Job summary
We are specialist child and adolescent mental health that who support children and young people up to the age of 18 years old experiencing moderate to severe eating disorders.
Our team includes consultant psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, nurses and social workers, family therapists, dietitians and administrators. The service has focused on delivering timely access to assessment and evidence-based treatment for children and young people with anorexia nervosa and moderate to severe bulimia and binge eating disorder.
We offer specialist, family based approaches, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, cognitive analytical therapy, motivational interviewing and guided self-help. In addition, we are expanding to include an intensive home meal support provision to allow children and young people to remain in the community for treatment and avoid or delay admission to specialist units and acute hospitals.
Treatment involves specialist eating disorder assessment and participation in planned treatment programmes, including individual work, family work, family meals and support around managing difficulties linked with eating linked to specialist dietetic input.
Main duties of the job
To provide a qualified highly specialist systemic family therapy service to clients of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CAMHS across all sectors of care. This post provides a systemic overview of the family approach to the treatment of complex mental health disorders, specialising in eating disorders. The post-holder will be responsible for co-ordinating, developing and delivering a variety of family and systemic interventions. These interventions are highly specialised, reflecting an expectation that the service will continue to develop innovative practices that are based on collaboration between clinicians, service users and carers, and commissioners of the service. The post holder will be responsible for this process by researching new practices, understanding and applying evidence-based approaches both in relation to family treatments and in the involvement of service users and carers.
The post-holder will be expected to offer advice and consultation on clients' care to all colleagues and to other, non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures. The post does not have any budgetary responsibilities.
The post holder will also be accountable for their own professional actions and will need to interpret broad occupational policies ( commitment to a family approach to treatment, involving service users and carers at all levels of treatment and service development).
About us
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high-quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting andempowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services, not only via inpatient and primary care settings, but also within the community. These services include children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, research and development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high-calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
Please be advised we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities
1. The post holder will undertake specialist systemic family assessment and care planned interventions of young people and families referred to the CAMHS Eating Disorder Service.
2. Responsible for the delivery of a full range of family treatments to all patients. These treatments may include the following systemic psychotherapy interventions; Conjoint family therapy (all family members present in the room at the same time, plus patient and other members of multi-disciplinary team). Separated family therapy ( parental counselling and individual systemic counselling running in parallel). Multi-family group therapy
3. The post holder is expected to participate in assessments of patients referred for treatment and to consult to multi-disciplinary and multi-agency colleagues regarding the family treatment component of each patients care. Assessment of family interactions and formulating how these are connected to diagnostic factors will be a key component of the post, influencing the direction of treatment and recommendations for appropriate family interventions.
4. To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care.
5. To monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care, and to provide appropriate reports on this.
6. To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of systemic assessment and formulation and treatment outcome, in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.
7. To assist in the management of the team caseload.
8. To work in partnership with other disciplines and to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory and primary care agencies as appropriate.
9. To provide appropriate care for clients not engaged in treatment including: psycho-education, liaising with other professionals, engaging in treatment including using structured approaches such as motivational interviewing, risk assessment, health promotion and crisis intervention.
10. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures.
Person Specification
Education / Qualifications
Essential
11. Doctoral/ Diploma in Systemic Psychotherapy/Family Therapy.
12. UKCP registered family therapist.
13. Additional qualification in a related profession ( social work, nursing, psychology).
14. Current safeguarding training
Desirable
15. Relevant specialist training in adolescent mental health disorders
16. Advanced training in supervision
Experience
Essential
17. Substantial post-qualifying experience as a systemic/family psychotherapist working in health care or social care setting.
18. Substantial experience of working with children, adolescents and families with eating disorders and complex mental health problems (ideally working within a CAMHS setting)
19. Experience of supervising other mental health professionals.
20. Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan
21. Involvement in a variety of systemic psychotherapy interventions ( conjoint family therapy, parental counselling, group therapy).
Desirable
22. Experience of planning and applying service developments
23. Relevant experience of working collaboratively with service users and carers in the development of patient/client-centred services
24. Experience facilitating the development of multi-disciplinary staff groups through the application of systemic models
25. Experience across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient settings.
Skills & Abilities
Essential
26. Skills in the use of complex methods of assessment, formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgement skills.
27. Of current, evidence based, stepped care models of care as detailed in NICE guidance.
28. Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
Desirable
29. Knowledge and facilitation of multi-family group therapy programmes for eating disorders.
30. Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised systemic therapies in specific difficult to treat groups ( personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc.)
31. Knowledge of neurodevelopmental disorders including ADHD and ASD and learning disability including specific child protection and risk issues relevant to this group of CYP.
Knowledge & Understanding
Essential
32. Knowledge of Eating Disorders and common co-morbidities - anxiety including OCD, anxiety & depression. Good working knowledge of evidence base for the treatment of Eating Disorders in CAMHS
33. Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
34. Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group.
35. Knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of systemic psychotherapy.
36. Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by UKCP and AFT.