Highly Specialist Systemic/Family Therapist, Band 8a

Job description

Job responsibilities

All staff should have a personal development plan and in conjunction with their manager, should actively determine and pursue agreed training and development needs and opportunities. All staff are required to attend mandatory training as designated by the Trust.

Please kindly refer to the job description and persons specification attached to this vacancy for further details.

Main responsibilities:

1. To provide a highly specialist systemic assessment of referrals of a significant and complex nature in order to formulate and implement plans for the treatment and/or management of a childs or adolescents mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework and employing methods based upon evidence.

2. To assess children, adolescents and their families as part of a risk assessment.

3. To consult to parents/carers (including foster parents) as part of a treatment plan.

4. To work in ways which are sensitive to and appropriate for the needs of families from a wide range of racial, cultural and religious backgrounds. This includes abilities to understand and offer therapeutic interventions to a variety of family forms including single parents, same sex couples and their wider family networks, accommodated children and their network of care, children with learning difficulties, and children who are on the Child Protection Register, and parents with mental health difficulties. Competence is required in undertaking systemic therapy with families through the use of an interpreter where families do not yet have sufficient understanding of the English language.

5. To provide highly specialist systemic therapy with clinical autonomy drawing on a range of models and wherever possible brief interventions. To practice in a way which is inclusive and considerate of the needs of each individual in the system including family members in their varying developmental stages and current emotional state.

6. To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options taking into account highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the child, family or group, and their difficulties.

7. To be responsible for implementing a range of systemic psychotherapeutic interventions for children, adolescents and their families, including couples and groups, drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses in reaching a formulation and treatment plan. Interventions may include family therapy, individual work, chairing professionals and network meetings, liaising with other agencies, observations of patients in different settings, and the use of a range of systemic models.

8. To exercise full autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, and formulate effective care plans in collaboration with the client and family. To undertake risk assessment and risk management relevant to individual patients, including protective and risk factors present in the network of significant relationships, and to do this using the knowledge of the multi professional context that is a mental health service for the locality.

9. To work jointly and collaboratively with other team members in order to enhance and develop work with families by providing highly specialist knowledge and skills.

10. To provide highly specialist consultation, advice and guidance to other professionals at all levels working with families both within the service and in partner agencies. This will include liaison and working with professional networks involved with highly complex, emotive and often conflictual issues such as those involving child protection, deliberate self harm, violence, trauma, suicide risk, criminal offending behaviour, sexualised behaviour, and mental health problems of parents.

11. To maintain current knowledge of the operation of video equipment and promote ethical and effective use in line with Directorate policy. To introduce this practice to families in a sensitive way, and to advise and instruct clinicians in other disciplines and systemic psychotherapy trainees and social workers on the fitting and appropriate use of this therapeutic tool. To use video tape review to enhance the skills of colleagues and to help parents understand their familys difficulties, dilemmas, and traumatic experiences.

12. To act as care coordinator, as required, taking responsibility for initiating, planning and review of care plans and giving consideration to the views of patients, their family, carers, referring agents and other professionals involved in the network of care. This includes organising complex professional network meetings.

13. To work in accordance with NCATS team objectives by adhering to Trust, Directorate and NSPCC policies, including risk assessment in all work, ensuring care plans are in place, recording up to date, attending and contributing a systemic view in case discussion and team meetings.

14. To contribute to overall service delivery and development as required.

Management responsibilities

1. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams operational policies and services, through the development of systemic professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

2. To advise both service and professional management on all aspects of the service where systemic and/or organisational matters need addressing.

3. To manage the workloads of trainee systemic psychotherapists, within the framework of team policies and procedures.

4. To lead on an agreed area of service development, for example, family therapy models for children presenting with sexually harmful behaviour.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• 2 years post qualification

Desirable

• Working with forensic populations

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

Address

NSPCC North London Service Centre

Alexandra Ciardi House, 7 - 8 Greenland Place, Camden

London

NW1 0AP

Employer's website

http://oxleas.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)