Senior Family and Systemic Psychotherapist
Band 8b
Main area Senior Family & Systemic Psychotherapist Grade Band 8b Contract Fixed term: 12 months (Flexible working will be considered) Hours Part time - 7.5 hours per week Job ref 350-CC7073466
Site Hollins Park Hospital Town Warrington Salary £62,215 - £72,293 Pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 13/04/2025 23:59 Interview date 22/04/2025
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
Job overview
An exciting opportunity for an experienced Family Therapist with interest and/or expertise in perinatal mental health to be part of an expanding Specialist Perinatal Service as a maternity cover post. The role will be to provide live supervision to existing family therapy team sessions, along with individual supervision of systemic staff and involvement in regional systemic project work. The service has an established group of systemic staff who work closely together across three regional hubs. The role will be a job share with an experienced family therapist in a permanent position in the service. The postholder will work with families from a range of backgrounds and will be committed to issues of equality in everyday practice. Working across boundaries, the ability to establish responsive relationships and collaborate with colleagues is key. We are seeking people who have a robust understanding of the impact of social inequalities on maternal mental health, and are passionate about improving outcomes for black, brown and minority ethnic women and families.
Main duties of the job
As a Senior Family and Systemic Psychotherapist, the post holder will be providing highly specialised systemic psychotherapy and systemic practice to mothers, babies and families, and professionals within the Specialist Perinatal Service. Responsibilities include:
1. Establishing responsive relationships and collaborating across the service and provider trusts.
2. Supervising and supporting the assessment and treatment provided by Systemic Family Practitioners across the patch.
3. Working collaboratively with families and ‘experts by experience’ and supporting co-production methodologies to inform service model.
4. Developing bespoke systemic training and psychoeducational packages based on best practice and the evidence base.
5. Working autonomously within professional guidelines and exercising responsibility for the systematic governance of systemic practice within the service.
6. Utilising research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.
7. Developing and implementing policy and procedures collaboratively within the area served by the service.
8. Embracing the core values of the organisation and adopting the principles of Recovery and THRIVE.
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Duties and Responsibilities
CLINICAL
1. To hold a caseload of highly complex systemic assessment, treatment and consultation work based upon a highly specialised, conceptual framework and employing research based evidence.
2. To be responsible for the provision of highly specialist systemic psychotherapy with clinical autonomy drawing on a range of systemic models and incorporate specialist theoretical and practical knowledge.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of highly specialist systemic psychotherapy interventions for mothers, babies, partners and their families, including couples and groups, drawing upon different explanatory models.
4. To work in ways that are sensitive to the needs of families from a wide range of racial, cultural and religious backgrounds.
5. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering multiple and highly complex factors.
6. To exercise responsibility and autonomy for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients.
7. To deliver care co-ordination as required, ensuring effective assessment, care planning and risk management processes are maintained.
8. To organise and provide family and systemic psychotherapy clinics in line with service and training needs.
9. To hold responsibility for standards of clinical practice within the systemic psychotherapy clinics.
10. To work jointly and collaboratively with other team members to enhance the provision of services.
11. To provide systemic consultation, advice and guidance to colleagues, teams and external agencies.
12. To undertake and oversee risk management as a senior clinician.
13. To communicate information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients.
14. To maintain current knowledge of the operation of video equipment and promote ethical and effective use in line with Trust Policy.
15. To engage with using routine outcome measures as clinically appropriate.
16. To work collaboratively with families and contribute to the trust’s service-user participation agenda.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Core professional/graduate qualification in a relevant field of mental health or social welfare e.g., nursing, social work, psychology, with a minimum of four years or equivalent experience.
* Masters or equivalent level qualification as a Systemic and Family Psychotherapist.
* Up to date Professional Registration - UKCP registration.
* Training in systemic supervision.
* A relevant management qualification and/or training.
* Breakaway Qualification.
* AFT Approved Clinical Supervisor.
* Hold a recognised qualification in teaching.
Knowledge & Experience
* A minimum of 4 years post qualification experience as a systemic psychotherapist or equivalent experience.
* Experience of teaching and training systemic psychotherapy in multiple contexts.
* Experience of working with a wide variety of patient groups across the whole life course.
* Experience of professional management of staff and/or managing budgets.
* Experience in the field of perinatal mental health.
Values
* Accountability
* Support
* High professional standards
* Responsive to service users
* Engaging leadership style
* Transparency and honesty
* Discreet
* Change oriented
Skills
* Advanced knowledge and skills in using the complete range of approaches within systemic practice.
* Advanced level of knowledge of the mental health needs of children and adolescents.
* Ability to work within a culturally diverse community.
* Advanced skills in the use of videotape and other multi-media materials.
* Ability to take full clinical responsibility for patient care and treatment.
* Interpersonal skills to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
* Knowledge of research design and methodology consistent with systemic practice.
* Information technology and management skills.
Personal
* Ability to convey and to model a sophisticated understanding of the AFT ethical guidelines.
* Physical stamina to support clinical caseload.
* A commitment to the continuous improvement of services.
* Emotional stamina and ability to respond constructively in highly stressful situations.
* Ability to demonstrate leadership and management skills.
* Ability to organise and co-ordinate areas of work that are complex and demanding.
Other
* Ability to identify and provide appropriate means of support to carers and staff.
* Demonstrate a commitment to respecting and displaying the Trust Values at all times.
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position.
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