Job summary
- Main area
- Specialist Systemic Therapist / Family Therapist
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent: part time post
- Hours
- Part time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 411-NEI-26-8314619
- Employer
- Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Sefton CAMHS Burlington House
- Town
- Liverpool
- Salary
- £57,528 - £64,750 pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 12/10/2026 23:59
Employer heading
B8a Family Therapist
Band 8a
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is a provider of specialist health care and has a presence in community outreach sites and, in collaboration with other providers, our clinicians help deliver care closer to patients’ homes by holding local clinics at locations from Cumbria to Shropshire, in Wales and the Isle of Man. The Trust also provides inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs at our Sunflower House building newly relocated, and opened on the hospital site.
We currently have more than 4,000 staff working across our community and hospital sites. We’re also a teaching and training hospital providing education and training to around 540 medical and over 500 nursing and allied health professional students each year.
As black and minority ethnic (BME) employees are currently under-represented in this area, we particularly welcome applications from members of our BME communities. All appointments will be made on merit.
You can expect a warm welcome at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, our staff are friendly and welcoming. We listen to each other and work together to embed our Trusts values and behaviours. At Alder Hey we appreciate our staff and reward them with an outstanding benefits package including:
- Great flexible working opportunities
- Lease car scheme and Home Electronics Scheme
- Generous annual leave and pension scheme
- Extensive staff health and well-being programmes
Job overview
This post will be split across Sefton CAMHS and Sunflower House. Sunflower House (Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Tier 4 inpatient ward) are seeking a part time highly skilled Family Therapist to support the children, young people and families that use the service.
As a senior member of the team, you will be expected to support staff in developing their systemic thinking and practice through teaching, consultation, and supervision, ensuring families accessing the service are provided the best possible care. The role will include supervision of trainee and qualified Systemic Family Practitioners and training supervision of SFP and for Family Therapy will be supported.
Expected travel to Alder Hey Hospital Sunflower House .
Main duties of the job
- The post holder will be the therapy lead for systemic psychotherapy/family therapy within Tier 3 specialist CAMHS.
- They will be a specialist practitioner in systemic practice and will provide assessment and intervention with young people and their families/carers based on systemic psychotherapy principles and techniques.
- They will offer systemic consultation to the network informed by systemic principles.
- They will offer supervision and consultation to the teams and related trainees in agreement with the Clinical lead.
- They will work autonomously within professional guidelines.
- They will contribute to and at times lead on aspects of defined research, audit, policy and service development.
Working for our organisation
This is an exciting opportunity for a highly skilled Family Therapist to join the Sefton Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Family Therapist will be a member of the specialist, multi-disciplinary service and will be supported through supervision by a senior member of the team on a regular basis.
Alder Hey is an equal opportunities employer, and our workforce is currently under-represented from people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and people with disabilities. We would welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds as our ambition is that our workforce is fully reflective of the communities that we serve.
Alder Hey is signed up to the disability confident scheme and we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the vacancy
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical:
- To lead and coordinate specialist systemic psychotherapy/family therapy assessments.
- To formulate and devise intervention plans and provide systemic family therapy interventions using a range of discipline specific models appropriate to the service.
- At the request of the case manager to join internal and external network meetings to provide a systemic perspective.
- To continuously evaluate treatment/therapy options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the child, young person or family.
- To contribute to wider multidisciplinary team discussions regarding the relationship between the different systems around the referred child and family and to bring a systemic perspective to links between the patterns that the family engage in and the patterns that may evolve in the wider team.
- To contribute to multi-disciplinary referral and allocation meetings as part of the multi-disciplinary team.
- To maintain an appropriate specialised caseload of systemic family therapy cases/interventions.
- To provide specialist systemic advice; guidance; information and consultation to enable colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team to have access to systemically based frameworks for the understanding and care of cases referred to the service, through the dissemination of research and theory in relation to systemic psychotherapy.
- To work effectively and sensitively with issues of gender, sexuality, disability, class and age.
- To attend both internal and external CPA reviews and offer updates on progress in on-going family therapy and ensure appropriate discharge planning and handover processes are implemented.
- The post holder is expected to receive regular clinical supervision in line with the guidelines laid down by the Association for Family Therapy (AFT).
Person specification
Skills
Essential criteria
- • Knowledge of and specialist skill in using a wide variety of systemic theories and interventions and the ability to use these appropriately in relation to client need and work setting • Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical &/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS. • Specialist skills in providing supervision and consultation to other professional groups. • Ability to work in inpatient/family settings, managing the highly complex emotional relationships within and between the component parts of the family-hospital system in ways, which maximise the potential for therapeutic outcomes. • Ability to multi-task at different levels of context; while leading a systemic psychotherapy session. This includes using a one way screen, video equipment, reflecting team approach and working with professionals from different backgrounds.
Desirable criteria
- • Specialist skills in offering live supervision to colleagues from other professional backgrounds. • Evidence of additional training in supervision and consultation.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- development/ mental health issues • Ability to work with a racially and culturally diverse community in a wide variety of contexts including highly specialist skills for working therapeutically in family homes • Up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation, ethical issues and strategic frameworks including The Children Act 1989 and Mental Health Act 1983, and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management
Desirable criteria
- • Knowledge of adult mental health. • Knowledge of Current psychological evidence base and best practice in working with adults. • Masters/Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology consistent with systemic psychotherapy
Others
Essential criteria
- • Excellent interpersonal skills. • Appreciation of the interface between personal and professional lives, high level of self-awareness and knowledge of principles of self-care. • Ability to assess and manage risk. • Knowledge and experience of Clinical Governance work • Experience of teaching and training others. • Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by AFT/UKCP
Desirable criteria
- • Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations in public, professional and academic settings. • Completed audit or other Clinical Governance projects
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- • Post-graduate qualification in relevant mental health/social welfare profession and demonstrable practice over a minimum of three years. • Masters/Diploma level qualification (or its equivalent) in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy, accredited with UKCP. • The Maintenance of UKCP Registration by attendance on short or long training courses to meet AFT CPD requirements.
Desirable criteria
- • Training in teaching systemic psychotherapy • Post-qualification training in one or more additional specialised areas of therapeutic practice
Experience
Essential criteria
- • Minimum three years practice in relevant first profession • Experience of specialist systemic assessment, formulation and intervention with clients across a range of care settings, • Experience of working with a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, • Experience of exercising clinical responsibility for systemic care and treatment, within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan. • Experience of working in a multi- disciplinary team • Experience of working with a range of childhood disorders at the acute and chronic stage. • Experience of self-harm assessment and intervention with both individuals and their families • Experience of risk assessment and risk management
Desirable criteria
- • Experience of working with people (children and families) of all ages. • Experience of teaching, training &/or supervision. • Experience of the application of systemic psychotherapy in different cultural contexts. • Experience of systemic therapy in inpatient settings
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Adele Smith
- Job title
- Assistant Clinical Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
-
Service Manager
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