Job Description

Barnardo's has an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated Therapist/Specialist Practitioner to join our ever-growing Leicestershire Residential Services team, on a full-time permanent basis. The post holder will provide specialist therapeutic assessment, intervention, and psychological support to children and young people, who have experienced complex trauma, in order to promote emotional wellbeing, resilience, and recovery.

Working Pattern:

Predominantly Monday to Friday with some flexibility required to meet the young People's needs.

Location:

The post holder will predominantly be based in Coalville but must be flexible to travel across the Leicestershire locality for occasional visits to other homes. Currently, the service has homes in Coalville, Hinckley, Mountsorrel, South Braunstone, Rothley, Syston and Market Harborough.

Some of the key activities of the role include, but are not limited to:

Conduct comprehensive psychological assessments of children's needs and strengths to inform intervention planning. Deliver direct therapeutic work with children who have experienced abuse, neglect, and disrupted attachments to help them understand and manage their emotions and relationships. Promote a consistent therapeutic environment by supporting staff with reflective practice and trauma-informed approaches. Actively participate in service reviews, audits, and relevant CPD to ensure continual improvement and alignment with Barnardo's Basis and Values

Essential requirements to

evidence in your written application:

Professional qualification in Clinical/Counselling Psychology, Child Psychotherapy, Systemic Family Therapy, Social Work, or equivalent (e.g. Play Therapy, Art Therapy). Recognised qualification in clinical supervision (e.g. Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Supervision, BACP/UKCP/HCPC/BABCP-accredited training). Registration with a recognised professional body (e.g. HCPC, UKCP, BACP). Knowledge of trauma-informed, attachment-based approaches, particularly DDP/PACE. Understanding of safeguarding legislation and procedures. Experience providing therapeutic support to children and young people with complex trauma histories. Experience working in residential care, CAMHS, or children's social care settings. Experience using trauma-informed, attachment-aware frameworks (e.g. DDP, PACE, Theraplay, NMT, EMDR). Experience of providing clinical or reflective supervision to practitioners working with trauma-exposed children and young people. Knowledge of relevant supervision models and ability to support development through reflective practice.

More about the service:

Barnardo's, the UK's largest Children's Charity, are currently on an exciting and innovative Journey alongside Leicestershire County Council to deliver a range of Children's homes for the most vulnerable children & young people in Leicestershire. Each home will support children & young people between 0-18 years who have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, challenging behaviour and other complex needs.

For more information about this role, please contact Karen Ciantar - karen.ciantar@barnados.org.uk

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, and Additional Information document. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.



Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.


Pay & Reward FrameworkWe know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.


For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.


Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band - this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.



Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.


Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements. Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options Service related sick pay from day 1 Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension Cycle2work scheme Interest free season ticket loans Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal 20% discount at Barnardo's stores Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's


We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values

Reference number: 21442
Location: Coalville
Locality: Leicestershire
Contract type: Permanent
Hours: 37
Salary: 43,760.27 - 50,074.79 per annum
Closing Date: 3 August 2025
Interview Date: TBC

Benefits

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Discounts at 100's of retailers
Employee suggestion scheme
Company pension
Employee Assistance Programme