Employer Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Newtown Centre Town Huntingdon Salary £27,485 - £30,162 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 01/12/2025 23:59
Therapeutic Support Worker
Band 4
Job overview
We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic, motivated, and compassionate therapeutic Support Worker to play a core part in delivering skills underpinned by brief psychological interventions within the relatively new Psychological Skills Service (PSS) Central in Huntingdon and Fenland.
The Psychological Skills Service is a Trauma informed service, acknowledging that, the majority of clients referred to the service have experienced some form of trauma in their lives.
The Psychological Skills Service (PSS) is a service for people who experience significant difficulties with their mental health, whilst also managing to keep themselves safe and relatively well without significant support from services.
We’re offering an exciting opportunity for a compassionate, motivated Therapeutic Support Worker to join the Psychological Skills Service (PSS). This role involves delivering trauma-informed formulation-driven support work and brief psychological and occupational interventions.
PSS supports individuals with significant mental health challenges who are able to maintain relative wellbeing without intensive service input. Many may have tried therapies like CBT in the past and found them less helpful than expected.
Please add in as part of your supporting statement an answer to the following question's;
Give an example of a time you supported someone with mental health difficulties, who was difficult to engage. What did you do? What did you learn about yourself from this?
Main duties of the job
As a therapeutic support worker, you will fill an important position offering psychologically and occupationally informed support and psychological skills to a group of people previously described as “not ready” for psychological therapy.
In our service rather than exclude we think creatively about what type or level of therapy a person can use. The support work will be based on a psychological, trauma informed formulation that will guide how you work with the service user and help them achieve a variety of things including: physical safety and stability, learn skills to help with symptoms that affect them leaving the house/ interacting with others, teaching stabilization strategies, and strengthening important social and emotional resources. Work will be a mixture of face to face and online.
Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.
Working for our organisation
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share our vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.
We reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at www.cpft.nhs.uk
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities
* To complete discharge letters of interventions carried out (with training and supervision).To identify when clients need interventions from other services and initiate timely onward referral as indicated.
* To effectively communicate verbally with clients, carers and colleagues using motivational interviewing skills and adapting communication style when needed to engage clients and meet their needs. This may involve using skills to adapt strategies where clients have difficulties in communication eg. Hearing loss, diminished sight, cognitive impairment, or neurodiversity adaptations.
* Establish and maintain appropriate working relationships with colleagues, clients, carers and other health care professionals.
* To assess patient understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed consent and to work within a legal framework with clients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
* To attend relevant external and internal courses to extend knowledge or gain relevant.
* To maintain a clinical caseload, under supervision.
* To assist the psychology team in the development of individual or group clinical materials or training materials, such as the development of treatment manuals and group interventions.
* To act in a manner that supports a psychologically informed framework for the service.
* To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary and psychology meetings.
* To participate in the service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
Person specification
Education & Qualifications
* Psychology degree (2:2 or above; BPS accredited)
* Willingness to undertake training to meet competency framework
* Good general education up to GCSE equivalent
* Additional training relevant to supporting adults with mental health difficulties
Experience
* At least two years experience of one-to-one clinical experience with working age people with mental health difficulties, within a statutory service.
* Experience of supporting service users in problem solving/ grading tasks/ structuring daily routines
* Clinical experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
* Experience of supporting adults in the community with mental health problems
* Experience of working with psychologists or occupational therapists
* Experience of assisting in the delivery of therapeutic groups.
* Experience of working with service users with reading and writing difficulties or English as a second language
Knowledge & Skills
* High level communication skills
* Ability to communicate sensitive information to service users, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance.
* Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from service users
* Recognise and accommodate sensory impairments during all communications and the use of personal communication aids.
Other
* Ability to travel across CPFT locality and have access to a vehicle
Here at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) we are dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion. We deliver many of the NHS services that are provided outside of hospital and in the community such as physical, mental health and specialist services.
We are a health and social care organisation, offering a wide range of services, including:
* Integrated physical and mental health services for adults and older people;
* Specialist mental health and learning disability services;
* Children’s community services in Peterborough;
* Ground‑breaking research
We strongly encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly from under‑represented groups including disabled people and members of our ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities. For further information about our positive equality, diversity and Inclusion work, please visit https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/equalityanddiversity .
CPFT is looking to build upon its pool of temporary workers with Temporary Staffing Services (TSS). You will be asked at interview if you would be willing to register with TSS. This is an excellent opportunity for those looking to take on additional hours that are flexible around your personal circumstances.
Please be advised that in line with the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List, 2020 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust currently are unable to accept applications from overseas candidates whose country of residence is classed as a ‘Red List’ country.
Applicants who require entry into the UK will be required to provide a valid police certificate from the relevant authority from each country (except the UK) where the applicant has been present for 12 months or more, 10 years before the date of visa application, while aged 18 or over.
If you are successful at interview you will be subject to pre-employment checks, including a DBS (if appropriate), references and Occupational Health. To ensure a smooth process please bring all identity documents to your interview. A list of required identity documents will be attached to your interview invitation.
All communications will be sent to you via TRAC Systems. By applying for this post you are agreeing to CPFT transferring the information contained in this application to TRAC. If you are made an offer, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
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