Band 8a Lead Systemic Family Therapist - Bristol

Job overview

Are you an experienced Systemic Family Therapist looking for an opportunity to lead, influence and develop systemic practice within a supportive and forward-thinking CAMHS service? Bristol South CAMHS is seeking an enthusiastic and dynamic Lead Systemic Family Therapist to play a key role in strengthening systemic practice across our service. This is an exciting senior clinical leadership opportunity for someone who is passionate about relational approaches, committed to delivering high-quality care and motivated to support service development and innovation. The successful applicant will take a lead role within the Bristol South CAMHS Eating Disorders pathway, providing specialist systemic assessment and intervention for young people and their families. You will coordinate clinics, support complex case discussions, and provide consultation, supervision and leadership to colleagues, ensuring families have access to high-quality, evidence-informed systemic interventions. We are proud of our longstanding commitment to systemic practice and the development of systemic professionals. AWP CAMHS has established links with the University of Exeter and actively supports systemic family practitioner training, including MSc students on placement. For applicants who may be earlier in their post‑qualification journey, we are happy to consider appointment into a 12‑month developmental pathway, supported by both in‑house and external training opportunities as appropriate.

Main duties of the job

• To lead on a local provision for Eating Disorders in order to meet the needs of those referred and to work alongside all ED teams across BNSSG. This includes working closely with adolescent in‑patient units, the acute wards, the eating disorder 'HUB' and ED Home Treatment Team.
• To take the lead and supervise specific systemic interventions within a CAMHS team.
• To take the lead in offering systemic interventions in accordance with the CCHP care pathways and according to NICE guidance.
• To ensure that appropriate levels of clinical supervision are maintained and that clinical governance is of an excellent standard.
• To participate fully in the work of CAMHS, as well as participating in the referral and assessment process (Choice & Partnership Approach/I‑thrive approach).
• To train others & offer supervised clinics for example, Systemic MSc and Systemic Family Practice
• To work within all latest relevant clinical frameworks and guidelines including (but not limited to) NICE, Future in Mind, Eating Disorders Commissioning Guide etc.
• To apply a sound knowledge of safeguarding issues and child development to work with young people and families referred to CAMHS and identify when to refer to other agencies.
• To use professional skills in on‑going clinical evaluation, which will include the use of appropriate routine outcome measures and through responding effectively to feedback from members of the client and professional system.
• To hold an appropriate caseload.

Working for our organisation

We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will lead on the assessment and treatment for young people presenting with a range of mental health presentations, including Eating Disorders for which we have a specific pathway of care. This includes including interpreting referral data and ensuring robust clinical management. They will ensure that families receive interventions according to evidence-based NICE guidance and local pathways of care, both through direct work and by delivering caseload management and supervision to other staff.

This role involves significant multi‑disciplinary working and liaison within the CAMHS team and with our partnership agencies, including acute hospital trusts, social care and schools, plus voluntary sector organisations. They will offer systemic consultation and training to other professionals (within and beyond CAMHS) as appropriate. They will also liaise effectively with referrers, stakeholders, local CAMHS and Adult Services and to work alongside teams to offer seamless service delivery across different teams and interfaces, such as acute hospital settings.

The post holder will also work closely with the wider AWP CAMHS Community Eating Disorder Service, including the Eating Disorder Home Treatment team, community NG feeding and Eating Disorder 'Hub'. They will actively contribute to the wider service aims of: supporting young people to remain at home as far as is practically possible; reducing rates of admission and length of stay to acute hospitals; and reducing the need for admissions to CAMHS General Adolescent Units (GAUs) and Specialist Eating Disorder Units (SEDUs).

The post holder will be a senior member of the team offering consultation and clinical supervision to other team members. They will also be part of the team leadership group, working alongside the senior management team to support excellent leadership and governance within CAMHS, and have an active role in developing the service to become more effective and inclusive.

Please see Job Description for full details

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Professional postgraduate qualification in a mental health or social welfare discipline or agreed Association of Family Therapy (AFT) equivalent
• Knowledge/experience of working in an clinical eating disorder setting
• Postgraduate qualification in family/systemic psychotherapy
• Knowledge/experience of working in complex clinical situations
• Knowledge/experience of working in an clinical eating disorder setting
• Registration as a Systemic Psychotherapist with UKCP
• Understanding of NICE guidance for treatment of Eating Disorders.
• Approved clinical supervisor (or working towards this)

Desirable criteria

• Leadership Experience in CAMHS
• Experience of multiagency working (including physical health services)

We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with 'lived-experience' of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,- we are a 'Disability Confident Employer' offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

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