Job summary
Bluebird House is looking to recruit an experienced Band 7 Creative Therapist (Art, Music or Drama) as an integral part of the psychological therapies offer to the service. This is a part time position for 22.5 hours per week.
Bluebird House is a specialist, medium secure mental health inpatient unit for young people, both male and female, ages 12-18 years.
The postholder will work alongside other psychological therapy colleagues (psychologists and psychological therapists, drama therapist and family therapists) and a comprehensive multi-disciplinary team. The therapist will provide specialist assessment, contribute to the MDT psychological formulation and individual and group work within the unit, and work with other members of the MDT in promoting a psychologically informed environment. Bluebird House has a psychologically informed model of care based on attachment and trauma theory, and also draws from Non Violence Resistance (NVR).
You should have a good understanding of young people presenting with severe mental health and behavioural difficulties. You will need to be a confident practitioner, ideally with experience in forensic, inpatient or CAMHS services, and be adaptable to ever changing needs and pressures.
Main duties of the job
To work as an autonomous, independent practitioner responsible for own work and intervention and for the interpretation of agreed guidelines and policies in providing a highly specialist creative therapy service.
To undertake complex assessments and consultancy, providing expert advice to acute care colleagues and the wider clinical multi-professional team.
To provide specialist treatment for complex young people and plan and prioritise own clinical workload.
To comment and propose change to policy or service development within the area psychological service.
To provide psychological guidance and supervision for multidisciplinary clinical colleagues.
To undertake a personal research and development programme and develop and encourage a research culture within the wider clinical team.
About us
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a newly established organisation, bringing together expertise from across mental health, learning disabilities, community, and physical health services. We are dedicated to delivering compassionate, high-quality, and accessible care to the diverse communities of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
With over 13,000 dedicated staff working across more than 300 sites, we place patients and staff at the centre of everything we do. Our goal is to create an integrated healthcare system that improves accessibility and ensures more consistent care for patients. By working together, we aim to improve patient outcomes, drive innovation, and meet the unique needs of the populations we serve.
Our Trust unites services from Southern Health, Solent NHS Trust, Isle of Wight NHS Trusts community and mental health teams, as well as Hampshire CAMHS, originally part of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. This transformation enables us to deliver more seamless care across the region, ensuring that patients receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time.
Join us as we embark on this exciting journey to shape the future of healthcare across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We are deeply committed to our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence, and offer outstanding opportunities for career development, training, and collaborative working.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.
We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.
We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- MA/MSc or equivalent in Drama Therapy, Music Therapy or Art Psychotherapy.
- Met conditions of full membership Professional
- Association (British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT), British Association of Drama therapists (BADth), British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT).
- Post-holder must be HCPC registered.
Desirable
- Post-graduate training in one or more additional specialised areas of practice.
- Membership of a relevant professional association.
Experience
Essential
- Post- qualification supervised clinical experience with those with complex presentations, including risk to self and others, and their families.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
- Knowledge of Creative therapy, drawing on a variety of approaches and/or models, as appropriate to the needs of patients, carers and families presenting with multi-complex difficulties.
- Ability to use this knowledge and skill with a highly complex client group.
- Knowledge of problems faced by those with mental health problems and their families.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of mental health assessment, intervention and management.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Knowledge of research methodology, research design and data analysis, as practiced within the clinical field of adult mental health.
- Ability to form good working relationships with others in a multidisciplinary and multi-agency setting.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice.
- Can demonstrate effective team- work.
- Flexible and adaptive working style; an ability to work flexibly to meet the needs of patients and families from a wide geographical area and across services, as required.
- Calm under pressure. An ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Self-motivated and able to work without supervision.
- Highly organised and able to maintain competing demands.
- Diplomatic and empathetic manner.
- Able to maintain confidentiality.
- Attention to detail.
- Skills in the assessment of developmental, family, school-based, intrapersonal and mental health factors.
- Experience of working as a creative therapist with a relevant client group (young people, forensic setting, inpatient setting).
Desirable
- Experience of the application of Creative therapy in different cultural contexts.
- Experience of delivering group programmes.
- Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of Creative therapy in specific difficult to treat groups.
- Current knowledge of relevant legislation and ethical issues (e.g. Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults).
- Interest and ability to contribute to service development.
- Skills in the assessment of developmental, family, school-based, intrapersonal and mental health factors.
- Experience of working as a creative therapist with a relevant client group (young people, forensic setting, inpatient setting).
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- MA/MSc or equivalent in Drama Therapy, Music Therapy or Art Psychotherapy.
- Met conditions of full membership Professional
- Association (British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT), British Association of Drama therapists (BADth), British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT).
- Post-holder must be HCPC registered.
Desirable
- Post-graduate training in one or more additional specialised areas of practice.
- Membership of a relevant professional association.
Experience
Essential
- Post- qualification supervised clinical experience with those with complex presentations, including risk to self and others, and their families.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
- Knowledge of Creative therapy, drawing on a variety of approaches and/or models, as appropriate to the needs of patients, carers and families presenting with multi-complex difficulties.
- Ability to use this knowledge and skill with a highly complex client group.
- Knowledge of problems faced by those with mental health problems and their families.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of mental health assessment, intervention and management.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Knowledge of research methodology, research design and data analysis, as practiced within the clinical field of adult mental health.
- Ability to form good working relationships with others in a multidisciplinary and multi-agency setting.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice.
- Can demonstrate effective team- work.
- Flexible and adaptive working style; an ability to work flexibly to meet the needs of patients and families from a wide geographical area and across services, as required.
- Calm under pressure. An ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Self-motivated and able to work without supervision.
- Highly organised and able to maintain competing demands.
- Diplomatic and empathetic manner.
- Able to maintain confidentiality.
- Attention to detail.
- Skills in the assessment of developmental, family, school-based, intrapersonal and mental health factors.
- Experience of working as a creative therapist with a relevant client group (young people, forensic setting, inpatient setting).
Desirable
- Experience of the application of Creative therapy in different cultural contexts.
- Experience of delivering group programmes.
- Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of Creative therapy in specific difficult to treat groups.
- Current knowledge of relevant legislation and ethical issues (e.g. Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults).
- Interest and ability to contribute to service development.
- Skills in the assessment of developmental, family, school-based, intrapersonal and mental health factors.
- Experience of working as a creative therapist with a relevant client group (young people, forensic setting, inpatient setting).
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).