rob Chapman is a Consultant in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry running a community team
based in Witney, West Oxfordshire.
Dr Evie Manganari, Dr Rosie Shepperd and Dr Innibong Okonna (locum) are Consultant Child &
Adolescent Psychiatrists based in Banbury, North Oxfordshire. Dr Shepperd is Clinical Director of
Oxford Health Children and Families Division.
Dr Nick Hindley is Consultant in Child & Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry at Boundary Brook House,
Oxford. He is clinical lead for the Thames Valley Child & Adolescent Forensic Mental Health Service
TV FCAMHS) which provides a regional community forensic service to Oxfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Milton Keynes. He also provides input into the Child and
Adolescent Harmful Behaviour Service (CAHBS; a service providing assessment and intervention for
young people with sexually harmful behaviour) and the Family assessment and Safeguarding
Service (FASS; a service providing court reports and thearapeutic interventions in families where
child maltreatment has occurred.
Dr Ollie White, Consultant in Child & Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry is in a joint post providing
input both to TV FCAMHS and Bluebird House (National NHS Adolescent Forensic In-patient Unit,
Southampton)
Dr Tony James is Consultant and Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Adolescent Psychiatry at the
Highfield Family and Adolescent Unit. Dr James has a wide range of clinical and research interests.
Dr Marian Perkins is Consultant in Child Neuropsychiatry at the Park Hospital with a special interest
in epilepsy and in paediatric liaison. She leads a multidisciplinary team for management of children
with complex epilepsy and associated psychiatric problems as well as a tertiary service for children
with neuropsychiatric disorders such as autistic spectrum disorder, hyperkinetic syndrome, complex
tic disorders, etc. She is Programme Director for the StR programme.
Dr Rosie Shepperd is Consultant in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry for Abingdon and Thame, South
Oxfordshire. She works with a small multidisciplinary team and liaises closely with GPs, health
visitors, social services and education, to assess and treat children from 0 to 18 years, with their
families or carers.
Dr Anne Stewart and Dr Simone Forlee are Consultants in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the
Oxford City CAMHS Team. Dr Stewart has close working links with the Department of Psychological
Medicine and the Adolescent Unit in the John Radcliffe Hospital; her main clinical and research
interest is in eating disorders.
Dr Emma Fergusson, Dr Tanya McGregor, Dr Isabel Paz, Dr Elizabeth Tovey are Consultants in
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at South Oxfordshire CAMHS
ACADEMIC STAFF:
Professor Alan Stein, Dr Mina Fazel
BERKSHIRE HEALTHCARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
BERKSHIRE ADOLESCENT UNIT BASED AT WOKINGHAM HOSPITAL (1 POST)
Consultants: Dr M Allsopp, Dr Nicky Affonso
The Berkshire Adolescent Unit is sited in the ground of Wokingham Community Hospital and
provides psychiatric services for young people and their families from Berkshire and surrounding
districts. The service offers eight in-patient beds and an extensive day-patient programme. The Unit
often closes at weekends but has the facility to remain open on a regular basis to respond to the
needs of emergency or high-dependency patients. There are specialist out-patient clinics for
patients presenting with eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and first episode
psychosis.
The specialist trainee will work as part of a multidisciplinary team comprising nursing, psychology,
occupational therapy, family therapy, art therapy, dietetics and teaching staff as well as Dr Allsopp,
Dr Affonso, and a basic specialist trainee on a six-month attachment from the Oxford Rotational
Training Scheme.
READING TIER 3 CAMHS AND PAEDIATRIC LIAISON SERVICE (1 POST)
Consultants: Dr Janet Bucher, Dr Andrew West, Dr Carsten Vogt
This post is split between Paediatric liaison and Community CAMHS and is based at Craven Road.
The Paediatric Psychology and Liaison Service (PPALS) comprises the registrar, consultant and a
psychologist. There are fortnightly team meetings, monthly joint clinics, regular academic meetings
with the paediatricians in addition to referrals from the paediatricians both on a routine and an
emergency basis.
The community CAMHS aspect involves assessment and management of complex conditions and
extensive working with members of the multidisciplinary team as well as liaison with external
agencies. The registrar is welcome to attend and participate in the weekly referrals-triage meeting
There exists a rota system for managing emergencies in the community, during the working hours.
The weekly team meeting provides a platform for presentation and discussion of complex cases,
audits etc.
There are also opportunities to participate in specialist ADHD, neuropsychiatry and ASD/SoCom
(social & communication disorder) clinics. Psychotherapy supervision is available.
