Go back South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust
Parent Infant Psychotherapist
The closing date is 18 November 2025
The South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust are pleased to host a 12-month, 22.5 hrs per week temporary contract, working in the Wakefield PAIR Team.
We welcome applications from suitably qualified and registered Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists who have a special interest in working with parents and infants.
The successful candidate will provide specialist psychotherapy within a dedicated parent‑infant relationships team, ensuring specialist leadership for the development of the psychological elements of delivery and pathways. They will deliver Parent‑infant Psychoanalytic psychotherapy with families in a variety of settings across the whole Wakefield district. They will ensure delivery of multiple specialist therapeutic interventions on a one‑to‑one or group basis. Interventions will include Parent‑infant psychotherapy, Video Interaction Guidance and the Circle of Security Parenting Programme providing families with a cohesive multidisciplinary treatment offer.
They will support case discussion and supervision in the specialist PAIR team as well as supporting case discussion/supervision for professionals working at Tier 1/universal services and Tier 2/targeted services level.
It is anticipated the psychotherapists time will be split approximately: 70% providing direct interventions to families and 30% providing capacity building activities across the system.
The successful candidate will have access to specialist supervision.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will provide psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for women and their babies experiencing mental health issues during pregnancy and up to the baby being two years of age.
They will have oversight of the caseload for complex cases requiring parent‑infant psychotherapy and other range of specialist interventions.
The post holder will lead on developing links across community services which provide services to families and infants to offer consultation and supervision to build a robust system and workforce.
The role will also include providing Parent Infant awareness training to ensure that staff remain up to date and all interventions are evidence based.
They will work in partnership with PAIR Team Clinical Leads to continue to shape and develop the PAIR team.
The Service operates Monday‑Friday; 9.00 am‑5.00 pm however successful applicants would be expected to have the flexibility to work occasional extended hours to facilitate service effectiveness. Car driver essential.
Please contact Claire Lowe by emailing Claire.Lowe@swyt.nhs.uk for further details.
All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated against COVID‑19 protect patients.
At the time of advertising, this role does meet the minimum requirements set by UK Visas and Immigration to sponsor candidates to work in the UK. We look forward to receiving your application.
About us
We are a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental health and learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and are the lead for the West Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.
Our mission is to help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do this by providing high‑quality care in the right place at the right time. We employ staff in both clinical and non‑clinical services who work hard to make a difference to the lives of service users, families and carers.
We encourage and welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we value diversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.
Being a foundation Trust means we’re accountable to our members, who can have a say in how we run. Around 14,300 local people (including staff) are members of our Trust.
Join us and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improving the mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet and help each year.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.
We do reserve the right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.
Job responsibilities
JOB SUMMARY
The post holder will provide a comprehensive and specialist child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy assessment and treatment service for children and adolescents, their parents/carers and families, who may be experiencing severe, highly complex and persistent mental health problems. She/he will provide specialist supervision, consultation, teaching and training within the service and to staff of related agencies including second opinions, reflecting his or her experience and post‑qualification professional development. She/he will work autonomously within professional guidelines and will contribute to the evaluation, monitoring, development and implementation of the overall framework of the Trusts policies and procedures. She/he will contribute to audit procedures, policy and service development and research. The post holder will function as a member of a multi‑disciplinary team. The post holder will contribute to and support the training activity of the Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Trust staff.
This job description is an outline of the main duties of the post. The postholder will be required to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade as directed.
The content of this post will be reviewed in consultation with the postholder when necessary and in line with the service developments.
JOB DIMENSIONS
The post holder will undertake responsibility for clinical supervision, individual and group, for service clinicians and where appropriate assistant child and adolescent psychotherapists. She/he may undertake line management and supervisory responsibility for a child and adolescent psychotherapy clinical trainee. The post holder will have responsibility for maintaining adequate stock of essential materials for use in treatment.
If the service has an on call rota the post holder will participate in this.
A Clinical
To provide specialist psychoanalytic psychotherapy assessment for children/adolescents and their parents who may be experiencing severe, highly complex and persistent mental health problems. To make decisions about treatment options taking into account relevant evidence based research, theory, practice and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes which have shaped the child/adolescent, their parents/carers and family. To formulate and implement plans for therapeutic intervention and management from the point of referral.
To provide specialist short‑term psychotherapeutic treatment for highly disturbed children, adolescents, their parents/carers and families, who may be vulnerable, have mental health problems, be highly dysfunctional and have complex and persistent problems. To provide specialist brief interventions in particular, parent‑infant psychotherapy.
To provide specialist long term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for clients with severe, highly complex and persistent mental health problems.
To be responsible for working within the appropriate Child Protection and Deliberate Self Harm guidelines in relation to own cases. This includes reporting to and liaising with multi‑disciplinary service and external agency staff (e.g. Social Services staff, CAMHS colleagues, adult mental health staff, primary health and hospital staff, education staff, the service Consultant Psychiatrist, named child protection worker).
To be responsible for continually monitoring and evaluating risk to/from children and young people in own caseload and during supervision/consultation discussions.
To provide specialist assessment reports for social services, courts and solicitors as required.
To contribute directly to the service provision for Deliberate Self Harm presentations.
