Senior Creative Arts Therapist

NHS Jobs

Stoke-on-Trent, UK

Full time

£47,810 - £54,710 per year

Job summary

Senior Creative Arts Therapist - 22.5 hours per week - Permanent

Do you understand the clinical needs of young people with mental health problems?

Do you bring passion and commitment to delivering high quality care?

We are looking for an Senior Creative Arts Therapist to join our Tier 4 GAU unit in Stoke on Trent.

This role will provide an exciting career opportunity supporting the assessment and recovery of young people within a highly specialist inpatient CAMHS setting. You will be expected to have excellent team working and groupwork skills, and an ability to deliver individual and group interventions within an inpatient environment.

You will deliver high-quality, evidence-based assessment, formulation and intervention within the inpatient service. This will include the delivery of specialist individual, group and systemic intervention, as well as providing consultation, interventions and training for carers and staff.

In addition to shaping and delivering direct assessment, formulation and intervention, you will contribute to wider service development and pathways, including training, consultation, reflective practice and staff wellbeing.

We welcome applicants from all modalities of creative arts therapies, including art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy, and related disciplines.

Main duties of the job

As a senior member of the MDT, the post holder will play a key role in delivering psychotherapeutic interventions that support the psychosocial assessment, wellbeing and recovery of young people admitted to the Darwin Centre.

The Darwin Centres is a 14 bedded tier 4 General Adolescent Unit (GAU) service based in Stoke on Trent. The service provided inpatient assessment and treatment for children and young people up to the age of 18 who are experiencing acute distress or risk associated with a confirmed or suspected mental health disorder, eating disorder or disordered eating. The service also supports young people who have neurodiverse needs and mild learning disabilities.

Post holder will be responsible for providing a Creative Arts Therapy service, structured in terms of referral, assessment, formulation of a psychotherapy intervention, treatment, review and discharge. (This may be art therapy, music therapy or other modality).

Deliver Creative Arts Therapy in a dynamic manner, being flexible dependent on the needs of services users, on both a one to one and group basis. There is also the potential to work with carers & families.

Within the accountability above, the postholder is responsible for supporting and driving any Creative Art Therapy service developments and policies.

Within the accountability above, the postholder may be given the responsibility for the clinical supervision of trainee creative psychotherapists or other junior members of the MDT.

About us

As a Trust we remain bold and ambitious with plans for both service and system collaborative transformation over the coming years to improve the health and wellbeing of our local people through high quality care.

We pride ourselves onensuring our team has their wellbeing put first and as such provide a range of wellness opportunities including flexible working.

We are committed to the Greener NHS national ambition to becoming the world's first 'carbon net zero' national health system by 2045 (Greener NHS (england.nhs.uk). As part of this, sustainability is embedded in our strategy as one of our four key enablers. In order to deliver on this commitment, we recognise that we need a workforce that is as passionate as we are about achieving these goals, for the benefit of our service users, workforce, local communities and the planet alike. For 2024/2025, we have launched our "Proud to be Green" engagement campaign which is aligned to the targets set out in our Green Plan. As a Trust, you can be assured that we will commit to supporting you in working towards our net zero ambitions, set out in our Green Plan, through our sustainability programme".

The Trust is committed to ensuring that a diverse workforce is representative and inclusive at all levels. We would very much welcome applications from all under-represented groups including women, people with disabilities, people from global majority backgrounds, and those from the lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities.

Details

Date posted

08 October 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£47,810 to £54,710 a year per annum pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

232-SPL-7498467

Job locations

The Darwin Centre

Stoke-on-Trent

ST4 7LF

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical

To be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload under the supervision of service lead and to exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the planning andprioritising of own workload.

To ensure clinically effective creative psychotherapy practice through assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of clinical work carried out by self.

To provide one to one and group sessions for inpatients on the Darwin Centre, or other clinical areas, as required.

To undertake specialist risk assessment for children and young people experiencing psychological distress, utilising a highlevel of knowledge and experience and adapting approaches as appropriate, with regard to evidence based practice.

To independently and autonomously critically analyse, compare and contrast a number ofoptions on a wide range of issues; relating to support of young people with a wide range of mental health conditions, including individual and group work approaches.

To use analytical and judgment skills and be responsible for taking clinical managementdecisions in complex clinical issues in consultation with the inpatient MDT.

To identify the support needs of carers / parents in relation to mental health conditions and referon to appropriate agencies for advice or support.

To work collaboratively with the service lead to implement local and national policies andchanges to practice and to ensure Clinical Governance targets are implemented and met

To follow systems throughout the service to ensure quality and clinically effective practicethrough assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, audit and evaluation of clinicalwork carried out by self and team members

To ensure accurate and contemporaneous manual and electronic records in all aspects ofcare provision are maintained to promote continuity and partnership, in line with North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare (NSCHT) Policies and Health and Care Professionals Council (HPCP) recordkeeping guidelines.

To have a working knowledge of Children Protection Policy and Procedures to ensure thatchildren and young people at risk of abuse are identified and strategies implemented to safeguard them.

To work with the service leads to ensure that resources and skills are used effectively and appropriately to meet the needs of young people and their carers/families, therebyhelping to identify any gaps in service provision and work with the Team Leadersto respond accordingly

To work within the ethical framework of the HCPC standards of conduct, performance andethics.

To ensure that all materials used in Therapy sessions and clean and well maintained and Trust Infection Control Policy is followed.