Senior Counsellor

Black Country Women's Aid

Let us introduce ourselves…
Black Country Women's Aid (BCWA) is an established charity working across the Black Country and wider West Midlands providing accommodation and community support services to victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and human trafficking.

Services range from advocacy, civil remedies, support in court, individual and group support and access to a range of therapeutic interventions.

All services are client and needs-led.

BCWA has ambitious plans for the service.

We are prioritising the Counselling and Wellbeing service within our fundraising campaigns and want to expand the service to acknowledge the importance of wellbeing for both victims of abuse and the employees of BCWA.

This is a new position in the organisation and we hope interested candidates are interested in consolidating the current service, supporting our growing counsellor team and helping to shape and share our ambitious future.

The team:
Our recently rebranded Counselling and Wellbeing Service is a team consisting of a managerial lead who oversees the whole operations of the service, administration support, counsellors, sessional counsellors, students and placements all providing a range of counselling and therapeutic interventions.

The team is currently being led by the Chief Executive demonstrating a commitment to this work and together the team is ambitious and dynamic working to give the client the best outcome to cope and recover from abuse.

Job Role

Job Title: Senior Counsellor
Positions available: 1 part-time position (30 hours, negotiable)
Location: Based across the Black Country.


There are specific arrangements that enable the post holder to work at home on an ad hoc basis, these are contained within the Home Working Policy.

This position is not eligible for Hybrid working.
Salary: £27,800 - £30,187 per annum pro rata
Closing date: 14th November 2023

Is this you?

We are looking for an experienced qualified counsellor to join our growing Therapeutic and Wellbeing Service.

You will be responsible for overseeing the clinical and operational aspects of the service, including risk assessments, assessing eligibility for the service and ensuring clients accessing BCWA counselling and wellbeing services receive high-quality support.

You will be responsible for ensuring that the services work within accredited professional standards, such as the BACP organisational standards, ethical frameworks and industry best practice.

You will be required to provide professional advice to counsellors working with clients and oversee the client journey throughout their support.

We are looking for a candidate with excellent communication skills, good written language skills, and experience in making clinical decisions, assessments and formulations.

If you are conscientious, hardworking with empathy and understanding, we would love to hear from you.

Click apply to be emailed information about how to complete your application.

CVs will not be accepted.

Important information for all positions

Black Country Women's Aid is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults, children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

All posts are subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975.

It will be necessary for an enhanced disclosure to be made to the Criminal Records Bureau for details of any previous criminal convictions.


Occupational Requirement under Schedule 9 (part 1) of the Equality Act 2010 applies.

The post holder must be female.

Employment checks

As a responsible employer we adhere to safer recruitment practice and all our employees are subject to the following recruitment checks:

Right to work in the UK
Under Section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act, we, as a responsible employer need to ensure that we do not employ anyone illegally.

To avoid discrimination we treat all job applicants equally.

We, therefore, ask all candidates selected for interview to bring original documentation to show their Right to Work in the UK.

A copy of these will be taken.

Once the successful candidate has been appointed the unsuccessful candidate's documents will be destroyed confidentially.

You may be refused an interview if you do not bring the correct documents with you.

References

Following your interview, two employment references will be sought.

One of these should be your current or most recent employer.

If you have finished full-time education and you have no employer reference, we will accept a reference from:

, a professional from your centre of study, for instance, a teacher, lecturer or headteacher
, GP or health visitor
, a character reference from a person who knows you
, a civil servant from a government agency
, a bank manager

DBS

All positions are subject to DBS checks at the relevant level.

COVID-19

BCWA has adapted services during COVID to support victims of violence and abuse that meet all the latest Government guidance.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is available at all our sites and distributed to all staff as appropriate.

Full details of the BCWA Risk Assessment can be found on our website.

Please read this as it provides the framework that we are delivering services against.

You will receive appropriate training to undertake the duties of the job on an on and offsite basis and all situations are risk-assessed.

Management supervision, support and oversight is embedded in our practice to ensure all parties are kept safe.