Job overview

We would like to recruit an enthusiastic, creative, values led Counsellor to working within and alongside the Neonatal intensive care MDT. The role is a part of a wider Paediatric Psychological medicine Team, based at Addenbrookes Hospital.

The Counsellor Practitioner is a member of the children’s services counselling team and the wider psychosocial team that works in NICU.   The role is to provide a responsive therapeutically based service, accessible to all parents/carers and families from their baby’s diagnosis or admission into NICU, including supporting families where their baby is receiving palliative or end of life care through to bereavement care if necessary.  This post also provides a specialist counselling service to NICU outpatient families, where their baby has been on NICU and they would like to access support when they are home, in order to process the NICU experience. The counsellor works alongside the NICU Clinical Psychologist and with the ward team, including the Matron, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Neonatologists, other Counsellors and outside agencies involved with the family, and is flexible and adaptable in delivering the service.

This counselling will largely take place within Addenbrookes and will involve the post-holder offering a responsive and needs led service on a daily basis.

Main duties of the job

1.     The post holder will cover two clinical areas.  1) To provide a counselling service for parents on NICU.  2)  To provide a specialist counselling outpatient service for NICU parents in the community (those parents that had a baby on NICU and are now home and want to access support to process the NICU experience), including bereavement follow-up support.  Both work includes working with families experiencing high levels of trauma and emotional distress. Work to include detailed assessment, intervention and liaison with other professionals, using a theoretical framework.

2.     To work in a range of environments alongside the Clinical Nurse Specialists and Neonatologists, to support parents on NICU.  This includes working at the cot-side in NICU.

3.     Provide crisis and trauma focused support for families, and to make decisions about referral on to other services as appropriate.  Using a range of specific psychological interventions which may include trauma support work, problem solving, anger, stress and anxiety management. 

4.     To be fully aware of and contribute to the bereavement counselling service provided for families

5.     Carry a bleep and to respond to urgent referrals as quickly as possible within working hours (9-5). Undertaking an assessment of need which includes the ability to differentiate between moderate and severe levels of psychological distress.

Working for our organisation

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives. 

Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.

To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly underrepresented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities. 

All appointments for new employees to CPFT are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.  

Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications. 

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process. 

For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk