Family & Systemic Psychotherapist: Sponsorship Available

Job summary

We are excited to be recruiting to our newly redesigned Children & Young People’s Inpatient Mental Health Unit at Chalkhill, reopening in Autumn 2026. Following extensive engagement, co-design, and investment in our clinical model, workforce, and environment, we are creating a modern therapeutic service where young people receive purposeful, high-quality care.

Following extensive co-design with young people, families and staff, this is an exciting opportunity to work in a modern, recovery-focused inpatient service delivering high-quality care to young people with acute mental health needs.

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Our refreshed CAMHS inpatient service is built around:

• Purposeful admissions with early review points
• Structured, therapeutic care programmes delivered across 7 days
• Strong links with crisis and community services, including COAST (Crisis Outreach Acute Support Team),
• Trauma-informed and autism-aware practice
• A focus on least restrictive practice and improving experience and outcomes
• Supportive MDT working, safe staffing and clinical leadership

You will work as part of a skilled and supportive multidisciplinary team, delivering therapeutic care to young people and working closely with families and carers from admission through to discharge.

This post offers the Trust’s £2,000 Golden Hello. (pro rata and subject to terms and conditions)

Main duties of the job

We are seeking a dedicated and passionate UKCP-registered Family and Systemic Psychotherapist (Band 7) to join the CAMHS Inpatient Team

You will be committed to family-focused practice, ensuring families’ needs and experiences remain central throughout hospital admissions. The role involves delivering family and systemic interventions for children and young people requiring inpatient care, and working closely with the COAST team, which provides alternatives to admission for those experiencing acute mental health difficulties.

You will join a skilled multidisciplinary team providing integrated, family-led care across Sussex. Drawing on a range of systemic psychotherapy approaches, you will contribute to assessment, formulation and the delivery of timely, targeted interventions, supporting young people and families to feel heard, involved and supported in their recovery from the outset.

You will work collaboratively with the multi-disciplinary team and a strong culture of teamwork and shared responsibility for high-quality care. You will receive regular supervision from the Principal Family and Systemic Psychotherapist and Consultant Psychologist, alongside support from the wider Psychological Professions network.

We welcome compassionate, motivated professionals committed to trauma-informed practice, co-production and improving outcomes for children and young people in a fast-paced inpatient setting.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Recognised/accredited postgraduate level training in a psychological therapy as specified in one of the Appendices
• Professionally registered as specified in the same Appendix

Desirable

• Additional pre- and/or post-qualification training as specified in the same Appendix

Knowledge

Essential

• Substantial experience of specialist psychological therapy (assessment, formulation maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse. n and treatment), as specified in the same Appendix,
• A high level of competence in applying a psychological therapy to complex difficulties appropriate for this therapy with the client group, and a proven track record of delivering positive outcomes in this therapy ?Experience of offering teaching, training and supervision within a demanding organisational context.
• A clear and theoretically informed approach to supervision
• Experience of the application of psychological therapy in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Desirable

• Experience of delivering group interventions

communication

Essential

• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Proven ability to establish, maintain and conclude therapeutic relationships with clients
• Good inter-personal and inter-professional skills and ability to work autonomously as a single discipline practitioner in a multi-disciplinary setting

Skills

Essential

• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• A capacity to reflect upon the therapeutic process and upon one’s own part in it.
• An ability to make effective use of clinical supervision and to utilise these skills in contributing to clinical consultation within the team and to other professional and non-professional groups

planning

Essential

• Ability to work within a large geographical area effectively, managing travel arrangements and using creative working solutions.
• Ability to assist or take a lead in specific service development projects
• Ability to plan and manage a work load

leadership

Essential

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.

Desirable

• Ability to supervise and support psychological professionals, in the locality, undertaking appraisals and managing sickness and annual leave where appropriate

Closing Date: 8 November 2026