Job Description

Family Wellbeing Service
Wellbeing Practitioner - Art Therapist
We are seeking a qualified and experienced Art Therapist to join our dedicated Family Wellbeing Service team. This is a fantastic opportunity for a highly motivated individual trained in Art Therapy. As a Wellbeing Practitioner, you will play a key role in delivering specialist therapeutic support to families across Cardiff. You will contribute to the development and delivery of an innovative service that aligns with Cardiff's strategic vision for family support.
Barnardo's is committed to becoming a trauma-responsive organisation, and these principles are embedded across all of our services.
What is the Family Wellbeing Service?
The Family Wellbeing Service (FWBS) is Welsh Government funded, operating within the Families First strategy, the service is part of the 'Early Help' offer in Cardiff. You will be part of the team providing therapeutic support to parents/carers, children and young people with an identified need for intensive support in relation to their emotional, mental health and wellbeing.
Aim of the Service
The aim of the service is to improve the emotional health, wellbeing and resilience of the family, and to support the development of effective strategies enabling them to better cope with problems/stresses and difficulties they may face. We provide targeted, appropriate evidence-based interventions for families and individuals within families, who need significant support in relation to their emotional and mental health and wellbeing, building resilience and supporting safe family functioning. The FWBS comprises of a number of elements inclusive of:

• Access to counselling for parents/carers with low level mental health needs.
• Access to one-to-one support, therapy, Play/ Art / Drama therapy or counselling for children and young people.
• Interventions which help families to address issues around whole family functioning, including support for families who are particularly affected by bereavement, trauma and loss, including family breakdown.

What does the role involve?
As a Wellbeing Practitioner - Art Therapist, you will work as part of the team undertaking assessments and delivering professional therapeutic services to children and young people and adults on a 1:1 or a group basis, practicing ethically in line with your regulatory body Code of Ethics and Practice and Barnardo's policies and procedures. You will contribute to the work of the Family Well-Being Service as a resource for provision of consultation, information and support.
You will have:

• A professional qualification in Art Therapy.
• Registration with relevant professional body, i.e. BAAT, BACP accreditation and registration or UKCP equivalent.
• Experience planning and undertaking complex clinical interventions and evaluating therapeutic interventions.
• Knowledge, understanding and experience of safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults.
• Experience of working as part of a multi disciplinary team.
• Experience of undertaking assessments, including risk assessments.
• Experience of working cooperatively with a range of agencies.
• Experience of advising and developing pathways necessary to enable sustainable long term improvements of the individual.

Additional Information:
Within Barnardo's the job title for this role Project Worker 2, this will appear on the job description. This role will initially be until 31-03-2026 however this could be extended subject to funding
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.
Please include as much relevant detail in your application to demonstrate how you fulfil the requirements of our Family Wellbeing job role, as outlined above and in the /Personal Specification. Experience can be from previous employment, education, training, volunteering etc.
Need any further information?
If you require any further information about this opportunity, please contact Hayley Smith on 029 2057 7074.
Although this contract has a permanent status, please be aware that this post is subject to funding currently until March 2026 and therefore should this funding not be extended further, you may be subject to a redundancy consultation or a TUPE arrangement. This contract is due to expire on 31.03.26
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 Framework
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's . 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 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.