NHSCT Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist Band 8A
Ref: 55840254
Branch: Northern HSC Trust Area
Location: Alder House Antrim but travel NHSCT
Directorate: Mental Health, Learning Disability & CWB Division
Functional Area: Psychotherapy
Salary: Band 8a (£55,690 - £62,682)
Contract Type: Permanent
Opening date: 10/11/26
Closes: Tue, 24 November 2026 @ 5:00 PM
Interview Dates: To Be Confirmed

Notes: Online and Manual applications accepted. If you are submitting a manual application, please post it to: Recruitment Shared Services, Rosewood Villa, Longstone Hospital Site, 73 Loughgall Road, Armagh, BT61 7PR. Applications received after the advertised closing date/time cannot be considered, so please allow enough time for postage. A waiting list may be created for similar posts that may arise while the waiting list is live, this may include temporary or part-time posts. This will be managed in line with the updated HSC waiting list principles effective from 1 April 2026. Where a part-time waiting list is required, one part-time waiting list will be created- regardless of any specific hours advertised, this waiting list will cover all future vacancies where part-time posts arise. A part-time post is defined as any post that has less than 37.5 hours per week. Please remember to save or print a copy of the job description before submitting your application, as it will not be accessible afterwards.

Flexible Working
We welcome flexible working requests from day one. All HSC organisations offer a range of flexible working options. The options available for this post will depend on the requirements of the role.

Apply and Job Description
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Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
CAMHS
8a

The Northern Health and Social Care Trust (NHSCT) is responsible for the delivery of safe and effective health and social care (HSC) services to the population of the Northern Trust area in Northern Ireland.

We provide compassionate care with our community in our community. In order to do this we require the commitment of a highly skilled and professional workforce that meets the need of the service.

The diagram below outlines our values and our objectives which support the delivery of compassionate care within our community.

HSC Values

• Working Together: We work together for the best outcome for people we care for and support. We work across Health and Social Care and with other external organisations and agencies, recognising that leadership is the responsibility of all.
• Compassion: We are sensitive, caring, respectful and understanding towards those we care for and support and our colleagues. We listen carefully to others to better understand and take action to help them and ourselves.
• Excellence: We commit to being the best we can be in our work, aiming to improve and develop services to achieve positive changes. We deliver safe, high-quality, compassionate care and support.
• Openness & Honesty: We are open and honest with each other and act with integrity and candour.

Job Description
Job Title: Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
Band: 8a
Directorate/Division: Children & Young People's Division
Initial Location: Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service, Alder House Antrim, but may be asked to travel to sites across the Northern Trust area.
Reports To: Service Lead
Accountable To: Head of Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service

Flexible Working Provisions Available: Fixed working patterns, Part-time working, Flexi-time, Compressed/elongated hours

Job Summary
To work together with the community to provide the best care we can, so that people use our services with confidence and can make informed choices, which promote their health and social well-being.

To provide a qualified specialist CAMHS Child Psychotherapist service to clients referred to the Child and Adolescent team. The post holder will do so across all sectors of care; providing specialist psychotherapy assessment and therapy based on psychoanalytic principles. Post will also include offering advice and consultation for clients, psychotherapeutic care to non-psychotherapist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers. Post holder will work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Team's policies and procedures. To promote and advise on the development of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy services within the Trust in collaboration with relevant Services Managers to ensure the highest standard of service delivery.

Key Result Areas / Main Responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychotherapeutic assessments of child and adolescents referred to CAMHS based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including self-report measures, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family member and others involved in the client's care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychotherapeutic treatment and/or management of client's mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing psychotherapeutic interventions based on analytic principles for individuals, carers, families and groups and adjusting and refining psychotherapeutic formulations drawing upon analytic models for understanding a range of presenting clinical problems.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychotherapeutic based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist psychotherapeutic advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients' formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychotherapeutic based framework of understanding and care across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychotherapeutic aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni-and multi-disciplinary care.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

• In common with all Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists, clinical supervision will be provided in accordance with good practice guidelines.
• To continue to gain wider post-qualification experience of child psychotherapy over and above that provided within the principal service area where the postholder is employed.
• To develop skills in their area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other CAMHS staff's psychotherapeutic work, as appropriate.
• To provide professional and clinical supervision of trainee child and adolescent psychotherapists.
• To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Management, Recruitment, Policy and Service Development

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team's operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
• To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychotherapeutic and/or organisational matters need addressing.

Research and Service Evaluation

• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
• To facilitate relevant research and development programmes and activities.
• To take responsibility for the assessment of work outcomes including initiating a database for audit purposes and to develop outcome measurement.

General

• To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in professional standards of practice, through active participation in consultation with the postholder's professional and service manager.
• To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychotherapy across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of child and adolescent psychotherapy and related disciplines.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the NHSSB and Trust policies and procedures.
• To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both child and adolescents and mental health.

To be noted:

• This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities and the postholder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with the manager.
• This job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.
• The post holder is expected to comply with all relevant Trust policies, procedures and guidelines, including those relating to Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety and Confidentiality of information.

