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Job Title: Family Therapist - Building Bridges - Reunification and Staying Together Teams
Starting Salary: £38,220 progressing to £41,771 per annum - pay award pending
Hours: 37 (part time or compressed hours considered)
Base Location: x1 East - Stevenage / x1 West - Hemel Hempstead
Contract Type: Permanent
Directorate: Children's Services

About the team

We are seeking a Child Therapist or Systemic Family Therapist (qualified or in training) to join our new multi‑disciplinary Building Bridges Service. The service works intensively with families facing acute and complex difficulties to prevent care entry where possible and to support the safe reunification of children returning home from care.

The successful applicant will be confident working in contexts of risk, conflict, and family distress. You will work with children and young people aged 10–18, and/or their families, where there is significant risk due to trauma, family breakdown, exploitation, or severe mental health needs. The role sits within a psychologically and trauma‑informed, multi‑agency model, and is based upon the Family Safeguarding model.

About the role

Key Responsibilities

• Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to support the service in assessing and formulating plans for children and families with complex, intersecting needs.
• Deliver trauma‑informed therapeutic assessment and intervention with children, young people and/or families.
• Contribute to dynamic risk assessment and safety planning in complex, high-risk situations
• Develop formulations and intervention plans and review these as needs change.
• Provide time‑limited, intensive interventions in home and community settings. Interventions will be in line with your training and experience (mentalisation based, CBT, systemic family therapy etc).
• Contribute to formulation meetings, planning meetings, and court processes where required.
• Work collaboratively with professionals across social care, health, education and partner agencies.
• Contribute to service development
• Adapting interventions for communication, sensory, and processing differences, utilising the support of our Neurodiversity Specialist Worker as needed.
• Clinical and leadership responsibilities will be proportionate to qualification, experience, and stage of training.
• Non-clinical staff within the team utilise ARC, NVR, AMBIT, TLSW and Motivational Interviewing. Post holders will either need to be trained, or willing to undertake training provided in these approaches.

About you

Essential:

• Core professional qualification in a relevant field (e.g. psychology, psychotherapy, counselling, social work, nursing, or allied mental health profession).
• Registration with an appropriate professional body (e.g. HCPC, UKCP, BACP, BABCP, Social Work England).
• Experience of therapeutic work with children, young people and/or families with complex needs.
• Experience of safeguarding and multi‑agency working.
• One of the following:
  • Postgraduate qualification in Counselling or Psychotherapy or equivalent therapeutic training,
    or
  • Postgraduate qualification in Systemic Psychotherapy/ Family Therapy (AFT‑accredited or eligible), or currently undertaking recognised systemic family therapy training.
• Occasional evening working required.

This is a rewarding opportunity to work intensively and relationally with vulnerable children and families within an innovative, trauma‑informed service. We welcome applications from qualified therapists and therapists in training who are motivated to contribute to reunification, stability, and long‑term outcomes for families.

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is Level 10. Please locate the job profile here: Job profiles - Health and social care

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Deborah Sheppard (deborah.sheppard@hertfordshire.gov.uk) or Emma Frusciante Emma.Frusciante@hertfordshire.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the rol

Interview Date: 19th August 2026

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

We are changing
Hertfordshire County Councilis undergoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). If you are employed by Hertfordshire County on 1 April 2028, it is expected that most roles will transfer to the newly-created unitary councils on existing terms and conditions under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) principles.

LGR is one of the biggest changes we will face in a generation. It will reshape how we work and how services are organised and gives us a real opportunity to build something better. To find out more, visit https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.