School Therapist/Counsellor (Highfield)

Job description

Job responsibilities

To provide a high-quality psychotherapy service to children and young people aged 11-16. Referred with a range of generic issues and mild to moderate mental health problems, working autonomously within professional guidelines; the overall framework of the NHS; team policies and procedures; and the Thrive Framework.

To provide advice and consultation on clients care to professionals and colleagues including school staff and other referrers.

To manage own clinical caseload within guidelines provided by the team leaders and professional guidelines and ethical frameworks (i.e. BACP/BABCP/NCPS, or equivalent).

To exercise professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients.

To assess clients presenting with complex personal difficulties including those arising from mild to moderate mental health difficulties, based on accurate understanding and utilising a conceptual framework of the clients difficulties.

To make decisions regarding suitability for therapy, with particular regard to issues of risk, and onward referral to other specialist services.

To formulate and implement psychotherapy and treatment plans with clients, normally within a brief structured time frame or a contracted number of sessions.

To exercise sound theoretical knowledge of the processes of therapy, based on evidence of efficacy, to employ a range of short-term therapy interventions to meet the needs of the referred client.

To understand and work within Child Protection protocols and guidelines.

To be able to work with a range of client presentations, including ambivalence and resistance, in order to facilitate clients ability to explore a range of life issues which are frequently of a distressing emotional nature.

To provide regular information to referrers, about the treatment process and outcome, initial and ongoing risk assessments, making appropriate disclosure and referral onward where necessary.

To collaborate, where appropriate, with a range of other professionals involved in clients treatment, ongoing emotional wellbeing and mental health care.

To provide such information reports as are required in order to facilitate effective communication with referring agencies and commissioners.

To work in the context of an equal opportunities framework and to promote equality in all areas of work.

Professional

To maintain the highest professional standards of practice by undertaking regular external professional supervision and internal peer supervision.

Fully participate in appraisals and personal development review process.

Ensure professional registration is current.

To contribute to the development, implementation and monitoring of the teams operations policies.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and responsible exercise of professional self-governance.

To comply with the Trust information governance and record keeping policies and guidelines.

To continue to develop the skills of a reflexive practitioner by conducting regular personal audit and evaluation of clinical work and by maintaining an active engagement with current development in the field of psychotherapy and related disciplines.

To have good keyboard skills and be able to use Microsoft office applications such as Word and Excel.

To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both a specific group and primary care adult mental health services.

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

Internal

• CAMHS/YoutherapY Service Manager
• YoutherapY Team Leader
• YoutherapY Team
• Administration Team
• CAMHS Staff
• CASHER Staff
• MHST Staff
• Families and Integrated Community Care Division staff

External

• Educational Colleagues
• Local Authority
• Clinical Commissioning Groups
• GPs
• Other healthcare and non-healthcare organisations

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Minimum Level 4 Diploma Qualification in Psychotherapy/Counselling/CBT from an accredited course or equivalent.
• Current Professional Accreditation (BACP/NCPS/BABCP or equivalent)

Desirable

• Qualification in delivering psychotherapy/counselling/CBT to children and young people.
• Qualification in clinical supervision

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Evidence of relevant, substantial post qualification clinical work with children and young people.
• Evidence of experience conducting comprehensive assessments.
• Evidence of experience delivering short-term, time-limited psychotherapy/counselling.
• Evidence of experience collaborating with a diverse client group with a wide range of presenting problems and significant level of distress.
• Evidence of collaborative work with other services.
• Evidence of regular supervised practice.

Desirable

• Experience of experience delivering therapy/counselling in the NHS.
• Evidence of delivering psychotherapy within an educational enviroment
• Evidence of CPD meeting minimum requirements for continued accreditation.

Skills and Ability

Essential

• Evidence of highly developed interpersonal skills and communication skills, both oral and written.
• Evidence of ability to work as an effective member of at team.
• Evidence of ability to work under pressure.
• Evidence of ability to exercise a high level of judgement and decision-making.
• Evidence of ability to prioritise work appropriately.
• Evidence of ability to sustain intense levels of concentration responding and participating as required.
• Evidence of ability to cope and deal with highly distressing emotional circumstances.

Desirable

• Evidence of extensive clinical and theoretical knowledge of more than one model of psychotherapy.
• Specialist skills, e.g. trauma-informed work.

Management

Essential

• Evidence of ability to manage own time effectively.
• Evidence of ability to self-reflect and use clinical supervision appropriately.
• Evidence of ability to keep clear, accurate records and use basic IT systems.

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

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Address

YoutherapY, Connect Young People's Centre

26 Talbot Road

Blackpool

FY11LF

Employer's website

https://www.bfwh.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)