B8a Family Therapist - Sunflower House Tier 4 Inpatient Unit

B8a Family Therapist - Sunflower House Tier 4 Inpatient Unit

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust

Sunflower House (Alder Hey Children's Hospital Tier 4 inpatient ward) are seeking a half time highly skilled Family Therapist to support the children, young people and families that use the service.

In Sunflower House as a senior member of the team, you will be expected to support staff in developing their systemic thinking and practice through teaching, consultation, and supervision, ensuring families accessing the service are provided the best possible care. The role will include supervision of trainee and qualified Systemic Family Practitioners and training supervision of SFP and for Family Therapy will be supported.

Expected travel to Alder Hey Hospital Sunflower House.

This post does offer an additional financial incentive for the duration of the fixed term contract. For further details please contact Paul Smith Service Manager on paula.smith2@alderhey.nhs.uk.

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will be the therapy lead for systemic psychotherapy/family therapy within the T4 service at Sunflower House Inpatient Unit Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
• They will be a specialist practitioner in systemic practice and will provide assessment and intervention with young people and their families/carers based on systemic psychotherapy principles and techniques.
• They will offer systemic consultation to the network informed by systemic principles.
• They will offer supervision and consultation to the teams and related trainees in agreement with the Clinical lead.
• They will work autonomously within professional guidelines.
• They will contribute to and at times lead on aspects of defined research, audit, policy and service development.

About us

Sunflower House is based in the Catkin Building, Alder Park at Alder Hey Children's Hospital recently opened in May 2023. The urgent and growing crisis in mental health has increased demand for specialist inpatient care, as well as other mental health services. Sunflower House is for those aged 5 to 13 years old who have the most challenging mental health conditions, the unit is a 12 bed state of the art facility.

It is commissioned by NHS England to provide specialist assessment, treatment, T4 Consultation and Multi-Disciplinary opinion across Cheshire, Wirral and Merseyside but also accepts from across and outside of England where appropriate/services cannot be provided regionally.

Job responsibilities

Clinical:

• To lead and coordinate specialist systemic psychotherapy/family therapy assessments.
• To formulate and devise intervention plans and provide systemic family therapy interventions using a range of discipline specific models appropriate to the service.
• At the request of the case manager to join internal and external network meetings to provide a systemic perspective.
• To continuously evaluate treatment/therapy options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the child, young person or family.
• To contribute to wider multidisciplinary team discussions regarding the relationship between the different systems around the referred child and family and to bring a systemic perspective to links between the patterns that the family engage in and the patterns that may evolve in the wider team.
• To contribute to multi-disciplinary referral and allocation meetings as part of the multi-disciplinary team.
• To maintain an appropriate specialised caseload of systemic family therapy cases/interventions.
• To provide specialist systemic advice; guidance; information and consultation to enable colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team to have access to systemically based frameworks for the understanding and care of cases referred to the service, through the dissemination of research and theory in relation to systemic psychotherapy.
• To work effectively and sensitively with issues of gender, sexuality, disability, class and age.
• To attend both internal and external CPA reviews and offer updates on progress in on-going family therapy and ensure appropriate discharge planning and handover processes are implemented.
• The post holder is expected to receive regular clinical supervision in line with the guidelines laid down by the Association for Family Therapy (AFT).

Person Specification

Skills

• Knowledge of and specialist skill in using a wide variety of systemic theories and interventions and the ability to use these appropriately in relation to client need and work setting.
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical & clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Specialist skills in providing supervision and consultation to other professional groups.
• Ability to work in inpatient/family settings, managing the highly complex emotional relationships within and between the component parts of the family-hospital system in ways, which maximise the potential for therapeutic outcomes.
• Ability to multi-task at different levels of context; while leading a systemic psychotherapy session. This includes using a one way screen, video equipment, reflecting team approach and working with professionals from different backgrounds.
• Specialist skills in offering live supervision to colleagues from other professional backgrounds.
• Evidence of additional training in supervision and consultation.

Knowledge

• Ability to work with a racially and culturally diverse community in a wide variety of contexts including highly specialist skills for working therapeutically in family homes.
• Up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation, ethical issues and strategic frameworks including The Children Act 1989 and Mental Health Act 1983, and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management.
• Knowledge of adult mental health.
• Knowledge of Current psychological evidence base and best practice in working with adults.
• Masters/Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology consistent with systemic psychotherapy.

Others

• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Appreciation of the interface between personal and professional lives, high level of self-awareness and knowledge of principles of self-care.
• Ability to assess and manage risk.
• Knowledge and experience of Clinical Governance work.
• Experience of teaching and training others.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by AFT/UKCP.

Qualifications

• Post-graduate qualification in relevant mental health/social welfare profession and demonstrable practice over a minimum of three years.
• Masters/Diploma level qualification (or its equivalent) in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy, accredited with UKCP.
• The Maintenance of UKCP Registration by attendance on short or long training courses to meet AFT CPD requirements.

Experience

• Minimum three years practice in relevant first profession.
• Experience of specialist systemic assessment, formulation and intervention with clients across a range of care settings.
• Experience of working with a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
• Experience of exercising clinical responsibility for systemic care and treatment, within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team.
• Experience of working with a range of childhood disorders at the acute and chronic stage.
• Experience of self-harm assessment and intervention with both individuals and their families.
• Experience of risk assessment and risk management.

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.

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust

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Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust