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Job summary

Main area
Psychotherapist
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 8a
Contract
Permanent
Hours
  • Full time
  • Part time
  • Job share
  • Flexible working
37.5 hours per week
Job ref
395-PP130-25
Employer
NELFT NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Child and Adolescent Family Centre
Town
Barking
Salary
£55,690 - £62,682 p.a plus HCAS (pro rata)
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
27/10/2025 23:59
Interview date
10/11/2025

Employer heading

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust logo

CAMHS Systemic Family Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 8a

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

We are seeking an experienced Systemic Family Therapist to join our busy and dynamic CAMHS team in Barking and Dagenham. This post has been created following a recent consultation as the service moves to a new i-THRIVE informed model of delivery. We have a growing and supportive therapy team.The candidate must be fully registered with the appropriate professional regulatory body and passionate about young people’s mental health and well-being whilst delivering high quality and effective CAMHS interventions.

As a therapist, you will provide specialist assessments for referrals of significant and complex nature to formulate and implement treatment and/or management plans for children or adolescents and their families with mental health problems. This includes facilitating group, individual, and family therapy clinics, and delivering a range of evidence-based interventions. You will draw upon your professional skills and values as a therapist to support children and young people presenting with various mental health difficulties.

In addition, you will develop and deliver consultation, training, and supervision to other professionals working with children and young people in different settings applying evidence-based clinical skills to support young children and adolescents with mental health conditions. You will be part of an experienced and established integrated team, working to deliver meaningful outcomes for children, adolescents, and their families/carers.

 

Main duties of the job

        To provide an efficient, effective, comprehensive and specialist service for children and adolescents with emotional and mental health problems, their carers/parents, and families. 

        Where appropriate to supervise trainees and practitioners from different disciplines. 

        To contribute to multi-disciplinary assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with emotional and mental health problems, their carers/parents, and families. 

        To undertake a range of clinical work, assessment work and parenting support. 

        To contribute to audit and research. 

        To actively engage in treatment and outcome monitoring, including the use of normed measures associated with CYP-IAPT. 

        To work in clinical practice, making use of supervision, within the overall framework CYPMHS and the Trust’s policies and procedures. 

Working for our organisation

Our Values 2025 – 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.

 They are:

 We are kind.

We are respectful.

We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

 Starting with NELFT

 NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend a number of drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £4,714 and a maximum payment of £5,941 - per annum, pro rata for part time

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

        To act as an autonomous professional fully registered with the appropriate professional or regulatory body (e.g UKCP, AFT).  

        To use an expert clinical understanding in assessing, jointly with colleagues in the multi- disciplinary team, children, adolescents and their families in order to formulate their strengths and difficulties and to determine the most appropriate treatment plan  

        To work alongside other colleagues in CAMHS in order to provide an in-depth comprehensive assessment of the child’s, young person’s, and family’s functioning where there is a constellation of high dysfunction and entrenched difficulties in the family. 

        To clinically lead this process in the CAMHS team as a member of the senior team leadership structure  

        To provide highly specialist therapeutic interventions with due regard to issues of cultural, racial and religious difference and sexual orientation  

 

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer to this when completing your application.

 We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Please apply as soon as possible as some posts close early to limit the number of applications.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.  

Use of AI

Please see attached document regarding acceptable use of AI during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Successful completion of a post-graduate training in therapy practice (e.g. Systemic Family Therapist fully registered with the appropriate professional or regulatory body (e.g. UKCP/AFT) and further qualified to master’s level or equivalent (degree, diploma and supplemented by specialist training, experience, short courses)
  • To be eligible for registration as a full member of the Appropriate professional body

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Extensive experience of working with difficult, challenging children/young people requiring skilled and complex interventions
  • Extensive experience of working with children and adolescents with comorbid difficulties and special needs. (i.e. combination of organic and emotional deficits, such as autistic spectrum disorders and trauma).
  • Extensive experience of working therapeutically with parents/carers/familie s of children and young people with complex mental health problems
  • Experience of carrying out generic assessment with other colleagues in the multi -disciplinary team
  • Experience of initiating, organising and planning inter agency meetings aimed at setting in place a treatment package tailored to the individual needs of a child/young person.
  • Experience of specialist assessment carried out autonomously in order to determine the most appropriate treatment plan from a range of options
  • Experience of providing professional teaching and training for other professionals working with the client group within the service and within related agencies
  • Experience of providing clinical interventions in different cultural contexts

Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • An awareness of NHS Priorities and Issues
  • Excellent knowledge of emotional, developmental, mental health problems and life span issues.
  • Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and adolescents and safeguarding procedures and policies.
  • Knowledge of NHS, Social Care and Education structures, national policies and frameworks, evidence based practice including NICE guidelines
  • Knowledge of risk management and ability to monitor and assess risk and act accordingly to ensure safety.

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Ability to communicate clearly and effectively highly complex and sensitive matters to patients, which give rise to psychological distress
  • Highly developed ability to integrate complex clinical information into a coherent formulation
  • Specialist skill in the ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues
  • Ability to tolerate anxiety without recourse to premature action whilst appreciating the role of the supervisor.
  • Capacity to work alone, involving colleagues and manger as relevant
  • Capacity to write clear records and observe policies, procedures and guidelines.
  • Ability to plan and organise own workload and time.
  • Ability to use outcome monitoring across all clinical work.
  • Ability to undertake quality improvement projects and audits

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Employers for CarersApprenticeships logoAge positiveDisability confident employerHappy to Talk Flexible WorkingDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - GoldEmployers Network for Equality & InclusionTop 10 Employer 2023

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure consideration.

If you require any additional support during the application process please contact [email protected]. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment journey.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Bibi Chummun
Job title
Head of Service
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
07885972111
Additional information

Chris Scalzo

[email protected]

07790352095

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