Therapeutic & Emotional Support Service; TESS Senior Practitioner

Birmingham Children’s Trust’s TESS (Therapeutic Emotional Support Service) is an emotional wellbeing service offering assessment and a wide range of interventions to children in care, their parents and carers, unaccompanied asylum‑seeking children, and care‑experienced young adults up to the age of 25. TESS also consults and supports the professional and care network.

Our work is relationship‑based, trauma‑informed and attachment‑focused, supporting young people with complex emotional needs. We deliver creative, flexible therapeutic interventions and work closely with social care, residential services, health and education partners to build emotionally safe and stable care environments.

We are seeking an experienced and skilled Senior Practitioner to join our service. This therapeutic post carries additional leadership and development responsibilities, with a focus on service delivery for children and young people up to the age of 18.

In this role you will hold a complex therapeutic caseload while also providing practice leadership, supporting team development, contributing to service improvement projects, and offering supervision to our outreach workers.

• Deliver high‑quality, trauma‑informed and attachment‑focused therapeutic interventions with children and young people in care
• Use creative and flexible approaches to engagement, including relational, play‑based and non‑traditional methods
• Contribute to therapeutic assessments, formulations and care planning
• Work directly with carers and professionals to strengthen the care network around children and young people

Post holders will join a friendly, supportive, highly regarded multidisciplinary team of clinical psychologists, systemic family therapists, play and art therapists, and social workers trained in a variety of models (DDP, CBT, DBT, etc.). A wide range of approaches are utilised to best meet the needs of our care‑experienced clients, and innovative and creative work is encouraged.

• Experience working therapeutically with children and young people who have experienced trauma, loss and attachment disruption
• Grounding in trauma‑informed, attachment‑focused and relational approaches
• Experience working with children and young people in care and their carers
• Confidence managing complexity and risk within a social care context
• Emerging leadership skills and a desire to support and develop others
• Ability to balance direct therapeutic work with wider service responsibilities
• Value for collaboration, creativity and reflective practice

This is a great opportunity to join a developing specialist therapeutic team with space for creativity, innovation and reflective leadership. You will shape emerging areas of TESS, including supporting transitions from residential to foster care, delivering short‑term interventions to stabilise placements and offering focused consultation to care networks.

We will provide you with access to training, regular professional supervision and ongoing support.

In order to be considered for this role please include a supporting statement demonstrating how you meet the competencies required as outlined in the attached person specification.

We have been rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted following a 2023 inspection, an achievement that showcases our commitment to quality leadership, partnership working and safeguarding.

This is a hybrid role based in Birmingham. You must reside within a suitable commutable distance around Birmingham and have the correct right‑to‑work documents. Sponsorship is not supported.

The interviews for this role are planned for 16th March.

• Impactful work – make a real difference in the lives of the city’s most vulnerable children.
• Supportive environment – enjoy a collaborative culture where your contributions are valued.
• Career development – benefit from tailored development programs, supportive supervision and a range of learning opportunities.
• Generous benefits – competitive reward package, generous leave allowance, Local Government pension scheme and additional benefits.

We approach our work with care and compassion, actively listening to the…