Location: Putney, SW London with travel to various services across London

Contract Type: Permanent

Salary: £32,800 per annum

Specific Hours: Part time / 30 hours per week / Monday-Friday / Flexible working hours

About Us

Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future.

St Christopher's is a leading charity for children and young people. We are proud of our history of providing fostering, children's homes and innovative leaving care services across the UK.  We have a passionate commitment to our young people, placing them at the centre of everything we do.  We provide positive life experiences for young people who are unable to sustain a placement in their parental or foster home.

We are an equal-opportunity employer keen to develop an inclusive workforce where people feel they belong.  We hope to attract applications from under- represented groups, including people from different cultures, nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, religions, faith, sex, orientation, childcare responsibilities, and gender-diverse identities.

St Christopher’s Academy

When you join St Christopher’s, we will set you up in your career with a tailored development plan. Whether you want to move across to a different service, become a Manager or just explore further your current role, we will support you to map out your career trajectory and help you achieve your professional ambitions. If you want to learn more about St Christopher’s Academy, please click here

We are proud that 84% of all our Team Leaders, Deputies and Managers are internal promotions. 

About This Role

This is an exciting new opportunity to be part of a project within our Wraparound Service in the UK. As Psychological Therapist, key aspects of your role will be:

• Facilitation of Reflective Practice for residential staff to help support therapeutically informed practice, staff resilience and emotional wellbeing.
• Direct support to Children in Care and Care Leavers to improve their emotional health and well-being, and to provide any additional support identified as needed by statutory services to those with mental health needs.
• Working with children, residential carers and social workers where care arrangements are at risk of breaking down.
• Consultative support and training to foster carers and residential staff where there are children in placement who have complex needs.
• Support the development of the UK Therapeutic Service to help meet the needs of staff and young people across the organisation.

The successful candidate will have:

• Degree in a relevant discipline (e.g. Social Work, Psychology, Counselling, Psychotherapy)
• A minimum of three years working directly with children, young people and families
• Experience of dealing with crisis situations and working with emergency services
• A minimum of one years’ experience of delivering therapeutic interventions
• Previous experience of delivering therapeutic interventions to children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties
• Experience of working in a multi-agency setting
• Knowledge of UK Legislative framework
• Good interpersonal and communication skills
• Knowledge/Experience of Care Planning and Care Management
• Ability to manage caseload and to work on own initiative
• Responsive to deadlines
• Excellent IT, report writing and presentation skills
• Ability and willingness to work outside of normal office hours as required

In return we offer:

• Competitive salary.
• A friendly working environment, a fun, open and honest culture.
• 25 days holiday rising to 27 days after 3 years’ service, plus Bank Holidays, pro-rata.
• Industry leading training programme including access to level 3 qualifications, children’s right and participation, CSE, empowerment, mental health and social pedagogy.
• Contributory pension scheme, enhanced maternity and company sick scheme.
• UK Life Assurance (Death in service) to the value of 3 times your annual salary.
• BUPA employee assistance programme, offering counselling, financial advice and legal support.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Bluelight card; discount shopping scheme at hundreds of retailers across the UK.
• Discretionary funded training programs.
• Employee awards based on performance and length of service.
• Fantastic opportunities to develop your career within our range of services.

Recruitment Process

St Christopher’s is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people in our care and is dedicated to the principles of Safer Recruitment.

As part of the recruitment process, you will be required to complete an online application form. This enables us to collect the information necessary to meet legislative requirements, safer recruitment standards, and vetting procedures, ensuring your suitability to work with children and young people.

Applicants are encouraged to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. Where an applicant is not registered with the service, St Christopher’s will carry out an Enhanced DBS check prior to employment commencing.

Your application must include a supporting statement demonstrating how you meet the criteria outlined in the Person Specification.

Please note that CVs will not be accepted in place of a completed application form.

For the full Job Description and Personal Specification please click here.

It is against the law to apply for work with Children/Young People if you are barred from working in Regulated Activity and if your name is added to a Children Barred List.

All shortlisted candidates invited to interview will be asked to submit a Self-Declaration and Disclosure form which will need to be returned prior to an interview being booked.