North London NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Family and Systemic Psychotherapist (Perinatal)

The closing date is 19 February 2026

Job summary

As a Senior Family and Systemic Psychotherapist, you will play a pivotal role in the SPMHS and Maple Service, providing highly specialised systemic psychotherapy to mothers, birthing people, babies, and families. You will lead on systemic practice, supervision, and service development, ensuring that care is evidence-based, culturally competent, and responsive to the needs of diverse communities. You will work collaboratively across the service, supporting co-production, and championing equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Main duties of the job

Services offered by the post-holder will include providing psychological assessments and interventions to service users in line with the evidence base and NICE guidelines. They will also offer advice and consultation based on psychological formulation to referrers, staff of the North London Foundation Trust Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service and other professional and non-professional groups.

The post holder will actively contribute to the planning, development and evaluation of the systemic provision of perinatal mental health services (including Maple service), using advanced clinical leadership skills and knowledge to provide training and consultancy in clinical psychology within the specialty area of perinatal mental health. The post holders will be responsible for assessing and treating service users in up to three boroughs and will be expected to oversee the systemic and couples therapy provision across the service. 20% of their workload is expected to be management & leadership and 80% will be clinical interventions. They are expected to hold a highly complex caseload. The post holder will oversee the systemic and couples caseload of their sub-team and of the service.

About us

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

Our Five-Year Strategy:

We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care

Why NLFT?

We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
Excellent internal staff networ

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Date posted

05 February 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£64,156 to £71,148 a year Per annum pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

455-NLFT-0639

Job locations

St Pancras Hospital

St Pancras Hospital, 4 St Pancras Way, London

London

NW1 0PE

Job description

Job responsibilities

Hold a caseload of highly complex systemic assessment, treatment, and consultation work, drawing on a range of systemic models and research-based evidence.

Provide highly specialist systemic psychotherapy interventions for mothers, birthing people, babies, partners, and families, including couples and groups.

Work inclusively with families from diverse racial, cultural, and family backgrounds, including single parents, same-sex couples, extended families, and those involved with social care.

Evaluate and make decisions about treatment options, considering complex and sometimes conflicting factors within family and professional networks.

Engage with routine outcome measures and contribute to service-user participation agendas.

To work with service users with complex perinatal mental health needs; to identify their goals using specialist assessment and interventions tools.

To work in a variety of settings e.g., home, clinics and within the local community.

To liaise with the wider multi-disciplinary team when there are concerns regarding the well-being of the parent and the child. To follow trust Adult & Child Protection process and strategies.

To work with families who have children under Childrens Social Care; contributing to care plans and working within trust guidelines.

To ensure accurate and concise record keeping for service users and interaction with their babies.

To communicate effectively using a variety of communication skills: verbal and non-verbal, written, and electronic, with a range of individuals and organisations within and external to the organisation.

To establish and maintain effective working relationships with members of the MDT using excellent interpersonal skills.

To update clinical skills regularly to ensure the highest delivery of care whilst recognising own limitations.

To recognise and promote all aspects of cultural diversity and respond positively to ethnic awareness / sensitivity when planning care plans within supervisory framework.

To attend clinical meetings including perinatal birth planning meetings, child in need meetings and child protection meetings when required

To provide professional and clinical supervision of trainee clinical and counselling psychologists, and, where required, of assistant psychologists or other staff providing low intensity interventions.

Provide highly specialised professional supervision (including live supervision) to systemic psychotherapists, systemic practitioners, and other professionals within the service and partner agencies.

Deliver training placements and assess competencies for a range of professional disciplines.

Develop and implement systemic training opportunities and bespoke training plans for staff, based on best practice and evidence.