Senior Counsellor

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Thank you for your interest in the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT). This is an exciting time to join us and be part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:

• Collaborate at every level by living our values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
• Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
• Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
• Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
• Ensure that research, quality improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
• Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do

We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.

The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/

As a values-driven Trust, we recruit through our values. Our selection processes focus on behaviours, attitudes, and examples that reflect our organisational values and commitment to compassionate, high-quality care.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role.

We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it's important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

Further guidance can be found in the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1.

NLPSS/North London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate action where necessary.

Applicants can refer to the Fraud Act 2006 for further information: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/contents

Job overview

Islington Talking Therapies (TT) and are expanding our counselling team. Would you like to Join us?

Islington TT are looking for a counsellor/ psychotherapist who has completed training in counselling for depression (CfD) or eligible to complete a CfD talking therapies accredited course. We are looking for a person who is caring and committed to time-limited therapy in the NHS to join our counselling team. We are a well-established team of therapists including CBT therapists and PWPs with counsellors being well integrated within the service.

If you are a counsellor your training might be psychodynamic, person centred, integrative or existential and you should be accredited with the BACP or another appropriate body (candidates who have submitted their portfolios for accreditation also accepted - state this clearly in your supporting statement). You will have excellent spoken and written communication skills. We work to a hybrid model, you will be required to work on site two days week at either Manor Gardens, as well as working remotely. As an employer we support flexible working.

Main duties of the job

Job summary:

• To provide a time-limited counselling service to Step 3 clients of the Islington Talking Therapies Service.
• To offer advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to staff from other agencies involved in providing care.
• To work to a pattern of clinical hours and in localities that support the needs of the service and local population.
• To liaise with local mental health-based services and voluntary community agencies.
• To monitor and audit evidence-based practice.
• To contribute to policy and service development within the team and the area served by the team/service.
• To work within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.

Working for our organisation

Working for your Organisation:

The partnership between Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH) and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C&I) is going from strength to strength since it was originally established in 2021 forming the North London Mental Health Partnership, and has now merged to form the North London NHS Foundation Trust in November 2024.

In order to meet the needs of the new Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that falls within the Trust. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

We are an equal opportunity employer and are keen to recruit people who reflect the diverse communities we serve.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification required for the post of Counsellor.

We will be committed to helping you continue to progress your career through a range of development and training opportunities, in addition to excellent supervision and peer support. If you are not trained in a TT approved modality (e.g. PCE-CfD, DIT, etc.) or are not a Counsellor/Psychotherapist/Counselling Psychologist you will be appointed to a band 6 post and we will support you in obtaining a place on an Talking therapies recognised modality training programme (e.g. CfD) to progress to a band 7 position

Person specification

Qualification

Essential criteria

• Accreditation with BACP/UKCP and/or HCPC as a counsellor, psychotherapist, counselling psychologist or equivalent accrediting body or eligible for such accreditation.
• Masters level training or equivalent in appropriate discipline.
• Substantial post-qualification experience of generic counselling

Desirable criteria

• Specialist IAPT training and accreditation in IAPT approved modality, e.g. DIT, IPT, Counselling for Depression

Experience

Essential criteria

• Demonstrable experience of working in mental health services
• Experience of working in Primary Care Services
• Experience of providing evidence-based psychological interventions.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in an Talking Therapies Service.

Skills & Competencies

Essential criteria

• Ability to evaluate and put in place the effect of training.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Able to develop good therapeutic relationships with clients.

Desirable criteria

• Additional training in IAPT approved approaches (e.g DIT/CBT/IPT)

Other Requirements

Essential criteria

• High level of enthusiasm and Motivation.
• Ability to work within a team and foster good working relationships
• Regard for others and respect for individual rights of autonomy and confidentiality.

Desirable criteria

• Fluent in languages other than English.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we reserve the right to close any vacancies before the stated closing date. Therefore, please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

In line with NHS protocols, only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview. We regret that it is not possible to contact all applicants for every vacancy. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume you have not been shortlisted for the next stage.

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome. Please ensure you hold the correct right to work in the UK at the time of your application. Some roles may not be eligible for sponsorship, and we want to make sure you have all the information you need before applying. To avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI guidelines: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

Please note, in order to progress your application your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers - North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of North London NHS Foundation Trust. As part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a "selfie" using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, fair, and supportive workplace for all. We actively welcome applications from individuals who are under-represented within our workforce and are dedicated to eliminating discrimination in all its forms.

As a Disability Confident (Two Ticks) employer, we guarantee an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role and are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.
Documents to download

• NLFT Band 7 Counsellor JD (PDF, 199.4KB)
• NLFT Band 7 Counsellor Person Specification (PDF, 155.0KB)
• Functional Requirements (PDF, 258.2KB)
• A comprehensive guide for candidates (PDF, 544.2KB)