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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.
Counsellor Practitioner - Neonatal Intensive Care
Accepting applications until: 19-Jul-2026 23:59
Vacancy status: Open
Accepting applications until: 19-Jul-2026 23:59
Key details
Location
- Site
- Addenbrookes Hospital
- Address
- Hills Road
- Town
- Cambridge
- Postcode
- CB2 0QQ
- Major / Minor Region
- Cambridgeshire
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time - 20 hours per week (Monday to Friday, office hours, nominally)
Salary
- Salary
- £39,959 - £48,117 per annum pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Grade
- (Band 6)
Specialty
- Main area
- Family Counselling
Job overview
We would like to recruit an enthusiastic, creative, values led Counsellor to working within and alongside the Neonatal intensive care MDT. The role is a part of a wider Paediatric Psychological medicine Team, based at Addenbrookes Hospital.
The Counsellor Practitioner is a member of the children’s services counselling team and the wider psychosocial team that works in NICU. The role is to provide a responsive therapeutically based service, accessible to all parents/carers and families from their baby’s diagnosis or admission into NICU, including supporting families where their baby is receiving palliative or end of life care through to bereavement care if necessary. This post also provides a specialist counselling service to NICU outpatient families, where their baby has been on NICU and they would like to access support when they are home, in order to process the NICU experience. The counsellor works alongside the NICU Clinical Psychologist and with the ward team, including the Matron, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Neonatologists, other Counsellors and outside agencies involved with the family, and is flexible and adaptable in delivering the service.
This counselling will largely take place within Addenbrookes and will involve the post-holder offering a responsive and needs led service on a daily basis.
Advert
1. The post holder will cover two clinical areas. 1) To provide a counselling service for parents on NICU. 2) To provide a specialist counselling outpatient service for NICU parents in the community (those parents that had a baby on NICU and are now home and want to access support to process the NICU experience), including bereavement follow-up support. Both work includes working with families experiencing high levels of trauma and emotional distress. Work to include detailed assessment, intervention and liaison with other professionals, using a theoretical framework.
2. To work in a range of environments alongside the Clinical Nurse Specialists and Neonatologists, to support parents on NICU. This includes working at the cot-side in NICU.
3. Provide crisis and trauma focused support for families, and to make decisions about referral on to other services as appropriate. Using a range of specific psychological interventions which may include trauma support work, problem solving, anger, stress and anxiety management.
4. To be fully aware of and contribute to the bereavement counselling service provided for families
5. Carry a bleep and to respond to urgent referrals as quickly as possible within working hours (9-5). Undertaking an assessment of need which includes the ability to differentiate between moderate and severe levels of psychological distress.
Working for our organisation
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.
Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.
To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly underrepresented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
All appointments for new employees to CPFT are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.
Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Support other staff in working with parents and families, including the provision of debrief meetings as appropriate.
- Have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and will work closely to communicate sensitive information effectively within the MDT, complex professional systems and wider teams.
- Work effectively as a member of the multi-disciplinary teams, and be available as a resource for other healthcare professionals on an advisory basis.
- Work closely with the other Counsellor Practitioners and Clinical Psychologist working in these areas and be managed by the NICU Clinical Psychologist. The post holder works autonomously within professional guidelines, managing own caseload and making effective use of clinical supervision and the clinical governance framework.
- The post is based within Addenbrookes Hospital. The post holder will have an honorary contract to work with Cambridge University Hospitals and will work within the following service expectations of CUH.
- All staff have a responsibility to comply with the current infection prevention and control policies, procedures and standards and ensure they have received an annual update on infection prevention and control issues including hand hygiene. All staff should practice and encourage appropriate hand hygiene and act professionally to ensure the hospital environment is clean, safe and tidy.
- To perform your duties to the highest standard with particular regard to effective and efficient use of resources, maintaining quality and contributing to improvements.
- To follow all the Trust Security policies and procedures and be vigilant to ensure the safety and secure environment for care.
- All staff that have access to or transfers any data are responsible for those data, it must be kept secure and they must comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998, GDPR May 2018 and the common law on confidentiality. All data must be kept in line with the Trust’s policies and procedures. Data includes all types of data i.e. patient, employee, financial, electronic, hard copies of printed data or handwritten data etc.
- The post holder is responsible for data quality and complying with the policies, procedures and accountability arrangements throughout the Trust for maintaining accuracy and probity in the recording of the Trust’s activities.
- All staff will receive training on Child Protection - Safeguarding Children Policies and Procedures as part of Induction and annual updates, this will equip the post holder with the knowledge of what you will need to do if you have concerns about the welfare of a child/young person under aged 18.
- CUH is a smoke free campus. All employees must comply with the requirements of the No Smoking Policy and support the processes and practices in place in relation to patients and visitors
- To uphold the Trust Values and Behaviours standard.
- Work within the professional code of ethics and practice as detailed by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), British Psychological Society and HCPC.
- Monitor, evaluate and audit the service provided.
- Participate in staff training, teaching and supervision where appropriate.
- Network with other professionals working within psychosocial provision for critically ill children and their families.
Applicant requirements
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Diploma or above in counselling qualification
- BACP registration
Desirable criteria
- Supervisory course
Experience
Essential criteria
- Worked as a supervised counsellor
- Worked in a healthcare setting/family work
- Has experience with trauma, bereavement work or crisis work
- Has experience of supporting families with perinatal mental health difficulties or have experienced birth trauma
Desirable criteria
- Previous experience working within acute hospital settings.
- Experience of family work
- Perinatal experience
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
- Able to demonstrate commitment to high quality care and service provision
- Highly developed communication skills, both verbal and written.
- Able to work autonomously and within multi-disciplinary teams.
Desirable criteria
- Teaching/presentation skills
- Ability to supervise others
- Research and service evaluation experience
Knowledge and Understanding
Essential criteria
- Knowledge of issues regarding perinatal mental health
- Knowledge of models relating to family and parental adjustment to illness, loss and bereavement.
- Trauma informed knowledge
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of models and/or issues relating to staff support
- Knowledge of systemic approaches development
- Knowledge of supporting presentations of acute stress
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dr Neerja Thergaonkar
- Job title
- Clinical Psychologist NICU
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01223 216878
- Additional information
Dr Angela Kirby - [email protected]
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