Senior Therapist

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Gillingham; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider is looking for a Band 7 Senior Therapist to join their Gillingham clinic. The role involves offering assessment and treatment to children and young people with complex mental health issues, providing clinical supervision to junior staff, and working in a multidisciplinary team. Ideal candidates will have a relevant professional qualification and experience working therapeutically with children. This position offers a supportive environment and a commitment to staff development and wellbeing.

Benefits

Health and wellbeing support

Flexible working opportunities

Professional development initiatives

Qualifications

• Successful completion of a post-graduate training in psychotherapy or clinical psychology is essential.
• Experience of working therapeutically with complex mental health problems in children.
• Eligible for registration with the appropriate professional body.

Responsibilities

• Provide assessment and treatment for young people aged 0-18 with complex mental health issues.
• Offer clinical supervision to junior staff and provide specialist interventions.
• Work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.

Skills

Experience working therapeutically with parents/carers

Risk Management skills

Multi-professional and multi-agency working

Education

Post-graduate training (e.g. arts psychotherapy, clinical psychology)

Job description

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Overview

Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Job overview

A position for a Band 7 Senior Therapist has arisen in our clinic in Medway. This post would suit newly qualified Psychologists or Psychotherapists, or an experienced clinician with a professional qualification such as Nurse or Social Worker with some additional recognised training such as CBT or DBT.

Main duties of the job

We offer assessment and treatment to children and young people aged 0-18 years with a wide range of presentations, mental health disorders, complexity and risk. You need to have experience working within a CAMHS service and be able to cope with a fast paced, ever changing environment, whilst responding appropriately to the young people and their families.

As a band 7 you will be expected to offer specific clinical supervision to junior staff, consultations to the wider team and provide specialist interventions to our clients.

Working for our organisation

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co‑produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT. They are:
We are kind. We are respectful. We work together with our communities.
These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

Starting with NELFT

NELFT places a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend a number of drop‑in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Offering Assessment and Evidence Based Treatment for young people up to age 18yrs with a range of Complex Mental Health presentations.
• Skills in Risk Management, multi‑professional and multi‑agency working are essential.
• We are a friendly, innovative team who encourage further training, development of your skills and knowledge to benefit the service and NELFT as a whole.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points‑based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High‑Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.

Use of AI

Please see attached document regarding acceptable use of AI during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Successful completion of a post‑graduate training (e.g. arts psychotherapy, clinical psychology, family therapy, child and adolescent psychotherapy)
• To be eligible for registration as a full member of the appropriate professional body (e.g. HCPC, BACP, UKCP AFT, ACP)
• Experience of working therapeutically with parents/carers/families of children and young people with complex mental health problems
• Experience of providing specialist individual interventions with a wide variety of children and young people, from 3 to 19 years old – presenting problems at the most severe end of the spectrum

Skills

• Successful completion of a post‑graduate training (e.g. arts psychotherapy, clinical psychology, family therapy, child and adolescent psychotherapy)

Qualifications

• To be eligible for registration as a full member of the appropriate professional body (e.g. HCPC, BACP, UKCP AFT, ACP)

Knowledge

• Experience of working therapeutically with parents/carers/families of children and young people with complex mental health problems

Experience

• Experience of providing specialist individual interventions with a wide variety of children and young people, from 3 to 19 years old – presenting problems at the most severe end of the spectrum

Benefits

• A long‑standing and award‑winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long‑term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work‑life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

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 a job share, part‑time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans, reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

Disability Confident employer

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email [e-mail].

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

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.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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

• Band 7 - CYPMHS, Clinical Psychologist, Family Therapist or Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist (PDF, 560.5KB)
• Candidate Recruitment Pack (PDF, 671.2KB)
• Acceptable Use of AI in Recruitment (PDF, 3.9MB)