Psychotherapeutic CounsellorNHS

Job summary

The Link is a Middlesbrough based professional mental health and emotional wellbeing provider. We provide therapeutic services to children, young people and families across the Tees Valley.

A collaborative of local organisations (TEWV, The Link, The Junction, Alliance Psychological Services, Changing Futures North East, and Teesside Mind) have come together to provide the Tees Valley CYP Getting Advice & Help (GA&H) service. This innovative partnership is built on a shared commitment to improving mental health outcomes for children and young people by making services more equitable, accessible, and responsive to local needs.

TEWV leads the partnership, with Alliance Psychological Services providing operational leadership in North Tees (including Darlington) and The Link providing operational leadership in North Tees (including Darlington) and South Tees respectively; ensuring strong, place-based delivery. This role offers a unique opportunity to be part of a transformative initiative that is reshaping how mental health support is delivered to young people in our communities. In addition to working within the Tees Valley Getting Help service, a proportion of the postholder's time will be dedicated to working within The Links Therapeutic services.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be part of a wider team that collaboratively provides high-quality, brief, and evidence-based support that is sensitive to the unique needs and experiences of children and young people. The post holder will deliver, with supervision, a variety of high-quality therapeutic interventions with children and young people aged between 4 and 18. The successful candidate will be able to deliver a trauma informed approach to deliver evidence-based therapy with children, young people and families. They will be expected to be well versed in a variety of psychodynamic models of practice and will display knowledge in models such as attachment theory. The post holder will be expected to work both long and short term with clients and will use a variety of psychometric outcomes to contribute their support. Likewise, they will be able to conduct regular therapeutic assessments where the practitioner will assess and formulate with the family to help support the further care of the client.Practitioners providing Psychotherapeutic Counselling interventions will be a mobile resource, supporting children, young people and families across Tees Valley to manage demand sustainably while ensuring equity of access.

Job description

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

• Demonstrates understanding of a range of therapeutic models.
• Demonstrates understanding of working with children and young people who require or would benefit from emotional/trauma related psychotherapeutic counselling support.
• Qualified and experienced to deliver Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) to a Level 2 standard (or working towards).
• To provide, under supervision, assessment, including risk assessment, of children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties.
• To support management of the waiting list playing a proactive role in prioritisation, assessment, and signposting.
• To select and deliver a range of appropriate therapeutic interventions for children, young people and families experiencing mild to moderate or moderate to severe mental health difficulties delivered in collaboration with the child, young person and family.
• To make use of referral pathways following assessment for children, young people and families requiring other services, including statutory and voluntary agencies.
• To explore and evaluate clinical treatment using evaluation tools, contributing to evidence-based practice.
• Working in collaboration to support children, young people and families in the self-management of presenting difficulties.
• Working in collaboration with children, young people and families to develop effective treatment plans and agreed outcomes.
• To operate within the Service Referral to Discharge Protocols.
• Through close case management and supervision, escalate cases where the level of need becomes beyond scope, or more severe ensuring adherence to other relevant element of service delivery.
• Adhere to an agreed activity contract relating to the overall number of children and young people contacts offered, and sessions carried out per week to improve timely access and minimise waiting times.
• Make reasonable adjustments to interventions to support engagement e.g. modifying language for CYP with autism, holding shorter sessions for CYP with ADHD or printing on green paper for individuals with dyslexia
• As appropriate, assist in the development and production of resources for the benefit of children and young people.
• Take part in the delivery of training (as appropriate), consultation with and guidance to, others, pertaining to the level of development.

Supervision:

• Receive clinical supervision and case management in relation to clinical work to meet the required standards.
• Prepare and present case load information to supervisors and case managers within the service on an agreed and scheduled basis, to ensure safe practice and the governance obligations of the trainee, supervisor and service are delivered.
• Respond to and implement supervision suggestions by supervisors in practice.
• Work within the boundaries of service delivery and support to meet the requirements of the service needs.
• Engage in and respond to personal development supervision to improve competencies and practice

Safeguarding

• Be responsible for safeguarding children and promoting their welfare, operating within local policies and procedures.
• Under guidance and support take appropriate safeguarding action to protect children and young people at risk of significant harm.
• Ensure that consent is obtained and verified before sharing information, except in safeguarding situations.
• Under guidance and supervision identify and support families in accessing Early Help Services.

Service Monitoring and Development

• To maintain appropriate clinical notes and records on IAPTUS
• Use of service ROMS in line with standard operating procedures
• To undertake relevant Continuing Professional Development as required for the purposes of continued professional accreditation or registration and as identified through professional development and Appraisal system.
• Contribute to the setting of targets and action plans to assist with service development.
• Encourage children and young people to be involved in the monitoring, evaluation, and development of the service.

Collaboration with Other Staff/Agencies

• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with Headteachers, Deputy Heads, SENCOs, Pastoral Teams, and other school staff, providing advice and consultation.
• Liaise effectively with other local statutory, voluntary, and third-sector providers to build effective relationships and support the development of pathways.
• Present the service and its users in a professional manner and represent the service at inter-agency meetings.
• Liaise with other staff and agencies to further meet the needs of children and young people.
• Work with families involved with social care, liaising closely with Social Workers and other professionals.

Other

• Mapping/updating of existing local services for signposting and review/update existing service directory. Continue to welcome spotlight sessions for external providers during whole team meetings or attend their team meetings.
• Engage caseload to increase effective stakeholder participation in service design and delivery and increase attendance at participation events/groups.
• Regular promotion and marketing of childrens mental health, prevention and early intervention linking in with local/national campaigns

This job description is designed to identify principal responsibilities only. The post holder is required to be flexible in development of the role in accordance with changes in The Links organisational objectives and priorities and service needs.

**The work The Link carries out within the social sector is very much a social approach, therefore to ensure safe working practises our organisation works hard to continuously monitor and review our delivery model and ensures our workers have a protected caseload at all times **

About us

Here at The Link, we recognise how important our employees are and we offer;

• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Great salaries with annual increase (subject to funding)
• Competitive pension scheme with generous employer contributions
• Additional Sick Pay scheme
• Continued professional development
• Additional length of service awards
• Access to a wellness programme including 24 hour advice and support
• Access to face to face, online and telephone counselling
• Protected caseload
• Blue Light Card, giving you access to thousands of exclusive discounts across high street brands, restaurants, and travel