Job summary
- Main area
- Music Therapy
- Grade
- Band 6
- Contract
- 12 months (Fixed term)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 271-CCS-7192705
- Employer
- Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Great Ormond Street Hospital
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £44,806 - £53,134 Inclusive per annum pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 11/06/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Music Therapist
Band 6
Job overview
We are pleased to offer an exciting opportunity to join the Music Therapy Service at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children – a world-renowned centre of excellence in Paediatric care.
We are seeking a passionate, caring, and creative Music Therapist to join our team, supporting children and young people with a wide range of complex medical needs, and their families to cope with medical treatment, express themselves, and feel more in control of their hospital experience.
We’d love to hear from you if you:
- Are a qualified Music Therapist (MA or equivalent) registered with the HCPC
- Have experience working with babies, children or young people, ideally in healthcare or special education
- Are confident working in sensitive and complex situations with empathy,
creativity and flexibility
- Are looking for a meaningful, challenging job, where you can make a
difference every day
This is a full-time position, but if you could only work part-time, we encourage you to still apply.
Main duties of the job
You will be:
- Delivering one-to-one and group music therapy sessions across different wards (including oncology, cardiac, inpatient mental health, and intensive
care)
- Supporting babies, toddlers and young children to reach the developmental milestones that are threatened by a long hospital stay
- Supporting children and young people with communication, self-expression, emotional and sensory regulation, pain management, neuro- and physical rehabilitation
- Adapting your approach to meet the individual communication and sensory needs of children and young people with learning disabilities or
neurodevelopmental conditions – working closely with families and clinical teams to ensure therapy is accessible, inclusive and tailored to each young person’s strengths
- Collaborating with colleagues from the Play Team, Physiotherapy,
Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Psychology, the
GOSH School, and the medical teams to provide joined-up, child-centred care
- Keeping clear, professional records and contributing to care planning, clinical discussions and service development.
Working for our organisation
We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as the communities we serve, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including people with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritage, people with a disability, and people from LGBTQ+ communities. By growing an ever more diverse workforce, we’ll have a greater range of perspectives and knowledge, meaning that we can provide the children and young people at our hospital with even better care.
Our hospital is committed to creating an environment that is open and inclusive. Our staff are encouraged to engage with colleagues through the following networks: REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) ENABLED (Enhancing Abilities & Leveraging Disabilities Network), PRIDE and Women’s networks; all of which are sponsored by a member of our Executive Management Team.
We want to ensure that all of our people, regardless of their background, are seen and heard. We want to attract applicants that share our commitment to inclusion and that understand diversity is a strength that is embraced and valued.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. For both documents please view the attachment/s below.
Person specification
Academic/Professional Qualification/Training
Essential criteria
- MA/MSc/MMT in Music Therapy (or equivalent qualification)
- Current registration as Arts Therapist with Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC)
Combined Values
Essential criteria
- Combined Values
Experience/Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Clinical experience of working with children and young people, in individual and group settings
- Experience of conducting assessments, writing assessment reports, and making appropriate recommendations for input
- Ability to assess client needs in a clinical setting and identify suitable interventions, considering diagnostic and risk factors
- Understanding of how Music Therapy interventions may be adapted to meet a wide range of service user needs and institutional settings
Desirable criteria
- Experience working with children and young people with Learning Disabilities (including Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities) and Autism
- Experience working with parents/carers
- Knowledge of the role of Music Therapy in paediatric healthcare, and related areas such as attachment and trauma
- Experience working in an inpatient paediatric medical setting
- Experience of research and audit
- Experience of using Makaton and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices to support children and young people who are non-speaking communictors e.g., switches, choice cards, symbol boards
Skills/Abilities
Essential criteria
- Ability to cope with, and maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing situations
- Ability to independently establish working relationships with patients and their families, and intentionally support the patient’s transition into active music making
- Ability to thoughtfully engage patients in initial dialogue and create an enjoyable conversation based on learning about the patient’s music history, experiences, and preferences
- Effective communication skills, and the ability to impart complex and clinically sensitive information to patients, families and carers, and a wide range health care professionals
- Ability to form excellent working relationships across multidisciplinary teams
- High level of clinical musicianship. This includes rhythmic and harmonic stability and flexibility that supports patients’ contributions, the ability to model appropriate and creative playing of percussion, the ability to create original music that supports patients' ideas and contributions, and the ability to play and sing popular songs (including nursery rhymes, Disney songs, popular kids TV themes) and/or create original music appropriate for the following age groups: 0-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-11,12+
Desirable criteria
- Strong presentation skills, including the ability to develop and use multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings
- Specialist knowledge of child and adolescent development (i.e., motor, cognitive, language, emotional, social)
- Experience supervising Music Therapy students on placement
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Katya Herman
- Job title
- Music Therapist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07810287620
- Additional information
Informal conversations ahead of application are positively encouraged – we'd love to hear from you
List jobs with Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust in Allied Health Professions or all sectors