About this role
Job summary
Permanent
Full Time 37 hours per week
Are you ready to lead a new era of therapeutic practice for children and young people?Devons Wellbeing Service is transforming how we support children and families. Were looking for an experienced Clinical Lead to join us on this journey someone who can combine clinical expertise with visionary leadership to make a real difference.
This is an opportunity to shape a service that is restorative, relational, and trauma-informed, working alongside a passionate multi-disciplinary team. Youll lead clinical practice across Devon, ensuring that children and young people receive the right support at the right time whether theyre on the edge of care, returning home, in care, or leaving care.
For an informal discussion, contact Rebecca Bennett, Service Operational Lead, [email protected]
Apply now and be part of something transformative.
How to applyPlease ensure when completing your application form that you provide a supporting statement which demonstrates how you meet the essential and desirable criteria as described in the person specification of the job description. Applications may not be taken forwards if the supporting statement is not adequately completed.
Internal Applicants, please note: If you are an existing DCC employee, please use your iTrent Employee Self Service (ESS) details to log in and apply.
Please click Apply Now to view the job description and person specification.
Main duties of the job What makes this role exciting?
Youll be at the forefront of a new way of working, embedding psychologically informed approaches and creative therapeutic interventions. Youll influence service design and development, ensuring that children and families are partners in shaping their own futures. Youll lead and inspire clinicians and practitioners, fostering a culture of curiosity, compassion, and continuous learning.
What were looking for: A qualified psychotherapist or clinician registered with UKCP, BACP, BABCP, HCPC, NMC or equivalent. Expertise in trauma recovery, attachment theory, and evidence-based therapeutic approaches. Experience of clinical leadership and supervision within multi-disciplinary settings. A commitment to relational practice and improving outcomes for children and young people.
About us Why join us?
Youll be part of a service that values innovation without losing sight of what works. For those already in the organisation, this is an opportunity to deepen your impact and grow your leadership in a supportive environment. For those joining us, its a chance to bring fresh ideas and help shape a service that is ambitious for children and families.
Together, well create a culture where every child feels safe, understood, and supported to thrive.
Job description Job responsibilities
Job Purpose
We want to improve outcomes for children and young people in Devon, especially for thosewho have experienced trauma and harm. The Clinical Lead provides clinical leadership and support to the Wellbeing Service Operational Lead in ensuring the right children get the rightkind of support at the right time, within Devons Wellbeing Service. The approach is rootedin our restorative and relational practice framework and is aligned with the strategicobjectives of the Growing Futures and Families First programmes. The aim is to transformand improve the experiences of children in care, while enabling more children to live safelywithin their families and communities whenever possible.
The Clinical Lead is responsible for the delivery and quality of clinical practice across Devon,providing clinical and managerial leadership, building relationships and overseeingtherapeutic practice quality.
The post holder will provide clinical and transformational leadership to a multi-disciplinarytherapeutic service that helps children recover from trauma and harmful experiences.
Theservice provides wrap around support for children on the edge of care, returning home, incare, or leaving our care. It consists of skilled relational practitioners and clinicians whoprovide support, assessments and therapeutic interventions to children and their networks.
The service offers a graduated and timely response to children with emerging and complexneeds, to improve their emotional and mental health, family relationships, and the quality ofcare they receive.
You will support the Wellbeing Service Operational Lead to create a culture of highstandards and expectations for children, achieve measurable outcomes and demonstrateimprovements and cost effectiveness across the following performance indicators;
Improved stability for children in care.
Prevent entry to care, and increase the number of children returning home quickly afterentry to care.
Increase the number of children returning to live in their family network where its safe and the right place for them to be.
Increase the number of children and young people who access timely interventions topromote recovery from trauma.
Increase the number of children who receive timely therapeutic life story work.
Increase the confidence of foster carers, and childrens home support staff, to supportand care for children and young people who face complex challenges and improve carerretention rates.
Increase the number of young people who leave care with family connections and lifelong links.
Improve feedback from children, young people and our Stand Up Speak up councilabout their experiences of care and support.
You will also provide expert clinical guidance to service and the wider organisation tosupport appropriate prioritisation of need and ensure that therapeutic provisions areappropriate, meet needs, and make a measurable difference to outcomes for children, youngpeople, their families and carers.
Main duties and responsibilities
Within this role the post holder will
Support the Wellbeing Service Operational Lead by playing a lead role in service designand development, placing restorative and relational practice at the core of decision making.
Provide high quality line management and supervision to clinical staff, includingprofessional development and performance management.