General Responsibilities

• At all times provide a caring service and to treat those with whom they come into contact in a courteous and respectful manner
• At all times demonstrate practice the HSC values of Working Together, Excellence, Openness & Honesty and Compassion
• Carry out their duties and responsibilities in a manner which assures patient and client safety
• Comply with all instructions in regard to Infection Prevention and Control
• Demonstrate their commitment by their regular attendance and the efficient completion of all tasks allocated to them
• Comply with the Trust's Smoke Free Policy
• Carry out their duties and responsibilities in compliance with health and safety policy and statutory regulations
• Adhere to equal opportunities policy throughout the course of their employment
• Ensure the ongoing confidence of the public in service provision
• Adhere to the Code of Conduct for HSC Employees which aims to guide staff, managers and employers in the work that they do and the decisions and choices they have to make. Professional staff are expected to follow the code of conduct for their own professions as well as this code.
• The post holder will promote and support effective team working, fostering a culture of openness and transparency. The post holder will ensure that they take all concerns raised with them seriously and act in accordance with the NHSCT Raising Concerns Policy and their professional code of conduct, where applicable.

Records Management
All employees of the Northern Health & Social Care Trust are legally responsible for all records held, created or used as part of their business within the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, including patient/client, corporate and administrative records whether paper based or electronic and also including e-mails. All such records are public records and are accessible to the general public, with limited exceptions, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environment Regulations 2004, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Employees are required to be conversant and to comply with the Northern Health and Social Care Trust policies on Information Governance including (for example) the ICT Security Policy, Data Quality and Data Protection Policy and Records Management Policy and to seek advice if in doubt.

Salary
8a £55,690 - £62,682 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)

Right to Work in the UK
Please note this role may not meet the requirements for a Skilled Worker visa (including a Health and Care Worker visa) and the Trust therefore would be unable to employ anyone that requires Sponsorship.

Hours
0.48 Permanent

Medical
Appointment will be subject to a successful pre-employment health assessment.

Holidays
27 days each year; 29 days after 5 years' service; 33 days after 10 years' service and 10 statutory and public holidays.

Pension
The post-holder can participate in the Health Social Care Pension Scheme.

Northern Trust Benefits
You can explore the benefits on offer to you in the Northern Trust by clicking here.

Probationary Period
You will serve a probationary period of normally six months.

Waiting List
A waiting list may be compiled for similar permanent/temporary, part time/bank posts which may arise within the next 6 months.

Pay Protection
Legacy Trust Staff who apply for a promotion after 1 April 2011 should be aware that they will lose their legacy protection arrangements and will be entitled to pay protection in accordance with circular HSS (JNF)(1) 2011. This circular will also apply to legacy staff who are currently in receipt of protection and who move post on promotion.

Completed application forms should be returned to the BSO Recruitment and Selection Shared Services Centre, on or before the closing date as stated in the advertisement.

Canvassing, either directly or indirectly, will be an absolute disqualification. We will review this Job Description and it may include any other duties and responsibilities we determine in consultation with the jobholder. We do not intend it to be rigid and inflexible but rather to provide guidelines within which the jobholder works.

Personnel Specification
Title of Post: Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist
Band of Post: 8a

Essential criteria:

• Primary professional qualification in nursing, social work, psychology or medicine, with 4 years post qualification in that first profession, AND postgraduate qualification in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with two years post qualification experience, AND registration as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist with UKCP or equivalent body such as ICP, ACP or eligible for registration.
• Minimum four years practice in relevant first profession (or established equivalence), AND at least three years experience of work with children and adolescents in a mental health or equivalent setting.
• Hold a current full driving licence which is valid for use in the UK and have access to a car on appointment. This criteria will be waived in the case of applicants whose disability prohibits driving but who have access to a form of transport approved by the Trust which will permit them to carry out the duties of the post.
• Skills in providing a highly specialised level of expertise in formulating and intervening in families with a range of complex difficulties; ability to reflect and appraise own performance; ability to communicate effectively highly complex psychoanalytic formulations; willingness to develop and advance own learning; ability to contribute to research, clinical effectiveness measures and audit; willingness to provide teaching and mentorship to multi-professional students and other professionals; ability to work in line with clinical governance.
• Knowledge of working well in a multi-disciplinary team; acceptable level of expertise and competence within current models and methods of practice with children and young people within child and adolescent mental health; knowledge of psychoanalytic formulations of psychological / mental health difficulties exhibited by children/young people within families; knowledge of other treatment approaches; knowledge and expertise in interventions useful for children, families and other professionals presenting with highly complex problems which have a strong evidence base; knowledge and capacity to assess risk.
• Ability and commitment to work flexible hours to meet the needs of the service.

Desirable criteria:

• Experience of providing training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Value Based Recruitment
Value Based Recruitment is a process adopted by the Northern Trust to attract and select employees on the basis that their individual values and behaviours align with those of the Trust. It focuses on the 'how' and 'why' people do what they do.

Criminal Offences, Investigations and Charges
Having a criminal record will not necessarily debar you from working with the Trust. This will depend on the nature of the position, together with the circumstances and background of your offences or other information contained on a disclosure certificate. Where it is necessary to obtain an Access NI disclosure the Trust operates in line with the Access NI Code of Practice.

The NHSCT is an Equal Opportunities Employer
Successful applicants may be required to attend for a Health Assessment, can expect to be placed at the minimum point of the pay scale, and have the right to request Flexible Working from the 1st day of their employment.

June 2026