Job vacancy: Arts Therapist, East London NHS Foundation Trust, Stratford

Job summary

Main area

Allied Health

Grade

Band 6

Contract

12 months (This is a fixed term role to cover maternity leave)

Hours

Full time
Part time

37.5 hours per week (To include Weds 9.30-11am. Post may be split across two candidates / modalities according to applicant suitability)

Job ref

363-NEW7379034

Employer: East London NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: 409 High Street
Town: Stratford
Salary: £44,485 - £52,521 per annum pro rata Inc HCA
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 22/08/2025 23:59

Arts Therapist

Band 6

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For full details of the job and responsibilities please see Job Description and Person Specification attached.

Person specification

Education

Essential criteria

Degree in relevant area
MA or equivalent qualification in Arts Therapy Modality
For Art therapist/Art Psychotherapist, Music Therapist & Dramatherapist: Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council
For Dance Movement Psychotherapist: Membership of ADMP UK Professional Register
• For Dance Movement Psychotherapist: Evidence of working towards: UKCP Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist
Membership of Professional Body

Desirable criteria

For Dance Movement Psychotherapist: UKCP Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist

Experience

Essential criteria

Pre-arts therapy qualification experience of working in adult mental health
Experience of providing individual and group arts therapy in an adult mental health setting

Desirable criteria

Experience of working as part of a Multi-disciplinary team
Experience of working as an Arts Therapist in an NHS mental health setting

Skills

Essential criteria

Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Developed interpersonal skills enabling therapeutic relationships to be developed and maintained with clients who have complex needs
Ability to apply specialist skills in individual and group based assessments and interventions.

Other

Essential criteria

Physical skills including specialist use of the body as required to facilitate a wide range of activities both on a one-to-one and group basis, including using equipment as required.
Mental and emotional effort required to undertake intense concentration for clinical interventions on both a one-to-one and group basis.
Active involvement in ongoing professional and team development.
Ability to travel independently across all sites

Desirable criteria

Ability to speak a local community language

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rate 'Outstanding' in 2021.. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other reasons to apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

What Next?

If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!

As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..

If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.

Find us online at www.elft.nhs.uk | Find us on Facebook | Follow us on @NHS_ELFT

Committed to being an Inclusive Employer

Mindful employer. Being positive about mental health.

Stonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: Paula Hedderly or Kris Hutchison
Job title: Joint Lead for Arts Therapies, Newham
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone number: 07880076481
Additional information: The team is led by Paula Hedderly and Kris Hutchison. The telephone number provided is for Paula. During this period of the summer leave please also note email address for Kris Hutchison: [email protected]. You may want to copy both Paula and Kris to any communications.

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Job summary

Employer heading

Arts Therapist

Band 6

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Person specification

Education

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Experience

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Skills

Essential criteria

Other

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

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