Lead a culture of trauma and psychologically informed practice, which develops capacity within the directorate to support children therapeutically.
Work with children, young people and families to ensure their involvement in servicedesign and delivery, treating them as partners in finding solutions.
Develop the use of formulation as a shared approach and language to createconsistency for children in the help they receive over time.
Lead and model a culture where creative, person centred and holistic approaches totherapeutic support flourish.
Provide clinical advice to the Growing Futures programme that supports thedevelopment of high-quality therapeutic schools and care provision for children.
Support practitioners to provide advice and support for young people who are indistress, have unstable social circumstances, or where there are safeguardingconcerns. Work alongside front-line teams and partners to effectively to hold risk, in acontext of safe uncertainty.
To ensure that clinical interventions are timely and purposeful, planning is individual tothe needs of each child or young person and that the voice of children and young peopleis accurately represented and considered. To be vigilant to the need to work inpartnership with parents wherever possible and support their ownership of their familysrecovery.
To provide psychotherapeutic therapies, developing specialist formulations andassessments of young people and their family, formulating plans for their treatment andimplementing specialist interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, based on evidenced based approaches.
Improve access for children and care experienced young people to existing mentalhealth provisions by developing close working relationships with key partners, especiallyChild and Family Health Devon, Devon Partnership Trust, and the voluntary andcommunity sector. Take a proactive approach to problem resolution in a culture ofcontinuous shared learning.
Develop systematic methods for the early identification of post-traumatic stress, anxiety,depression, and speech and language difficulties, using existing tools, valuing careprofiles, and by introducing new evidence-based methods.
Lead clinical prioritisation and ensure children and carers in scope are offered earlyintervention to support their long-term mental health and wellbeing. Plan and organisethe work of the clinical services within the Wellbeing Service to best meet theorganisations strategy and priorities.
Develop a whole service culture that understands the impact of neurodiversity and howto integrate this within assessment and interventions.
Communicate in an effective, highly skilled and sensitive manner with young people andtheir families, who may have specific difficulties in understanding and/or communicatingand who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotional.
Actively develop good working relationships with senior professional staff and managersacross Childrens Services to promote the service and ensure the service aligns with theneeds of front-line teams.
Take responsibility for ensuring that clinical practitioners are accessing up-to-dateresearch knowledge of clinical practice as it relates to practice within the service area
Undertake the role flexibly across different parts of the service as directed by theWellbeing Service Operational Lead and deputise for the Wellbeing Service OperationalLead as requested.
Provide advice and guidance to Managers across the service when teams or individualsacross the service have experienced significant vicarious trauma.
Have oversight of clinical supervision arrangements, including support to in-houseresidential provision.
Contribute to the quality assurance framework for the service and help evaluate andmonitor the service delivered. To use the findings from the quality assurance frameworkto drive continuous practice improvement. To contribute to service improvement acrossthe directorate including the analysis of data.
This document outlines the duties for the time being to indicate the level of responsibility. It isnot a comprehensive or exclusive list, and the duties may be varied from time to time whichdo not change the general character to the job or the level of responsibility entailed.
Person Specification
Experience Essential
Experience of working with children with trauma histories, attachment insecurity and emotional/ behavioural difficulties. Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for childrens therapeutic care and treatment in a multi-disciplinary setting. Experience of clinical supervision. Good understanding of attachment theory and trauma recovery approaches and using knowledge to support improved psychological wellbeing. Experience of leadership within a multi-disciplinary team. Understanding of a restorative and relational strengths based approach to practice and planning.
Desirable
Experience of working within or with childrens services where there are safeguarding concerns for vulnerable adolescents and their families. Experience of working with adults with mental health difficulties Experience of writing assessments for Court Knowledge of structures and operations of Local Authority Childrens Services. Experienced of training and staff development Qualified knowledge and experience of the Non Violent Resistance parenting approach Qualified knowledge and experience of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Experience and understanding of multi systemic approaches to working with families where there is risk of children entering care.
Qualifications Essential
Therapeutic qualification providing registration with one of the following registering bodies - United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) British Association of Counsellors & Psychotherapists (BACP) British Association of Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapists (BABCP) Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) as a mental health nurse Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a practitioner psychologist or art/occupational therapists
Desirable
Additional training in one or more specialised areas of psychological practice.
Management of People Essential
Track record of providing high quality supervision and line management of clinical staff from a range of different backgrounds
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details Employer name Devon County Council
Address Devon County Council
County Hall
Topsham Road
EXETER
Devon
EX2 4QD
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.devon.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)