Lead Creative Arts Therapist; Art or Music

Job Title – Lead Creative Arts Therapist (Art or Music)

Contract – Permanent

Hours – 35 hours per week, 5 days per week (Possibility of offering reduced hours to the right candidate)

Salary – £40,000 - £45,000 per annum depending on experience

Location – 5 days on Campus or in Camden schools (would consider 4 days)

Coram is committed to improving the lives of the UKs most vulnerable children and young people. We support children and young people from birth to independence, creating a change that lasts a lifetime. Coram is the UKs oldest childrens charity founded by Thomas Coram in London helping vulnerable children and young people since 1739. Today, the Coram group helps more than one million children, young people, families and professionals every year by providing access to the skills and opportunities they need to thrive.

Corams Creative Therapy Service offers art, music and drama therapy to children in Camden specialist schools and at our purpose-built centre on the Coram Campus. We are looking for a skilled and enthusiastic leader, supervisor and therapist to provide therapeutic interventions and lead our Camden Creative Therapy in Schools project. We provide music, art or drama therapy, both individually and in groups, to children and young people with mild mental health difficulties, and emotional and/or relational challenges in Camden schools.

This is an exciting opportunity to deliver excellence in therapeutic practice, manage a small team of creative therapists, and potentially develop projects providing creative therapies in inner London schools. As a service, we also provide therapeutic support to children who have experienced developmental trauma and are adopted or cared for by kinship carers, and there would be opportunities to provide therapy and consultation in this area, depending on skills and experience.

We align with the social model of disability and seek to support neurodivergent children and young people with disabilities to access therapy equally. We work within diverse communities and consciously challenge ourselves and our practice, seeking at all times to be inclusive and to take an anti-racist stance. We welcome applications from therapists from global majority communities. We also invite applications from therapists with disabilities and offer Access to Work support.

We are seeking an experienced, HCPC-registered Lead Creative Arts Therapist (Art or Music) to provide leadership and management of the Camden Schools project, alongside supervision and effective therapeutic practice. This role is based at our Pears Pavilion centre in Bloomsbury and in Camden schools. All childrens therapy is provided in person. The post offers a unique opportunity to work alongside skilled art, music and drama therapists, family therapists and clinical psychologists.

The service is led by a clinical psychologist and provides creative, relational and evidence-based psychotherapy approaches to children in Camden schools and to children who are referred in through our adoption and kinship referral pathway. We also collaborate with aligned services in our interventions, working with schools and communities to inform child-centred and trauma-informed practice.

This role requires a highly motivated, innovative professional and team player who enjoys working within a diverse, respectful and creative team. The post holder will receive supervision appropriate to their practising modality and will be line managed by the Head of Service. We seek to empower children and families using strengths-based narratives, providing safe therapeutic spaces that create opportunities for connection, vulnerability and the strengthening of resilience.

The successful candidate will have experience of managing and supervising therapists, delivering creative arts therapy in schools, and undertaking leadership responsibilities. A background in CAMHS and/or mental health teams in schools or social care services would be desirable, along with a good understanding of safeguarding planning and managing highly emotive situations. Experience of working with children who…