Job overview
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist to join East Hertfordshire’s Children and Young People’s Mental Health Service (CYPMHS) in the leadership role of Principal Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist (8b post). The team works as one team across two main sites, in Welwyn Garden City and Hoddesdon, and you will work across both bases.
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) CYMPS is an innovative and dynamic service, being a lead service for New Care Models, first wave for CYP-IAPT, accelerator site for i-Thrive and a trailblazer site for Mental Health Support Teams in schools which are now established across Hertfordshire.
You will have ACP registration and provide highly specialist child and adolescent psychotherapy. You will work within the principles of CAPA (Choice and Partnership Approach), i-THRIVE and CYP-IAPT. You will work autonomously within the team, undertaking assessments and interventions with children, adolescents, and their families. You will have a high level of clinical expertise and operate within relevant codes of practice and ethical guidelines and draw upon a range of models and techniques.
The post comes with the opportunity to supervise training child and adolescent psychotherapists.
The Trust has supported the CPD of senior child psychotherapists by funding attendance at Service Supervisor trainings offered by the Tavistock and IPCAPA (i.e. the training schools).
Main duties of the job
We are looking for an innovative and forward-thinking Principal Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist to continue the exciting growth and expansion of the discipline across the Trust. Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy is highly valued in HPFT CAMHS. You will be an integral part of the leadership team for the East Quadrant (Welwyn and Hoddesdon) whilst being part of a lively CAP community that meets regularly.
The 8b role is responsible for the leadership and governance of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy provision within their clinical base. As such, you will be the Service Supervisor of trainees based in East Herts, as well as contribute more widely, through consultations and supervisions, to the development of clinical practice and expertise in the Quadrant.
As part of your clinical responsibilities, you will also hold a caseload of complex cases and offer Specialist child and adolescent psychotherapy interventions.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For full job description and person specification, please see attached Job Description and Person specification of the role.
NB PLEASE ONLY APPLY FOR THE POST IF YOU ARE A CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHOTHERAPIST WITH ACP REGISTRATION. THESE ARE ESSENTIAL CRITERIA FOR THE POST AND YOU WILL NOT BE SHORTLISTED IF YOU DO NOT MEET THESE CRITERIA.
Person specification
Analytical Skills
Essential
- Ability to prioritise case referrals, assess and discharge effectively
- Understanding of Risk Assessment and Management
- Ability to assess reports and clinical information and provide clear and concise information tailored for different audiences
Communication Skills
Essential
- Substantial experience of multi-disciplinary team working and inter-agency collaboration
- Highly developed skills to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, at an age appropriate level, complex and highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to children, adolescents, their families, carers and professionals within and outside the NHS, including reports for courts and case conferences
- Skills in providing consultation to professional and nonprofessional groups
- Sufficient knowledge of other modalities to engage appropriately with colleagues and their work with clients
- General knowledge of the literature and research concerning mental health interventions with Children and adolescents
- Ability to work with children and young people whose behaviour is personally challenging
- Ability to establish and maintain professional relationships and boundaries with young people
- Ability to think clearly and express self
- Highly developed ability to work and communicate effectively with others in order to convey complex and clinically sensitive information to family members of all ages, and to a wide range of lay and professional persons, within and outside the NHS
- Ability to use supervision effectively and to work collaboratively with supervisor setting appropriate goals, in accordance with professional ethical guidelines and Trust policies
Areas Of Experience and Knowledge
Essential
- Experience of self-harm assessment and intervention with both individual child/adolescent and their families
- Knowledge and experience of a range of clinical interventions with Children/Adolescents, their carers and professional networks
- Experience of short-term psychotherapy interventions e.g. STPP
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
- Experience of service quality monitoring (e.g. clinical audit, evaluative research etc.)
- Awareness of current relevant legislation and National Service Frameworks and their implications for clinical practice
- Experience in providing consultation to professionals outside CAMHS
- Experience and knowledge of CAPA and CYP-IAPT
- Awareness of Child Protection Procedures
- IT Skills
- Experience of providing a specific model of evidencebased therapy within Specialist CAMHS as a Specialist/Specific intervention
Desirable
- Experience of parent/ child psychotherapy
- Experience of working as a senior member of a multidisciplinary team and/or Herts-wide CAMHS service and/or with wider professional networks and agencies
- Experience of leading the development and provision of a psychological therapy service within a CAMHS MDT
Knowledge, Training and Experience
Essential
- Post-graduate clinical doctorate level (or equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) (including 2yr pre-clinical masters/diploma level training) in psycho-analytic psychotherapy, accredited by the ACP
- Evidence of further specialist post-qualification training in treatment techniques or areas of clinical need, and knowledge of management or research, eg parent/infant work, brief psychotherapy, work with looked after children and their carers, work with adopted children and their adoptive parents, work with children with disabilities, consultation, supervision or research or -Having taken the Supervisors Course for Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy -Having done the Post-graduate Specialist Adolescent Course
- Registered with the ACP and eligible for registration with the BPC and/or the PSA (previously CHRE)
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Principal Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust in Hatfield, East of England, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Psychologist role. The advertised salary is £68,852 - £79,638 per annum, pro rata (Inclusive of 5% HCAS). The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 30 Jun 2026.
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