Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Senior Family and Systemic Psychotherapist

The closing date is 25 January 2026

Job summary

We are excited to be recruiting a Senior Family and Systemic Psychotherapist to join the Mood, Emotions and Relationships (MERs) Pathway within Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD). This is a fixed term position available for 6 months and we would consider requests for secondment. The post is available at 0.76 WTE (28.5 hours per week) and is based in Exeter and offers an excellent opportunity to contribute to a developing pathway supporting children and young people experiencing complex emotional and mental health challenges.

As a valued member of the multi-disciplinary team, you will deliver systemic family therapy as well as contribute to specialist assessments, care planning, consultation, supervision, and service development. You will join a growing and friendly network of systemic practitioners across CFHD, with regular supervision and access to development opportunities.

We offer:

Regular systemic supervision and access to a supportive peer network
Opportunities for leadership, consultation, and supervision, depending on experience

This post is ideal for a qualified Family and Systemic Psychotherapist looking for either their first senior post, or for an experienced practitioner ready to take on a Band 8a role within a supportive and collaborative team

Main duties of the job

Provide specialist family and systemic assessments and interventions for children, young people, and their families in line with evidence-based practice and NICE guidelines

Manage a caseload of children and young people with complex mental health presentations, ensuring care is timely, collaborative, and tailored to individual needs
Contribute to multi-disciplinary team discussions and care planning, offering systemic consultation and reflective input
Provide supervision and support to junior colleagues and systemic trainees as appropriate to your level of experience
Offer training and consultation to internal colleagues and external partners to promote systemic thinking across services
Actively contribute to service development and quality improvement, including participation in audits and feedback-led changes
Maintain accurate and timely clinical records, and adhere to professional and organisational standards

About us

Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD) comprises an Alliance of NHS organisations working together to improve health outcomes for children and young people in Devon.

CFHD provides integrated care and treatment for children and young people across physical and mental health which are provided by Torbay and South Devon Foundation Trust and Devon Partnership Trust. We are working closely with other organisations and providers to ensure we deliver locality and county-wide based integrated access to all of our services, based on the i-Thrive Framework.

CFHD works closely with our local universities of Plymouth, Exeter & the Peninsula Medical School where we support students in clinical training placements and in addition support our own staff to undertake post graduate training.

Our integrated care and treatment has been developed and refined in partnership with children, young people and their families/carers.

Our children and young people say

We would like the people who work for Children and Family Health Devon to be understanding, patient and respectful. They should be trustworthy and make us feel safe and comfortable. It is important that they use their skills and experience to listen carefully in a non-patronising and non-judgemental way. When staff are positive and friendly, they help to create an environment that is informal and without pressure.

Date posted

16 January 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£55,690 to £62,682 a year Pro-rata

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

6 months

Working pattern

Part-time, Flexible working

Reference number

C9369-26-0034

Job locations

Evergreen

Victoria Park Road

Exeter

EX2 4NU

Job description

Job responsibilities

See attached Job Description for full person specification and job description.

The role of the Senior Family and Systemic Psychotherapist is to provide, develop and clinically lead a range evidenced based interventions in their clinical pathway. Working as part of a multi-professional team, this role will clinically supervise others whilst also assessing and providing care for children, young people and their families/carers who present with a range of complex needs.

Within this role the post holder will:

Provide clinical leadership to within their pathway, and potentially to others, share responsibility for the systematic provision of high quality evidence-based psychological therapy to children/ young people and their families/carers presenting with a range of complex needs.

Use a strengths-based approach; ensure clinical effectiveness through the use of evidence-based interventions, goal-based, collaborative practice and Routine Outcome Measures.

Have outstanding communication skills and the ability to adapt their approach to engage with children/young people and their families/carers, who present with a range of complex needs.

Undertake assessments, including risk assessments, contribute to care planning and deliver evidence-based interventions in collaboration with children, young people and their carers.

Manage risks and hold a complex caseload for children and young people of all ages, with a range of needs.

Contribute to the systematic provision of clinical supervision and guidance for staff delivering systemic practice and/or systemic psychotherapy trainees and students

Provide clinical supervision and support to other clinicians with the ability to demonstrate compassionate leadership, to understand and follow HR policies and procedures, ensure staff wellbeing and development and adopt a collaborative approach to engage staff with a range of skills and communication needs.

Work effectively with operational, professional and clinical leadership colleagues to support clinicians in devising and implementing evidence-based care to suit the individual needs of children and young people.

Organise, lead and chair relevant meetings with the ability to present information in a range of formats, adapting communication to meet the needs of others.

Job description

Job responsibilities

See attached Job Description for full person specification and job description.

Within this role the post holder will:

Use a strengths-based approach; ensure clinical effectiveness through the use of evidence-based interventions, goal-based, collaborative practice and Routine Outcome Measures.

Have outstanding communication skills and the ability to adapt their approach to engage with children/young people and their families/carers, who present with a range of complex needs.

Undertake assessments, including risk assessments, contribute to care planning and deliver evidence-based interventions in collaboration with children, young people and their carers.

Manage risks and hold a complex caseload for children and young people of all ages, with a range of needs.

Contribute to the systematic provision of clinical supervision and guidance for staff delivering systemic practice and/or systemic psychotherapy trainees and students

Organise, lead and chair relevant meetings with the ability to present information in a range of formats, adapting communication to meet the needs of others.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Masters level qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy.
Active registration with the UKCP as a Systemic and Family Therapist
Post qualification specialist therapy/assessment training relevant to children and young people
Post qualification training or proven equivalent experience in supervision.

Experience

Essential

Experience of working collaboratively with service users and their families/carers, including using goal-based care and routine outcome measures in practice.
Experience of working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team and across agencies
Experience of working with a wide variety of child mental health problems, across the whole age range, reflecting all levels of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal abuse
Experience of undertaking specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions for children and young people with highly complex mental health problems; including risk assessments
Experience in providing effective clinical supervision, teaching, training and assessing in clinical practice.
Experience of safeguarding children and ensuring the safety of young people in partnership with other agencies as appropriate.
Experience that evidences an ability to tend to diversity and work in a way that promotes anti-discriminatory practice
Experience of initiating, attending, contributing to and chairing multi-professional and inter-agency meetings.
Experience of providing professional teaching and developing training programmes for other professionals.
Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for children and young peoples psychological care and treatment, as a lone practitioner and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan

Skills

Essential

Ability to travel across Devon

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Masters level qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy.
Active registration with the UKCP as a Systemic and Family Therapist
Post qualification specialist therapy/assessment training relevant to children and young people
Post qualification training or proven equivalent experience in supervision.

Experience

Essential

Experience of working collaboratively with service users and their families/carers, including using goal-based care and routine outcome measures in practice.
Experience of working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team and across agencies
Experience of working with a wide variety of child mental health problems, across the whole age range, reflecting all levels of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal abuse
Experience of undertaking specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions for children and young people with highly complex mental health problems; including risk assessments
Experience in providing effective clinical supervision, teaching, training and assessing in clinical practice.
Experience of safeguarding children and ensuring the safety of young people in partnership with other agencies as appropriate.
Experience that evidences an ability to tend to diversity and work in a way that promotes anti-discriminatory practice
Experience of initiating, attending, contributing to and chairing multi-professional and inter-agency meetings.
Experience of providing professional teaching and developing training programmes for other professionals.
Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for children and young peoples psychological care and treatment, as a lone practitioner and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan

Skills

Essential

Ability to travel across Devon

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.