Make a Real Difference in a Child's Life
At Barnardo's, we believe in children – no matter who they are or what they've been through. We work to build stronger families, safer childhoods, and positive futures.
Barnardo's is the largest Children's Charity in the country and we know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. That is why we recruit outstanding people who share our commitment to deliver excellent services to children and young people.
Does that sound like you?
Do you have significant experience of working as a therapist in a trauma informed and responsive way?
Do you have experience of working with children and young people who have complex emotional health and wellbeing needs?
The Mental Health & Trauma Services Platform – North Region delivers a range of services which support the emotional health needs of children, young people and families. We support children and young people through therapeutic work. All our services use a suite of evidenced based Outcome Tools to show individual progress of service users. The Child Outcome Rating Scale, Session Rating Scale and Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire form the basis of these tools. These sit within the Barnardo's CSSO framework of practice – see attached document. Training will be given on the CSSO Framework.
What you'll be doing as a therapist in our Foster Well and Moving on 2gether services and locality:
- You will be part of a locality of services that work with children who are cared for in foster placements. The Foster Well service provides specialist therapeutic interventions for children and carers who are in Barnardo's placements and the other 2 services in the locality provide support for children and carers who are in local authority placements.
- You will be providing therapeutic interventions for children and young people who are cared for in foster placements.
- You will be providing pyscho-educative and therapeutic support for carers of children and young people in foster placements
- You will carry out assessments and training
- You will attend multi-agency meetings and represent Barnardo's externally
- You will maintain high quality recording of all case work and reports for reviews, panels, courts and Local authorities when required.
- You will be promoting safeguarding at every step and responding to child protection concerns.
- You will be travelling to deliver the interventions where the children, young people and carers are located throughout the North West region.
Successful candidates must:
- Hold a diploma level qualification in counselling, child and adolescent psychotherapy, art, play, drama or music therapy with a minimum of 3 years post qualifying experience of working as a therapist in a challenging emotional wellbeing and mental health service with high referral rates.
- Be accredited with an approved professional body ie. BACP or equivalent.
- Demonstrate experience of working collaboratively with social care professionals.
- Have relevant knowledge and/or experience of relevant fostering legislation and child protection procedures
- Have a knowledge of child and adolescent development and the role of the family in supporting children and young people's emotional well-being.
- Have comprehensive understanding of children's safeguarding.
- Have case management experience and a clear understanding of the requirement for professional and accurate case notes.
- It would be beneficial to have access to a car due to the regular travel required in this role.
Additional Information:
You must demonstrate in your application that you currently use the skills outlined above, and in the Job Description/Person Specifications, or have used them previously in employment, education, training, volunteering etc. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.
Need more information?
If you require any further information about these opportunities, please contact Elizabeth Phillips on 07759 118185 or via email - elizabeth.phillips@barnardos.org.uk
Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible
We appreciate our colleagues' dedication and their commitment to delivering excellence in the vital work we do, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
We are committed to a rounded colleague experience with an approach to both pay and rewards that are fair, attractive, and progressive. This is in support of our strategic ambition to ensure Barnardo's is a place everyone can belong, grow and thrive.
The salary range advertised is in line with our pay principles, for consistency and fairness while recognising the skills and experience applicants bring to the role. Appointing salaries can be discussed further at appointment stage; we do seek to appoint within this range always exercising responsible stewardship.
Workplace Offer: What it means for you
Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.
Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)
- Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
- Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
- The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
- A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
- Service related sick pay from day 1
- Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
- Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
- Cycle2work scheme
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
- 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
- Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
- Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
- Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer
*T&C's apply based on contract
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.
- Reference number:23848
- Job Title:Therapist
- Location:Runcorn
- Locality:Mental Health & Trauma Platform
- Contract type:Permanent
- Hours:37
- Salary:£36,276
- Closing Date:25 October 2026
- Interview Date:TBC



