TESS Therapeutic Senior Social Worker

Birmingham Children's Trust THERAPEUTIC & EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SERVICE (TESS) TESS Therapeutic Senior Social Worker

Full-time posts s

GRADE D

TESS is Birmingham Children's Trust's emotional wellbeing and therapeutic service for children in care, care experienced young adults (up to age 25), unaccompanied asylum‑seeking young people, and their parents and carers. Our work spans assessment; a wide range of individual, dyadic and group interventions; consultation; and care‑network support.

The Early Support pathway within TESS provides timely, short‑term therapeutic intervention and early relational support aimed at strengthening placements, stabilising care responses, and supporting the emotional needs of children and young people at the earliest possible point.

This part of the service is fast‑paced, creative and highly relational. Practitioners offer:

• Short‑term, focused therapeutic work for children and young people
• Early relational support to parents, carers, and residential teams
• Consultation and guidance to the broader network around the child
• Advice on care responses, emotional regulation and trauma‑informed practice
• Collaborative early formulation to guide planning, stabilisation and future intervention
• Flexible and brief interventions designed to reduce escalation and promote placement stability

This is a unique opportunity to apply therapeutic social work skills in an early‑help, preventative model, ensuring that emotional needs are recognised and responded to early, effectively and compassionately.

We are seeking a skilled, compassionate Therapeutic Social Worker to join the Early Support pathway within TESS. This role combines direct therapeutic work with parents/carers and children, short‑term interventions with young people, and trauma‑informed consultation to the professional and care network.

If you are passionate about relational practice, early help, and trauma‑informed support, and you want to grow your therapeutic practice while remaining closely connected to frontline work, this role offers both challenge and reward.

• Deliver high‑quality, trauma‑informed, attachment‑focused interventions
• Provide early and brief therapeutic support to children, young people, parents, carers and residential staff
• Offer consultation, advice and emotional support to the care network
• Contribute to therapeutic assessments, early formulations and care planning
• Use creative engagement approaches including play‑based, relational, and non‑traditional methods
• Support emotional regulation, resilience and stabilisation
• Work collaboratively across multi‑agency networks—including social care, health, education and residential services

• Have experience supporting children and young people in care
• Bring (or wish to develop) therapeutic skills grounded in trauma‑informed, attachment‑based and relational approaches
• Feel confident working with emotional complexity, risk and uncertainty
• Value creativity, collaboration and reflective practice
• Can build strong, trusting relationships with young people, carers and professionals
• Are passionate about early support, short‑term intervention, and consultative practice
• Are motivated by evidence‑based practice and ongoing learning

We welcome applicants who bring curiosity, compassion, reflective capacity, and a commitment to developing their therapeutic practice.

Post holders will join a well‑established, friendly and highly regarded multidisciplinary team, including clinical psychology, systemic family therapy, play and art therapy, and other therapeutic social workers trained in a range of therapeutic approaches (e.g. DDP, CBT, DBT, Foundations for Attachment).

• Protected time for direct therapeutic work
• Access to training and CPD across established therapeutic models
• Regular individual and group supervision
• Strong staff wellbeing and reflective practice culture
• Leadership that values innovation, creativity and practitioner development
• A collaborative team ethos grounded in trauma‑informed relational practice

This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a unique, values‑led service where creativity is encouraged…