To contribute as an independent clinician to a multidisciplinary team, including generic CAMHS assessments and joint/co‑working.
To participate in regular review and on‑going discussion of cases in treatment with other members of the multi‑disciplinary team and to provide specialist expertise in psychoanalytic techniques.
To provide comprehensive clinical, consultive, supervisory and teaching service as required internally or on an outreach basis.
To co‑ordinate and organise, where appropriate, network meetings with professional members of other agencies.
To be responsible for the application of a range of theoretical and practical knowledge acquired over a significant period of time, (e.g. developments in psychoanalysis, child and adolescent development, neuroscience, attachment theory and adult psycho‑pathology).
To participate in the evaluation of clinical work and to contribute to the development of best evidence based practice based evidence within the service.
To provide autonomous professional responsibility based on the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics of the Association of Child Psychotherapists.
B Management, Policy and Service Development
(a)Human Resources To take part in the induction of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists in Training. To assist in the management of the workloads of assistant and trainee child and adolescent psychotherapists within the framework of the teams policies and procedures. To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant and trainee child and adolescent psychotherapists. To assist in the supervision of trainee child psychotherapists, including when appropriate liaising with staff from the training school. To report on the progress of trainee child psychotherapists when appropriate. To undertake, where appropriate and under the direct supervision of a senior/consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist, service supervision responsibility for a trainee child and adolescent psychotherapist. (b)Service Development To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of operational policies, procedures and guidelines of the multi‑disciplinary team. To be responsible for contributing to the development, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the Service. To contribute as appropriate to multi‑disciplinary service developments.
C Consultation, Supervision, Teaching and Training
To provide specialist advice, guidance and consultation to professional colleagues (within the service and related external agencies, especially social services) who work with the services clients. To provide specialist advice, guidance and consultation to adults involved with children/adolescents who are adopted or are within the social services care system (e.g. adoptive parents, foster carers, social workers). To provide highly specialist clinical supervision for trainee Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists. To provide specialist clinical supervision for professional trainees of related professionals (e.g. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Specialist Registrars). To provide specialist clinical supervision, group and individual, for professionally trained members of the service as requested. To provide specialist teaching and training for other professionals working with the client group within the service and within related agencies (health, education, social services, voluntary sector and youth criminal justice system. To be responsible for contributing to the academic and clinical teaching programmes within the service and the Directorates Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Service. To contribute to and support the training activity of the Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy commensurate with experience and level of professional development.
For full job description, please see attached supporting documents.
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Person Specification
Qualifications
* Doctorate level or Doctorate level equivalent qualification, including comprehensive study of highly complex, specialist psychoanalytic theories of development and psychopathology.
* Full membership of the Association of Child Psychotherapists.
* Further academic or research work (not necessarily leading to formal qualification).
Special Knowledge & Skills
* Doctoral level (or equivalent) knowledge of child and adolescent psychotherapy, including highly developed knowledge of psychoanalytic theories and models of development, psychopathology and family and institutional dynamics and defences.
* Knowledge of current NHS policy and legislation and its implications for clinical practice in relation to the mental health of children, adolescents and parents.
* Capacity to contribute to policy implementation and service development with the Trust.
* Skills in the use of specialist, complex psychoanalytical methods of assessment, intervention and management in work with children and families, frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
* A high level of ability to communicate effectively at both a written and oral level complex highly technical and clinically sensitive information to children and young people, their carers and families and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS.
* Ability to integrate psychoanalytic theories and outcome data with clinical practice and service provision.
* Ability to integrate highly complex clinical information into a coherent formulation and to apply it in treatment and clinical management.
* Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology.
* Experience in designing, planning and undertaking clinical research, audit and service evaluation.
* Record of having published in peer reviewed publications.
Physical Attributes
* Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).
Personal Attributes
* Ability to cope with stressful interpersonal situations including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse and communication in situations in which there may be barriers to the acceptance of communications.
* Capacity to work as an autonomous and independent practitioner, responsible for own work and interventions and for the interpretation of agreed guidelines and policies.
* An ability to function effectively in a group/team context.
* Having undergone a full personal psychoanalysis for a minimum period of five years.
* Flexibility in working arrangements.
* A capacity to manage stressful situations without adverse impact on capacities and functioning.
* A clear commitment to effective multi-disciplinary and multi‑agency working.
* A current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability).
* The post holder will be required to participate in the on call rota if part of the service offer.
Experience
* Professional qualification and experience with children, adolescents and families (e.g. clinical psychology, educational psychology, teaching, social work) prior to qualification as a child psychotherapist.
* Substantial experience of relevant patient groups presenting high levels of complexity and difficulty, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal and physical abuse.
* Experience in psychotherapy assessment and therapeutic work with children and families across the age range, with a full range of presenting problems and across settings including community, outpatient and clinic settings.
* Substantial experience of consultation, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
* Experience of audit.
* Experience of the application of child psychotherapy in different cultural contexts.
* Experience of presenting child psychotherapy in local policy fora.
* Experience in a leadership/management role.
* Highly specialised skills in a particular clinical area e.g. looked after children, autism, early intervention with young families, self‑harm.
Training
* Completion of specific training in the supervision of trainee child psychotherapists.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Address
8 Fox View Hub, Dewsbury District Hospital
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