Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist

Job overview

The Children and Young People’s (CYPS) Directorate in Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is offering an exciting opportunity for a Band 7 Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist to join the Mindworks South Community Hub. You will be based at Theta, with the expectation of travelling to Guildford, Leatherhead or other Surrey locations.

This post will be suitable for a highly motivated Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist interested in ensuring excellent therapeutic interventions are accessible for children and young people with complex mental health needs from diverse backgrounds. This is a permanent full time (37.5 hours) post. Applications are invited from Child & Adolescent Psychotherapists registered with the ACP and to Child & Adolescent Psychotherapists in training who expect to become registered in 2026.

The post-holder will be part of a multi-disciplinary team delivering specialist interventions for children and young people experiencing complex, chronic and/or severe mental health difficulties. The post-holder will be highly skilled in evidence-based psychotherapy assessments and interventions. The post-holder will contribute to service-development through service-evaluation and audit, taking into consideration service-user participation.

All our staff have regular supervision and access to a wide variety of CPD opportunities.

Main duties of the job

To provide short, medium and longer term evidence based therapeutic interventions for children and families.

To provide specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapy, parent/child psychotherapy, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, state of mind assessments, psychoanalytic parent work and psychoanalytic consultations.

To supervise and teach trainees and colleagues within the service.

To provide advice and consultation to schools and other organisations.

To lead therapeutic groups for parents and children.

To work autonomously within the ACP guidelines and trust policies.

To develop audit and research activities and to propose and implement policy changes.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of clinical work and care. To maintain high standards of care in all areas of practice in accordance with ACP Standards, professional guidelines and Trust Policies and Procedures. To act within the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act (2005). To be aware of and implement Safeguarding Adult and Safeguarding Child policies, procedures and legislation.
• To provide specialist individual or group child and adolescent psychotherapy, parent/child psychotherapy and psychodynamic parent interventions to families referred to the service, incorporating complex information from other professionals. To make decisions about treatment options considering evidence -based research, theory, practice and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes which have impacted on the child and their family.
• To assess, formulate and implement plans for the treatment and/or management of the full range of children and young people’s mental health problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework and employing methods based upon evidence.
• To work in ways which are sensitive to and appropriate for the needs of families from a wide range of racial, cultural and religious backgrounds.
• To actively involve people in developing and agreeing their own care plan, to act as an advocate and ensure that there is proper regard for their dignity, choice, self-esteem, racial, cultural, sexual and religious needs and preferences.
• To undertake comprehensive risk assessments and develop effective risk formulations and risk management plans.
• To provide advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing to a care plan.
• To provide training, supervision or consultation as appropriate to multi-disciplinary team colleagues working with patients, their families and professional networks.
• To provide advice, consultation and training to other members of the multi- disciplinary teams and for staff working the client group across a range of services and agencies, where appropriate.
• To contribute to conducting clinical audit, quality assurance and research, maintaining current knowledge of research findings in accordance with ACP guidelines.
• To use theory, research and evidence based literature, e.g. NICE guidelines, to inform evidence-based practice in work with patients, families and their networks.
• To undertake and initiate project management including complex audit and service evaluation with colleagues within the services to help develop service provision.

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.