37.5 hours per week

Salary 49,498 - £53,630 depending on experience

Duration: 1 year fixed term contract

Opportunity for a qualified Psychologist to join our team and help support reflective and therapeutically informed care. Working with a team around the child to help a cohort of care leavers who will be in receipt of an enhanced support offer as part of the Wolverhampton Staying Close programme, and enable them to sustain their emotional wellbeing whilst faced with the challenges of independence”.

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 & Isle of Man.  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

About The Role

As a Psychologist you will play a pivotal role in providing emotional support, and expert guidance within a dynamic context. Your responsibilities include facilitating direct support to Looked After Children and Care Leavers to enhance their emotional health and well-being in relation to the Staying Close Project. This role also involves working closely with a range of stakeholders, including, residential carers, and social workers, to ensure the well-being of children and young people in care.

Key aspects of the Role:

• To work with Home Managers and residential staff in the services to support the development of staff’s psychological understanding in their work with young people in our care.
• To support the implementation of the St Christopher’s Therapeutic Plan
• To provide Consultative support for residential staff to help develop their therapeutically informed practice.
• To help implement the Staying Close model

The successful candidate will have:

• Experience of therapeutic practice with children and young people including groups and individuals.
• Training and experience in trauma-informed and attachment-based approaches to therapeutic practice.
• The ability to work integrative and flexibly with a range of client needs.
• Clinical accreditation with BACP/UKCP/HCPC or other professional body.
• An understanding of the support needs of residential workers.
• Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• Experience of delivering psycho-education to other professionals.

What you should expect from us

• Salary 49,498 - £53,630 depending on experience
• 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.
• BUPA employee assistance programme, offering counselling, financial advice and legal support.
• Interest-free season ticket loan, cycle to work scheme.
• 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 the safeguarding of all children and young people in our care including the principals of Safer Recruitment. During the recruitment process you will be expected to complete an online application form to ensure we capture essential information to meet legislation, best practice and vetting requirements to assess your suitability to work with children and young people.

Applicants will ideally already be on the DBS Update Service; if this is not the case St Christopher's will carry out a DBS (police) check prior to your start date.

Your application must include a supporting statement addressing the criteria given in the Person Specification.

For the full Job Description for this role and more detail about what will be required, please click here.

We advise to apply as soon as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.