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Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

About

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) provides integrated community and mental health, learning disability and social care services of the highest standard due to our continued commitment to quality and service improvement. We aim to support people of all ages to achieve the very best they can for their health and well being. To ensure that we achieve this goal we look to recruit candidates of a high calibre that share our passion for delivering excellent service user care, research and education.

Contact

Address: Elizabeth House; Fulbourn Hospital; Fulbourn; Cambridge; Cambridgeshire; CB21 5EF
Contact Number: 0800 953 7016

Find out more

Jobs Website

Open

Ref: 310-MASMH-7745229 Vacancy ID: 7745229

Family Therapist

Accepting applications until: 13-Apr-2026 23:59

Vacancy status: Open

Accepting applications until: 13-Apr-2026 23:59

Location

Site: S3 Ward
Address: Addenbrookes Hospital
Town: Cambridge
Postcode: CB2 0QQ
Major / Minor Region: Cambridgeshire

Contract type & working pattern

Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday-Friday)

Salary

Salary: £47,810 - £54,710 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Grade: (Band 7)

Specialty

Main area: Family Therapy

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

1. The post holder will undertake specialist assessment and care planned interventions of adults and families referred to the Adult Eating Disorder Service.

2. Together with the two current Principal Clinical Psychologists, the post holder will be responsible for the delivery of a full range of family treatments to patients. These treatments may include the following systemic psychotherapy interventions.

· Conjoint family therapy (all family members present in the room at the same time, plus patient and other members of multi-disciplinary team).

· Separated family therapy (i.e. parental counselling and individual systemic counselling running in parallel).

· Multi-family group therapy

3. The post holder is expected to participate in joint assessments of patients referred for treatment and to consult to multi-disciplinary and multi-agency colleagues regarding the family treatment component of each patient’s care. Assessment of family interactions and formulating how these are connected to diagnostic factors will be a key component of the post, influencing the direction of treatment and recommendations for appropriate family interventions.

4. To communicate, in a highly skilled and sensitive manner to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care.

5. To monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care, and to provide appropriate reports on this.

6. To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of systemic assessment and formulation and treatment outcome, in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.

7. To work in partnership with other disciplines, in particular Clinical Psychology, to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory and primary care agencies as appropriate.

8. To provide appropriate care for clients not engaged in treatment including: psycho-education, liaising with other professionals, engaging in treatment including using structured approaches such as motivational interviewing, risk assessment, health promotion and crisis intervention.

9. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures.

10. Responsible for maintaining video equipment and for training colleagues in the use of this.

11. As a senior member of the staff team the post-holder is expected to contribute significantly to the resolution of conflicts between staff and the maintenance of a well-functioning multi-disciplinary team.

12. In common with all Systemic Psychotherapists the post-holder will be responsible for ensuring that they receive regular clinical supervision and continuing professional development, in accordance with United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy/Association of Family Therapy requirements and good standards practice guidelines.

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 and young people’s mental health services;
Children’s community services in Peterborough;
Social care;
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.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

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.

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential criteria

Doctoral/M.Sc./Post-graduate Diploma in Systemic Psychotherapy/Family Therapy.
UKCP registered family therapist

Desirable criteria

Relevant specialist training in adult mental health disorders
Additional qualification in a related profession (e.g. social work, nursing, psychology).

Experience

Essential criteria

Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan
Ability to work co-operatively in an MDT
Previous employment in a related health or social care post.
Planning and delivering teaching to health and/or social care professionals
Involvement in a variety of systemic psychotherapy interventions (e.g. conjoint family therapy, parental counselling, group therapy).

Desirable criteria

Relevant experience of working collaboratively with service users and carers in the development of patient/client-centred services
Familiarity with research methodology
Experience across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient settings.

Skills & Abilities

Essential criteria

Skills in the use of complex methods of assessment, formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgement skills.
Of current, evidence based, stepped care models of care as detailed in NICE guidance
Skills in individual and group work and in programme planning
Planning and organising skills for caseload management
Skills in self-management, including time-management
Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.

Desirable criteria

Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised systemic therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc.)
Experience and skills in clinical supervision

Physical Requirements

Essential criteria

Ability to work competently with highly distressing circumstances – frequently facilitating discussions in which complex treatment decisions are made.
Ability to contain and work with organisational stress
Ability to frequently concentrate for sustained periods of time in order to plan and apply complex systemic interventions (e.g. multi-family group therapy).
Ability to understand and utilise therapeutic use of self and to maintain insight through constructive use of personal supervision

Other

Essential criteria

To maintain highest professional standards and skills required by UKCP and AFT for annual registration.
Willingness to develop the role of the family/systemic psychotherapist within the service and to contribute to the broader field.
Must be capable of interpreting broad occupational policies and be accountable for own professional actions

Knowledge & Understanding

Essential criteria

Knowledge of Eating Disorders and common co-morbidities - anxiety including OCD, anxiety & depression. Good working knowledge of evidence base for the treatment of Eating Disorders in Adults.
Good understanding of other professionals’ theoretical perspectives of this client group.
Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group.
Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
Knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of systemic psychotherapy.
Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by UKCP and AFT.