School Therapist

Northpoint Wellbeing; Leeds; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A community-focused charity in Leeds seeks a qualified therapist to deliver therapeutic services within schools. The role involves building strong relationships with school staff, assessing the emotional health of students, and providing evidence-based interventions. Successful candidates will have experience with children and young people and will contribute to a high-quality therapeutic environment. Join a dedicated team committed to enhancing the mental health and well-being of students in schools across Leeds.

Qualifications

• Experience working with children and young people in a therapeutic setting.
• Understanding of emotional and mental health needs.
• Knowledge of safeguarding processes.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain relationships with school staff and teams.
• Assess and manage a caseload of children and young people.
• Deliver individual and group therapeutic interventions in schools.
• Support school staff through training and consultations.

Skills

Effective communication

Relationship building

Assessment skills

Therapeutic intervention delivery

Education

Qualifications in therapy or counseling

Job description

Role Overview

The focus will be on referrals from identified priority groups where consent and motivation criteria are met (including those experiencing friendship/relationship issues, those affected by loss/bereavement/family separation, anxiety, depression, those experiencing deprivation, asylum seekers, refugees, etc.). Delivery of the therapeutic service in primary and secondary schools within the cluster, working with colleagues to promote the service, liaising with cluster and school staff and other stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Building and maintaining good, effective working relationships with cluster teams and pastoral staff in the schools.
• Liaising with school staff on referrals, assessing and determining the need for intervention with the children and young people referred.
• Holding a caseload of children and young people at any one time.
• Holding a caseload of referrals and gathering information to allow accurate assessment and formulation of the emotional and mental health needs of children and young people.
• Delivery of short‑term (normally 6 to 8 sessions), evidence‑based individual interventions in the school setting, to children and young people who are referred through the cluster and where consent and motivation criteria are met.
• Delivery of group interventions where appropriate.
• Delivery of single session therapy or brief intervention where appropriate.
• With a developed understanding of local services, assisting the cluster/school team to establish the most appropriate offer of support, or providing supporting information for onward referrals.
• Offering consultation, training and advice to school staff and other professionals as and when appropriate.
• Providing clinical support, training, guidance, and input to cluster/school staff.
• Attending/contributing to referral and planning meetings with cluster and other staff.
• Taking a proactive approach to ensuring safeguarding concerns are raised appropriately, following both Northpoint, Cluster and school safeguarding processes.
• Ensuring that all records are kept confidentially, in line with Northpoint's procedures.
• Working with other professionals to ensure therapeutic input is appropriate to the needs of the client group, and that all therapeutic services follow the evidence base.
• Communicating with parents/families where appropriate in line with Northpoint guidance.
• Any other duties as required by the evolving nature of the project (primarily keeping integrated case management information in line with other project members, undertaking relevant assessments, completing monitoring and evaluation reports, and attending team meetings and other forums).

About Northpoint

Northpoint is a charity with a track record of providing accessible therapeutic services. In recent years the organisation has significantly developed its school therapy services and is now commissioned by 17 clusters of schools across Leeds, to provide therapeutic interventions to pupils and/or parents (Leeds Mindmate Wellbeing).

Over the last few years the volume of work that the Northpoint Schools services provide to children and young people and parents has more than doubled. This continuing growth of our school therapy services in Leeds, and in our commissioned services in Doncaster, Harrogate, Bradford and Halifax means that we are now providing therapeutic interventions to pupils and/or parents in more than 200 schools.

Northpoint has worked in partnership with TNCP for several years and are commissioned to provide a therapy service to the children and young people who attend schools within the cluster partnership. We need to recruit a qualified and experienced therapist to join the team to provide the same depth and quality of support that has made our services so successful.