Barnardo's has an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated Therapist/Specialist Practitioner to join our ever-growing Leicestershire Residential Services team, on a full-time permanent basis. The post holder will provide specialist therapeutic assessment, intervention, and psychological support to children and young people, who have experienced complex trauma, in order to promote emotional wellbeing, resilience, and recovery.

Working Pattern:

Predominantly Monday to Friday with some flexibility required to meet the young People's needs.

Location:

The post holder will predominantly be based in Coalville but must be flexible to travel across the Leicestershire locality for occasional visits to other homes. Currently, the service has homes in Coalville, Hinckley, Mountsorrel, South Braunstone, Rothley, Syston and Market Harborough.

Some of the key activities of the role include, but are not limited to:

• Conduct comprehensive psychological assessments of children's needs and strengths to inform intervention planning.
• Deliver direct therapeutic work with children who have experienced abuse, neglect, and disrupted attachments to help them understand and manage their emotions and relationships.
• Promote a consistent therapeutic environment by supporting staff with reflective practice and trauma-informed approaches.
• Actively participate in service reviews, audits, and relevant CPD to ensure continual improvement and alignment with Barnardo's Basis and Values

Essential requirements to evidence in your written application:

• Professional qualification in Clinical/Counselling Psychology, Child Psychotherapy, Systemic Family Therapy, Social Work, or equivalent (e.g. Play Therapy, Art Therapy).
• Recognised qualification in clinical supervision (e.g. Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Supervision, BACP/UKCP/HCPC/BABCP-accredited training).
• Registration with a recognised professional body (e.g. HCPC, UKCP, BACP).
• Knowledge of trauma-informed, attachment-based approaches, particularly DDP/PACE.
• Understanding of safeguarding legislation and procedures.
• Experience providing therapeutic support to children and young people with complex trauma histories.
• Experience working in residential care, CAMHS, or children's social care settings.
• Experience using trauma-informed, attachment-aware frameworks (e.g. DDP, PACE, Theraplay, NMT, EMDR).
• Experience of providing clinical or reflective supervision to practitioners working with trauma-exposed children and young people. Knowledge of relevant supervision models and ability to support development through reflective practice.

More about the service:

Barnardo's, the UK's largest Children's Charity, are currently on an exciting and innovative Journey alongside Leicestershire County Council to deliver a range of Children's homes for the most vulnerable children & young people in Leicestershire. Each home will support children & young people between 0-18 years who have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, challenging behaviour and other complex needs.

For more information about this role, please contact Karen Ciantar – karen.ciantar@barnados.org.uk

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.