Berkshire expands family and systemic psychotherapy leadership across its mental health services
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting a Consultant Family and Systemic Psychotherapist for a part-time permanent post based in Reading, with work extending across sites in Berkshire. The role sits at the intersection of specialist clinical care, supervision, consultation and strategic service development, with an explicit emphasis on children and young people’s mental health alongside broader mental health, learning disability and physical health services.
The appointment is set at three days a week, or 0.6 whole-time equivalent, and carries a salary of £81,774 to £93,879 per annum pro rata, inclusive of high cost area supplement. The post is positioned as a senior leadership function rather than a narrow outpatient role. Clinical practice remains central, but the expectations extend well beyond individual therapy sessions into workforce development, governance and system-wide psychological care pathways.
The trust is looking for a clinician who can move comfortably between the consulting room and the board-level conversation.
A senior post built around children, families and system-wide care
Family and systemic psychotherapy is especially relevant where distress does not sit neatly inside one person’s diagnosis. In mental health services, problems often spill across relationships, caregiving dynamics, school pressures, safeguarding concerns and wider service interfaces. A consultant in this field is expected to understand those pressures clinically and translate them into practical interventions, supervision structures and better coordinated care.
The post calls for a background in NHS mental health services, with experience of working with children and young people described as essential. Although CAMHS is preferred, other specialist backgrounds may still be considered if the candidate can demonstrate the required level of expertise. That flexibility suggests the trust wants a senior systems thinker who can apply family therapy principles across multiple clinical settings, not only within one service silo.
The remit includes providing supervision, consultation and training across services. It also includes maintaining a specialist clinical role and working where expertise is needed across the trust. In practical terms, this kind of post often becomes a pressure point for service quality: when family therapists are well supervised and integrated into wider multidisciplinary teams, assessments tend to be more coherent, interventions more coordinated and staff less isolated in complex cases.
Governance, supervision and workforce development sit at the core
The leadership brief is unusually explicit. The consultant will oversee systemic and family therapy provision, ensure qualified and trainee family therapists receive high-quality supervision, and contribute to clinical governance across services. Working alongside Consultant Psychologists and Heads of Service, the post holder will shape workforce development and influence psychological care pathways.
This is not administrative language for its own sake. In mental health services, governance frameworks determine whether therapy pathways are consistent, safe and measurable. Supervision structures determine whether clinicians can manage risk, reflect on family dynamics and stay aligned with service standards. Training and consultation determine whether systemic thinking reaches beyond a small specialist team and becomes part of everyday care.
A one-line reality stands out: this post is designed to influence how care is delivered, not just who delivers it.
The trust is also seeking evidence of extensive clinical experience, a track record of successful clinical and professional leadership, and the ability to develop effective interpersonal networks. Those requirements point to a role that will require negotiation across professional groups, service boundaries and external agencies. Family and systemic psychotherapy often depends on precisely that kind of collaboration, especially when a young person’s care spans mental health teams, schools, community services and family members with different priorities.
Qualifications, registration and the standard expected of applicants
The essential criteria are tightly specified. Candidates need a bachelor’s degree graded at 2:2 or above, or a graduate qualification in a relevant mental health or social care discipline, or an equivalent professional route such as registered mental health nurse, occupational therapist or social worker registration. They also need a postgraduate qualification, MSc or equivalent, in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy accredited by the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice.
Registration with the UK Council for Psychotherapy within the College of Family, Couple and Systemic Psychotherapy is required, along with a post-graduate qualification or equivalent in systemic supervision. The post also calls for substantial experience in mental health, preferably with children and young people, and evidence of consultation and training work.
These requirements signal a role for a clinician already operating at a senior specialist level. The trust is not seeking someone to learn the basics of family work on the job. It wants a practitioner capable of shaping services, not merely participating in them.
Hybrid working, travel and direct contact with services on the ground
The post allows some flexibility for hybrid working, but the operational reality is clear: the consultant will be required in the office and travelling between Berkshire sites on most days. For a role dependent on supervision, consultation and relationship-building, that expectation is clinically coherent. Systemic work depends on proximity to teams, families and service structures. Remote working can support some administrative and reflective tasks, but the leadership responsibilities attached to this appointment appear to require consistent in-person contact.
The trust has also made clear that the post holder will need to work autonomously. That autonomy will likely matter when the consultant is coordinating across mental health, learning disability and physical health services, each with its own pressures and referral patterns. Effective systemic leadership in that environment requires both flexibility and a disciplined clinical framework.
Inclusion, workforce gaps and practical employment terms
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust describes itself as an outstanding-rated specialist mental health and community health services trust. The organisation says it is committed to inclusion and notes underrepresentation of ethnically diverse colleagues in this role. Candidates who meet the essential criteria and identify as Asian or Asian British, Black or Black British, Mixed, or Other Ethnic Groups are guaranteed an interview.
The job listing also sets out a broad package of employment benefits, including flexible working options, 27 days of annual leave rising with service, NHS pension access, learning and career development opportunities, and free parking across trust sites. Staff networks, wellbeing tools, lease schemes and family-related leave are included as part of the employment offer.
A further caution appears in the application instructions: candidates are asked to ensure that any examples used in supporting statements genuinely reflect their own experience and abilities, and to complete at least five years of employment history. In a senior clinical post like this, credibility matters as much as qualification. The selection process is designed to verify that applicants can support the level of leadership, governance and specialist practice the role demands.
The closing date is listed as 22 November 2026, with the advert also noting that it may close earlier if application volumes are high. For Berkshire, the immediate task is straightforward: recruit a family and systemic psychotherapist who can hold clinical complexity, supervise others and help shape psychological care across the trust’s services.