Systemic Family Therapist - Ref: CH10825 in Walsall

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Systemic Family Therapist to join our Youth in Sight team, which is a multi-disciplinary team working with adolescents aged 10-18 years who present with complex needs relating to their mental health or emotional dysregulation. This will include young people with repeat hospital admissions and those that are likely to require therapeutic care without early intervention and the provision of services to them and their families to support them to remain safely within their family home.

Walsall Children’s Social Care are dedicated to providing comprehensive and compassionate services for children and young people. We believe in nurturing the potential of every young person, and we are seeking passionate professionals to join our multidisciplinary team in our mission to support adolescents (10-18 years old) during a crucial phase of their development. We are looking for a dynamic and empathetic individual to join our multidisciplinary team to empower, understand and support adolescents and their families at times of need.

The team adopts a holistic and coordinated approach when working with parents, the young person and the system that surrounds the family. We believe that by establishing a strengths-based approach and relational way of working with families we will build authentic relationships and secure positive outcomes.

The Youth In Sight team includes social workers, parenting support officers, systemic family therapists, youth workers and a speech and language therapist who adopt a relational approach and work with a small cohort of young people, giving you the time and space to work intensively with the family and be able to make considered and balanced decisions. You will have access to the collective expertise of disciplines, enhancing your capacity to develop effective solutions and contemplate the broader context.

Youth in Sight use components of the family safeguarding model to create a sense of unity within the team and ensure families are receiving meaningful intervention. As a systemic family therapist within the team, you will take part in Group Supervisions every 4 weeks to measure success, reflect on the intervention with the family and identify any areas of concern. Team members will use a shared database to ensure information is accessible and shared with each other promptly. All team members are trained to use the ‘Valuing Care Tool’ to help us really understand a young person’s needs and be able to measure impact of our support and intervention.

We want every child and family in Walsall to be understood, happy and safe, and to feel a sense of belonging which will help them learn, achieve and succeed. We’re applying this vision to everything we do for children, young people and families.

Walsall is an innovative and creative local authority, but above all our friendly supportive culture ensures practitioners have the right support to grow and develop. You are part of a challenging profession, that’s why we ensure you are never alone but instead surrounded by approachable practitioners and managers. Allowing you to spend time on what counts, direct work with children young people and families.

Career development pathways and flexible hybrid working will make you want Walsall to be in your future! Walsall is where innovation really happens. Our Families First offering is leading the way in the transformation of regional and national approaches too, and we’re one of only ten local authorities working this way. Our multi-agency structure is already established and we’re going to continue to innovate to ensure better outcomes for children and young people.

If you share our vision, shouldn’t you be here too? We’re committed to growing and developing our own workforce. So you’ll be supported throughout your career to become skilled and confident through our learning and development offer. We also want you to achieve and maintain a healthy work-life balance and there’s a range of employee benefits to suit everyone’s lifestyles.

Flexible working - there are different options depending on your role and on customer and service needs, and it includes 9-day fortnights, flexible and hybrid working.

About the rewards: We’re committed to creating a high-quality and valued workforce where you can feel cared about and listened to. You’ll have managers available to guide you, plus access to our comprehensive practice development training. There’s also continuous professional development, opportunities for networking and collaboration, and clinical supervision that promotes your wellbeing. As well as a competitive salary, you can look forward to a generous pension scheme, 28 days’ annual leave (pro-rata) plus 5 additional days for 5 years continuous local government service, family friendly policies, flexible and hybrid working arrangements for your life-work balance, and a progressive health and wellbeing agenda led by a dedicated team.

Applications received without a supporting statement will not be considered. Important note: When completing your online application form, you will be asked to enter supporting information. You must enter a detailed supporting information statement describing how your skills, abilities and experience meet the specific criteria included in the employee specification. If you do not include a supporting information statement, you will not be shortlisted. Please also ensure that you complete the work history and qualifications sections of your application form. Please do not add a CV as we do not accept them.

Responsibilities: As a systemic family therapist, you will have knowledge and experience of working with young people and their families delivering family therapy and undertaking systemic assessments. You will bring curiosity, compassion and systemic practice to a supportive multidisciplinary team, making a meaningful contribution to improving outcomes and emotional wellbeing for young people. You will work with an allocated workload providing specialist assessments and therapy to young people and families with complex and challenging presentations, with a focus on enabling them to remain safely within their family homes. You will collaborate with the wider partnership to secure support and form a holistic view of the family’s circumstances, and adopt a ‘Think Family’ approach when considering the needs of the whole family unit.

Qualifications: You will be appropriately qualified for the role to Degree and/or professional qualification or equivalent in social work, nursing or psychology or other first qualification as recognised by the Association of Family Therapy (AFT), Masters in Family Therapy. You will have experience and post graduate qualifications in recognised area of mental health interventions example: CBT, Systemic family therapist. You will have appropriate registration (or pending qualification will be eligible for registration) as a systemic psychotherapist with UKCP. We are willing to consider applications from final year students who have the required experience and knowledge.

Here at Walsall, we want to attract the best talent. That’s why - as well as a satisfying and rewarding job - we offer a range of attractive benefits. Working arrangements in most jobs are flexible (you may work flexitime, full or part time and job sharing is usually available) and you can expect generous holiday entitlements, a first class pension scheme and plenty of opportunities for training and personal development.

Living in Walsall: Part of the Black Country, famous for its enterprising and industrial past, Walsall is reinventing itself to become a progressive modern community. The borough is centred around the major town of Walsall, but also includes five smaller and distinctive district centres (Bloxwich, Aldridge, Willenhall, Darlaston and Brownhills), together with numerous villages. Walsall Council is committed to Safer Recruitment. To achieve our commitment, we will ensure continuous development and improvement of robust recruitment processes and procedures that promote a culture of safeguarding amongst our workforce.