Systemic Family Therapist

South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Part time

Job summary

An NHS mental health service is seeking a part-time Systemic Family Therapist in Greater London to join a multi-disciplinary CAMHS team. The role involves delivering systemic interventions to support children and their families. Candidates should have qualifications in Systemic Family Therapy and experience in mental health services. The position offers a salary range of £53,751 to £60,651 per year pro rata, alongside opportunities for training and support in a collaborative environment.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Supportive multi-disciplinary team

Flexible working arrangements

Qualifications

• Experience in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
• Demonstrable experience working with children in community settings.
• Knowledge of safeguarding and child protection.

Responsibilities

• Conduct high quality assessments of children and families.
• Provide evidence-based family therapy treatments.
• Manage risk for children and families on caseload.
• Collaborate with a multi-disciplinary team.

Skills

Family therapy techniques

Assessment planning

Risk management

Communication skills

Education

Qualified Systemic Family Psychotherapist

Post-graduate qualification in mental health/social welfare

Job description

Systemic Family Therapist

The closing date is 01 January 2026

We are currently recruiting for a part-time Systemic Family Therapist to work in our Kingston Tier 2/Getting Help Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in the London Borough of Kingston.

This is an exciting opportunity for a Systemic Family Therapist with experience of working in CAMHS to work in a supportive and friendly multi-disciplinary team to undertake assessments, and deliver systemic interventions with children, young people and their families.

Kingston CAMHS is an established Tier 2/Getting Help service that supports children, young people and their families with moderate mental health difficulties. Our multi‑disciplinary service is made up of disciplines including psychology, family therapy, CBT therapists and child psychotherapy.

We have a range of CAMHS services within the Trust including Mental Health in Schools Teams, an Adolescent Outreach Team, an adolescent unit, Deaf CAMHS services, Learning Disabilities and Youth Offending CAMHS teams as well as a DBT service and a range of eating disorders services.

As well as regular individual supervision to support your development we offer a number of opportunities for support and training. There are regular family therapy meetings with other colleagues working across the service line.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will:

• Join a multi-disciplinary team in Kingston CAMHS;
• Carry out high quality assessments;
• Provide evidence‑based family therapy treatments; contribute to family therapy clinics;
• Have an agreed job plan with specified activity and throughput levels;
• Co‑ordinate care for children, young people and families on their caseload;
• Manage risk within team, Directorate and Trust structures;
• Work to relevant professional and ethical guidelines, and within the framework of Directorate and Trust policies and procedures;
• Use screening and outcome measures in clinically meaningful ways to demonstrate treatment effectiveness and seek feedback about user experience.

About us

We are proud to belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill‑health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' – we aspire to be 'outstanding'.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti‑racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co‑produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Tolworth Hospital, Surbiton

To create the very best environment to care for our patients, this site's layout will be transformed in 2026 to add a number of wards to the existing three. Tolworth has a canteen and is near shops, the A3, Tolworth station, and is a bus ride from Surbiton station, with fast connections to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo.

Job responsibilities

Clinical

• To provide specialist assessments of young children and their parents/carers referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources where appropriate, self‑report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi‑structured interviews in line with CYP IAPT methodology.
• To formulate and implement plans for evidence‑based interventions, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, to improve the parent/child relationship.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of systemic interventions employed individually and in synthesis, maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses, adjusting and refining formulations or understandings, drawing upon different explanatory models and employing methods of intervention that are based upon evidence of efficacy.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual and the family.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist mental health advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to the care of the young child and their parents/carers.
• To contribute to and/or use evidence‑based, integrated working tools and processes, to ensure young children and their parents/carers receive holistic and co‑ordinated services in response to their mental health needs.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for young children and their parents/carers.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of young children and their parents/carers who are under their care.
• To monitor progress during the course of interventions, ensuring that all interventions are fully assessed, planned, implemented and evaluated in conjunction with CYP IAPT minimum dataset standards.
• To maintain accurate and accessible health care records according to Trust policy and Information Governance requirements.
• To demonstrate high level communication skills, both written and verbal, within all agencies.

Teaching, Training, and Supervision

• The post holder will be expected to undertake teaching, training and supervision in accordance with CAMHS Directorate common expectations for P&P staff and in line with the strategy agreed within the CAMHS Directorate.
• To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior psychologist / systemic family psychotherapist and, where appropriate, other senior colleagues.
• To gain additional experience and skills relevant to the profession and/or the service (as agreed with the responsible professional and team manager) in accordance with the CAMHS Directorates common expectations for P&P staff.
• To develop skills in the area of professional post‑graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work as appropriate.
• If required, to provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings.

Management, Recruitment, Policy and Service Development

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the services operational policies and services (as directed), through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
• To contribute to a culture that is therapeutic, productive, accessible, inclusive and flexible to meet the needs of the local population.

Research and Service Evaluation

• To utilise theory, evidence‑based literature and research to support evidence‑based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
• To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

Person Specification

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

• Qualified Systemic Family Psychotherapist registered with AFT via the College of Family Couple and Systemic Therapy, AND: post‑graduate qualification in a relevant mental health/social welfare profession with demonstrable practice over a minimum of four years, OR, additional short training and post‑qualification experience in child mental health consolidated over a minimum of two years.
• Where an applicant is in the final stages of training and has not yet obtained registration, an applicant will only be made an offer conditional upon successful registration within a timescale that is specified.
• Training as part of a CYP IAPT collaborative in a recognised evidence‑based approach.

EXPERIENCE

• Demonstrable experience of working with children and young people in a variety of community settings.
• Experience of multi‑disciplinary team working.
• Experience of inter‑agency working.
• Experience of safeguarding and Child Protection.
• Experience of leading case reviews.
• Experience of working in the NHS.
• Experience of teaching and liaising with other professional groups.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

£53,751 to £60,651 a year pro rota per annum inclusive of Outer London HCAs