CONSULTANT STAFF BASED IN BERKSHIRE
Dr Mark Allsopp and Dr Nicky Affonso are Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists
responsible for the Berkshire Adolescent Service at Wokingham Hospital. His research interests
include obsessive compulsive disorder in children and adolescents, eating disorders and the
provision of early psychosis services.
Dr Janet Bucher, Dr Carsten Vogt and Dr Andrew West Reading CAMHS. Dr Bucher’s special
interests are under-five clinics, parent-training courses, and ADHD. Dr West has a special interest
in paediatric liaison based at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. Dr Vogt has a special interest
in ADHD.
Dr Raj Gouda and Dr Elsa Godinho are Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists at
Newbury CAMHS
Dr Cornelius Ani is Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Bracknell CAMHS
Dr Guy Northover is Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Maidenhead CAMHS
Dr David McDonald and Dr Anna Viviani are Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists at
Slough CAMHS
Dr Tamsin Marshall and Dr Jyoti Vandana are Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists at
Wokingham CAMHS
MILTON KEYNES COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES
MILTON KEYNES CAMHS
Consultants: Dr Renu Daryanani; Dr K Hadi, Dr Haido Vlachos
The Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is located on the first floor of Eaglestone Health
Centre in the grounds of Milton Keynes General Hospital. The catchment area for the services tap
off Milton Keynes and the department is the only tier 3 service in Milton Keynes. The population is
230,000 with an age structure weighted towards the younger group. The specialist CAMHS service
sits within the Children’s Directorate of Milton Keynes Community Health Service . There are close links
with the Paediatric Department and opportunities for paediatric liaison, attendance at the Child
Development Centre and other paediatric clinics. There are also close links with the Adult
Psychiatry Department and the Adult Eating Disorders services.
There are strong contacts with social services department, education department and the youth
offenders team. There is consultation with social services and support for foster carers.
The department offers a family therapy suite and art therapy room and although there are no inpatient beds, it is possible to admit young people to paediatric wards. There is a strong emphasis on
the large multidisciplinary team and the experience that that affords.
GENERAL INFORMATION – CHILD & ADOLESCENT SCHEME
STUDY, RESEARCH AND OTHER TRAINING
Evidence of research is required throughout the period of higher training, and supervision is
arranged through the University Department of Psychiatry in Oxford. There are excellent library
facilities in Oxford and at Prospect Park Hospital, Reading. The resources of the University libraries
are also available.
Case conferences, and formal academic programmes are held weekly in both Oxford and Reading.
Specialist trainees are expected to attend the series of reading seminars which cover the topic areas
of the discipline over a three-year period. These seminars are run weekly in term time and are coordinated by the Tutors to the scheme. There are additional seminars which address other aspects
of higher training. The University Department of Psychiatry provides lectures and seminars on a
wide variety of topics.
There is weekly supervision in Oxford for individual child psychotherapy, and all trainees are able to
attend this group when they have a child or adolescent in psychodynamic therapy. There is also a
Tavistock Centre run course in Oxford for infant observation.
MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
There are opportunities for specialist trainees to gain experience in the administrative and
managerial aspects of the various clinical units, and to be involved in a number of departmental
meetings, including medical committees for psychiatry and child health, and a range of joint planning
and liaison bodies. Trainees are encouraged to attend management training courses and to take an
active part in the various managerial structures within the health service.
TEACHING
Each clinical psychiatric firm within the Deanery has a basic specialist trainee on a six-month
attachment. The higher trainees are expected to play an important part in their clinical supervision
and in the weekly academic programmes. There are opportunities for being involved in teaching on
the MRCPsych day release course in Oxford, and for teaching medical students during their
paediatric and psychiatric attachments.
Specialist trainees are encouraged to participate in the teaching and training of other disciplines.
ON-CALL
At present StRs will take part in the Child & Adolescent on-call rota in all placements throughout the
two CAMHS years of training. In Oxfordhealth NHS FT the on-call duty includes cover for
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire including The Highfield Adolescent Unit. In Berkshire specialist
trainees are expected to be rapidly available to assess emergency referrals and provide cover for
the in-patient adolescent unit during their on-call duties.
Candidates are encouraged to visit the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Scheme by arrangement
with the Programme Director:
Contact
Dr M Perkins
Programme Director
Address
Boundary Brook House, Churchill Drive,
Headington, Oxford OX3 7LQ
Telephone
0845 219 1002