Clinical Team Lead – Children and Families Service

Hackney is seeking an experienced and dynamic Clinical Team Lead to head our newly redesigned, in-house Mental Health Service within Children and Family Services. In this pivotal role, you will manage a specialist team of therapists dedicated to supporting looked-after children, care leavers, and young people within the Youth Justice Service.

Our service includes an established Family Therapy clinic and delivers flexible, trauma-informed care to some of our most vulnerable children and families. Beyond direct clinical delivery, you will champion indirect support—providing high-quality consultation, reflective supervision, and tailored training to social workers and frontline staff across the Children and Education Directorate.

Our Practice Framework: The STAR Model

Hackney is on an ambitious journey to embed a Systemic, Trauma-informed, and Anti-Racist (STAR) practice model. We are deeply committed to anti-oppressive practice, actively centering the lived experiences of families and clinicians with marginalised identities. Our STAR framework ensures a sharp focus on ethnicity and race, while deeply attending to the intersections of sexuality, faith, neurodiversity, and other protected characteristics. We want our leadership to reflect and champion these values.

Key Responsibilities

Clinical & Operational Leadership: Provide robust management, clinical governance, and strategic direction to a multidisciplinary team consisting of two Highly Specialist Therapists, 6.6FT Specialist Therapists and one Assistant Psychologist.

Direct Clinical Intervention: Oversee and deliver evidence-based, direct psychological interventions to children and young people across the Corporate Parenting Service (including foster care, residential care, special guardianship, care leavers, and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children) and the Youth Justice Service.

Workforce Consultation & Support: Embed clinical thinking across the wider directorate by facilitating reflective spaces, offering expert consultation, and delivering clinical assessments and formulations to support frontline social work staff.

Partnerships: Maintain and develop our strong statutory partnerships with local CAMHS colleagues and NHS Trusts to ensure seamless care pathways.

About You

We are looking for a senior, registered clinician (e.g., UKCP, HCPC, BACP, or equivalent) with a proven track record of supervisory or team management experience. You will bring:

– Deep expertise in working therapeutically with highly vulnerable children, young people, and their networks from pre-birth to leaving care.

– A strong understanding of complex trauma, systemic practice, and safeguarding.

– The leadership skills necessary to lead and inspire a team, manage clinical risk safely, and evaluate service outcomes.

– A profound, demonstrable commitment to anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice.

An Enhanced DBS check is required for this role

What We Offer

In return for your expertise and dedication, Hackney offers a supportive, collaborative environment committed to your professional growth. We provide robust systemic support, including external clinical supervision for different therapeutic modalities as required, alongside excellent local authority benefits.

As a Council, our most outstanding asset is our staff, who are highly dedicated to serving our residents and committed to our goals as an organisation. 

If you want to work in a place where you can represent our values so we achieve the best for our residents, please click on the apply button below.

 

We operate a fair and open anonymous selection process. Therefore, we do not accept supporting statements or CV’s.

To proceed with your application, you will need to create an account and submit your application.

As part of the application process, you will need to complete a number of competency based questions. These questions allow you to demonstrate your suitability for the role and provide examples of your skills, knowledge and experience outlined in the job description. 

We understand the benefits of using AI in the workplace. However, if you are thinking of using this tool to submit your application, we ask you to think about what value it will add. AI tools tend to lack the personal touch and authenticity we value in candidates. We encourage you to showcase your unique knowledge and skills using your own voice.

This application process replaces a supporting statement.

Closing date for applications: 09 August 2026 (22:59)

Interview date: W/c 24 August 2026

We are also working towards our vision, which is to be a place for everyone; where residents and staff can be proud. In order to achieve this, we are seeking individuals who embody our “PROUD” values: Purpose and Respect, where we foster belonging through active inclusion, kindness, and open dialogue; Ownership, where we champion proactive collaboration and accountability for our shared success; and Unity and Diversity, where we work as one Council to break down silos and champion anti-racist behavior. 

Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We also recognise that people can be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will also work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class. We also welcome those interested in flexible working. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people, as this group is currently under represented in our workforce.

The Council has a dedicated employment support service (Hackney Works), which offers Hackney residents guidance in relation to applying for jobs. If you are thinking about applying for a job, please contact the Hackney Works team to find out what support is available: hackneyworks@hackney.gov.uk

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