Multisystemic therapy (MST) is an intensive family and community based intervention for children and young people aged 11-17, where young people are at risk of out of home placement in either care or custody due to their offending or having severe behaviour problems. The aim of MST is to break the cycle of anti-social behaviours by keeping young people safely at home, in school, and out of trouble.

MST-FIT uses Standard MST principles with additional components to address the specific issues and contexts of young people returning home from a care environment. The MST FIT programme combines a number of evidence-based interventions with the goal of targeting multiple determinants of antisocial behaviour, substance abuse and mental health issues in young people. The overarching framework of the intervention is derived from Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and this is combined with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy to target young people’s individual mental health needs and support those caring for them more effectively.

The model works for 3 to 4 months with young people aged 12-17 years and their carers while they are placed away from home, thus improving skill level of the current residential or foster carers and also with the young person’s family to identify the issues which may present difficulties in order to plan a successful return home. Once the young person has returned home, work continues with the family for a further four months and with other key agencies, such as social care and schools and also to support the family members to develop community based supports and reduce their longer term reliance on statutory services.

As an MST Supervisor, you will bring your professional qualification and experience, and extensive supervisory experience to the MST service where you will manage a team of up to 4 MST therapists. MST Supervisors work within the MST model under guidance and support of the MST Expert to provide clinical supervision and oversight to therapists working intensively with families using the MST analytic process and principles, as well as providing support, supervision and consultation to residential staff. You will be qualified and experienced in directly providing and supervising a range of evidence-based therapeutic and behavioural models, and will have significant experience of working with young people and their families where there is challenging behaviour. You will be experienced and assured with holding clinical responsibility for cases, and having a senior lead role when working with other agencies and partners.

You will be positive, passionate and committed to making a difference to young people and their families; and also with the supervision and development of staff. You will enjoy a highly varied role, with a number of concurrent projects and tasks, with no two days the same. You will use your professional and personal skills to engage both directly with children and families and with all levels of professionals, and able to seamlessly switch between roles, responsibilities and audiences. You will be confident to manage risks in a calm and assertive manner, fostering an environment of support and resilience; and will embrace and lead service changes and developments.

You will highly value and have experience of delivering evidence-based practice and research, and will be keen to develop your own knowledge of interventions and supervisory skills within the MST model, as you in turn use these skills to develop the therapists in your team. You will enjoy working autonomously as a lead professional and manager of your team, but also value and appropriately seek the support and guidance of the Head of Service and MST Expert as part of the comprehensive MST CPD process.

MST Supervisors role-model good practice by frequently working flexible and unsocial hours across Kirklees in a number of home, office and remote settings, and frequently lone working to meet the needs of families, therapists and partners. Supervisors are also expected to contribute to training, research, presentations, dissemination, and wider strategic MST and Kirklees Council initiatives and service needs. MST Supervisors will also provide cover support/supervision to other MST teams, 24/7 on-call support across teams on a rota basis (which is subject to an additional payment as per Kirklees Council policy), and may also be expected to a case load as and when required.

Travel is an essential part of this job and therefore it would be extremely difficult for you to do your job effectively if you did not use a car for all or most of the time.  It is essential that you hold a full and valid driving licence and it is expected that you will either use a council vehicle or your own car (exceptions can be made for disabled applicants).

Kirklees Council honours previous service with the NHS when calculating the following:

• Annual holiday entitlement

• Sickness pay

• Maternity or paternity leave

• Notice period

• Pensions (subject to transfer in)  

An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check will be required for this job.  A conviction may not exclude candidates from appointment but will be considered as part of the recruitment process.

Closing date  

22 November 2020, 11:55 PM

This job is subject to an enhanced DBS check.  A conviction may not exclude candidates from appointment but will be considered as part of the recruitment process.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults and children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Related information

MST Supervisor Job Description.pdf – 384KB 

Job Focus.pdf – 163KB