About the Organisation

Life Without Barriers is a leading social purpose, not for profit organisation of 7,000 employees working in more than 440 communities across Australia. We support children, young people and families, people with disability, older people and people with mental illness. We work with people who are homeless and refugees and asylum seekers.   

We want to employ people who reflect the diversity of our clients to ensure we can support each client's individual needs and wants. We encourage people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background and people with disability to apply.

About the role

The purpose of the Therapeutic Permanency Specialist role is to give priority to the safety and well-being of children and young people by providing (or arranging for the provision of) high quality psychological advice and therapeutic support for children and young people within our Child Youth and Family program consistent with the NSW Government Permanency Support program (for which see www.facs.nsw.gov.au/families/permanency-support-program).

This is a six month maximum term contract based in either our Newcastle or Taree offices. Travel within a 2 hour radius may be required.

Key Responsibilities

• Undertake child focused assessment of children / young people
• Provide evidence informed advice and recommendations on understanding and minimising negative impacts of trauma, promoting healthy age appropriate development and building and strengthening skills and competency
• Provide evidence informed training and support for carers and staff regarding therapeutic support
• Building strong relationships with team members and lead or support reflective practice
• Lead implementation, maintenance and monitoring of Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) and Therapeutic Crisis Intervention – Families (TCIF)
• Review and monitor staff and carer competency in TCI and TCIF and provide training, refreshers, coaching and mentoring as appropriate
• Provide an environment free of abuse, harm and exploitation for people we support

Skills & Experience

• Tertiary qualifications in Psychology, Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy or Social Work and current registration or eligibility for registration with the professional body or Psychology board of Australia to practice as a psychologist
• Completed, currently completing or agreement to undertake a unit of learning consistent with nationally recognised competency CHCDIS006 - Develop and promote positive person-centred behaviour supports
• Current NSW Drivers Licence
• Experience in working with children / young people in out of home care who have experienced trauma
• Demonstrated experience in working effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary team and to work autonomously in implementing therapeutic case plans for multiple clients simultaneously
• Demonstrated experience in maintaining positive relationships with individuals whilst being able to have honest and at times difficult conversations
• Demonstrated experience in implementing evidence informed practice

Successful candidates will be required to clear probity checks including National Criminal History Record Check and Working with Children Check.

How to Apply

Include your resume and covering letter in one document, click ‘Apply’ and follow the prompts. For any enquiries including persons with disability that require adjustments, contact [email protected].

We are dedicated to playing our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and bring continuity of care and support to our clients. With this in mind, if you are successful, we will discuss with you an alternative to a face to face interview. 

Life Without Barriers supports the Royal Commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability. We believe people with disability need to be heard and for these experiences to influence how support services like ours are delivered. View our statement here (https://bit.ly/2GzZGWA).