Senior Art Therapist | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Erith; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare organization in Erith is seeking a Senior Art Therapist to lead the art therapy services for children and adolescents. This role involves providing evidence-based interventions, leading clinical teams, and contributing to service developments. The ideal candidate will have relevant qualifications in Art Psychotherapy and experience working with diverse family structures.

Qualifications

• Experience in providing art psychotherapy services to children and families.
• Ability to manage clinical supervision of Art Psychotherapists and trainees.
• Skills in conducting assessments and consultations for diverse families.

Responsibilities

• Lead the art therapy pathway and provide clinical leadership.
• Deliver evidence-based art psychotherapy service to CAMHS.
• Contribute to policy and service initiatives related to Art Psychotherapy.

Skills

Art psychotherapy

Clinical leadership

Multi-disciplinary team collaboration

CYP-IAPT principles

Assessment and treatment planning

Education

Relevant qualification in Art Psychotherapy

Job description

Overview

Bexley CAMHS has undergone a service transformation to align with the nationally recognised CAMHS Thrive framework. As the Senior Art Therapist in Cedar Team, you will lead the art therapy pathway in our service and provide clinical leadership to our Art Therapists. The aim of this post is to deliver timely, responsive and needs-based mental health interventions for children and young people in Bexley.

Responsibilities

• Provide the CAMHS team with a high quality, evidence-based art psychotherapy service to children, their families, carers and professional networks in keeping with CYP-IAPT principles.
• Provide highly specialist assessment and therapy to families with children and adolescents referred to CAMHS.
• Offer specialist advice and consultation regarding treatment to CAMHS colleagues and external agencies, working autonomously within professional guidelines and within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to overall service delivery as required.
• Contribute to the development of local and trust-wide policy and service initiatives in Art Psychotherapy and the Psychological Therapies directorate; assist and support the implementation of trust-wide policies and interpret Art Psychotherapy policies for the service.
• Plan, organise and manage own workload, prioritising as appropriate.
• Be responsible for the clinical supervision and professional management of Art Psychotherapists and trainee Art Psychotherapists in the borough of Bexley; manage supervisees' workloads within team policies and oversee clinical standards.
• Inform and advise other professionals and students about Art Psychotherapy through presentations and teaching.
• Be involved in the recruitment of staff, sit on interview panels and take part in the selection process as required.
• Lead on an agreed area of service development.
• Develop, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the Art Psychotherapy Service in Bexley CAMHS, and contribute to the Art Psychotherapy service as a whole.
• Provide a specialist art psychotherapy assessment for referrals of significant and complex nature to formulate and implement plans for treatment and/or management of a child’s or adolescent’s mental health problems, based on an appropriate conceptual framework and evidence-based methods.
• Assess children, adolescents and their families as part of risk assessment.
• Consult with parents/carers (including foster parents) as part of a treatment plan.
• Act as care coordinator, carrying a defined Care Coordination caseload as required, initiating, planning and reviewing care plans and organising complex professional network meetings with consideration of patient, family, carers, referring agents and other professionals.
• Work in ways that are sensitive to and appropriate for the needs of families from diverse racial, cultural and religious backgrounds; undertake systemic therapy with families, including use of an interpreter where needed.
• Provide evidence-based art psychotherapy with clinical autonomy, drawing on a range of models and interventions, and considering individual developmental stage and emotional state.
• Make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options, considering complex historical and developmental factors.
• Implement a range of art psychotherapeutic interventions for children and adolescents, drawing on different explanatory models and maintaining provisional hypotheses in formulations and treatment plans.

This advert closes on Tuesday 7 Oct 2025