Children Therapeutic Practitioner (Devon)

FearFree delivers services across the Southwest for victims, children and perpetrators of domestic abuse, sexual violence and stalking with the aim to break the cycle of abuse and support all to live free from fear. We provide trauma responsive support, and this post will be fundamental to ensuring service users, stakeholders and partners experience this in our daily delivery.  

This exciting post will be working with children who have experienced or been affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence. Focusing on standard and medium risk cases, this role will provide practical and emotional support to children and young people, whilst working proactively with other professionals, with an emphasis on early intervention and awareness raising.   

FearFree is committed to flexible and hybrid working and this role will be a mix of home based and office based, alongside requiring travel for multi-agency meetings and other deliverables. 

This role may include evening and weekend work when required.

Key Responsibilities 

• Manage a caseload of low to high risk children and young people, predominantly through face to face appointments but also utilising virtual technologies and group work.  

• Plan, recruit and deliver group work interventions for children and young people alongside colleagues. 

• Complete an initial assessment of the child’s needs so that you can identify and plan the support needed to address issues and prevent any problems from escalating. 

• Assess the needs of the child and devise appropriate support and safety plans with due regard to the dynamic nature of risk. 

• Proactively engage with children and young people affected by DA/SV by providing therapeutic sessions tailed to their needs in where they are in their recovery journey. 

• Risk assess and follow FearFree safety procedures to ensure personal safety and that of service users and other staff at all times. 

• Actively support carers and parents in how to support their CYP affected by trauma. This may include working together to ensure the child is support at every stage in their recovery journey. 

• Respond to emergencies and crises with a focus on the child’s wellbeing and safeguarding. 

• Provide child-centred, trauma responsive support to all your cases taking in considering different learning needs, to empower the young person to make informed choices. 

• Enable service users to participate in the design, delivery and evaluation of services. 

• Keeping the child’s voice central to all support and decision making wherever possible: taking the time to talk through and work with the individual child’s understanding around safeguarding and why we need to share certain things. 

• Act as duty officer, responding to incoming calls, logging referrals and making assigned outgoing calls, according to the duty rota.  

• Work effectively within a multi-agency framework, consisting of the MARAC and local partnership responses to domestic abuse and sexual violence, in order to reduce the risk for service users and their families.  

• Be proactive with your line manager to carry out periodic case reviews. 

• Respect and value the diversity of the community in which the services work in, and recognise the needs and concerns of a diverse range of survivors ensuring the service is accessible to all. 

General 

• Live and embody the FearFree values.  

• To promote the service to external agencies where applicable.   

• Give information and support to service users regarding their other needs and refer them to other support services as required.  

• Ensure our service is widely accessible – adapting practice as required to suit individuals.  

• Work across a large geographical area to ensure locality is not a barrier to accessing services. 

• Deliver training and information sessions to promote our service, and increase awareness and understanding of domestic abuse, sexual violence and stalking for victims and those who harm. 

• Have a responsibility around safeguarding of both adults and children, maintaining knowledge of appropriate policies and procedures and integrated working. 

• Support other agencies in the identification and referral of domestic abuse, sexual violence and stalking issues via promotion of service and institutional advocacy. 

• Ensure all referrals are clearly logged on our database and all case records are kept fully updated, according to FearFree policies and procedures. 

• Engage with case management supervision, reflective practice and clinical supervision as required, taking an active role in managing own wellbeing and supporting the wellbeing of your colleagues. 

• Support colleagues in all services across FearFree as required. 

• Support the sustainability of the organization by participating in fundraising activities and sharing ideas and contacts for income generation. 

• To engage in and contribute to effective team working with a flexible and pro-active approach, including cover for other team members’ holidays and sickness. 

• Undertake all statutory and mandatory training, as required by the organisation.  

To apply, please download the full job description/person specification along with the application and equality monitoring forms. Please send the completed application form and optional equality monitoring form direct to FearFree. 

There is no specific closing date for this role and this vacancy will close once a suitable candidate is found, so early applications are encouraged. 

For information about the processing of your personal data at FearFree, please visit our website. 

FearFree is committed to encouraging equality and diversity in the workplace.  We strive to be a diverse and inclusive place to work where we can all be ourselves and individual differences are recognised and valued.