Senior Practitioner / Play Therapist

Barnardo's is the largest Childrens Charity in the country and we know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. That is why we recruit outstanding people who share our commitment to deliver excellent services to children and young people.

Does that sound like you?

Do you have significant experience of working in a trauma informed and responsive way?

Do you have experience of working with young people who have complex emotional health and wellbeing needs?

The Mental Health & Trauma Services Platform – North Region delivers a range of services which support the emotional health needs of children, young people and families. BOSS has been delivering a service in St Helens since 2012. We support children and young people through therapeutic work. We work in collaboration with St Helens CAMHS to adopt the Thrive Model of care for all children in the borough. All our services use a suite of evidenced based Outcome Tools to show individual progress of service users. The Child Outcome Rating Scale, Session Rating Scale and Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire form the basis of these tools. These sit within the Barnardo's CSSO framework of practice – see attached document. Training will be given on the CSSO Framework.

We are looking for an experienced Play Therapist to line manage a small team of qualified therapists as well as having a small case load of play therapy clients. The role is part time (22.2hours per week) which would potentially sit well alongside someone who already has other clients/commitments.

You will have a mimimum 3 years post qualifying experience of working as a Play Therapist in a challenging emotional wellbeing and mental health service with a high referral rate. You will be able to work collaboratively with CAMHS and other education and social care professionals to ensure CYP access the right service at the right time using the Thrive Mental Health Care Model.

Are you:

• Qualified Play Therapist with experience of managing staff
• Accredited with an approved professional body
• Able to evidence continuous professional development
• Able to drive and have access to a car

We would very much like to hear from you to potentially join our team.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out 1st April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a key pillar of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to grow and develop in their career at Barnardo's as it will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues to progress through the pay band of their role.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay progression steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing after 5 years service
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

At Barnardo's we believe in children – no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through. Please read about our basis and values following the link below. You will be asked questions relating to them as part of the recruitment process for this role.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is reflected in our values and our practice, and we have invested in this area of our work to ensure that we can deliver on our commitments to be an inclusive employer. EDI is a key enabler of our purpose as a charity and we want to ensure that the diversity of our teams is reflective of the communities we serve and that we continue to learn and develop our work with a focus on inclusion. We particularly encourage applications from candidates from Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic Communities, candidates who are LGBT+ and Disabled candidates.

Our basis and values

Job Types: Part-time, Permanent

Salary: £29,206.00-£35,728.00 per year

Expected hours: 22.2 per week

Benefits:

• Employee discount
• Health & wellbeing programme

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift

Work Location: On the road

Reference ID: 18016