Work with us
Work with us
Blue Smile is working in a number of Cambridgeshire schools and the service is growing fast to meet the local need, so there are opportunities for placements and career progression. Voluntary clinical placements are available for counselling and psychotherapy students and graduates looking to build their hours or working towards accreditation.
In our office
Consultant Supervisors
To run supervision groups for clinical placement therapists and graduates working in our Blue Smile teams. Supervisors report very rewarding case discussions, fascinating casework and supportive co-workers.
For further details of these opportunities or to request application forms or role descriptions, please contact info@bluesmile.org.uk or telephone 01223 314725.
Please contact jess.manley@bluesmile.org.uk to discuss further.
Fundraising support volunteer
Blue Smile is expanding to meet the growing need from local children. We need a volunteer to support our fundraising team by helping to research, order and manage the merchandise that we use in our fundraising activities, e.g. T-shirts, balloons, pop-up stands, collecting tins, etc.
You would be flexible enough to offer help with other fundraising admin from time to time and might even like to attend an occasional event. You will have some contact with the lovely people who fundraise for us, so you will be a friendly and supportive person as well as being organised and methodical. The amount of time you would volunteer would be your choice but a regular commitment would be greatly appreciated.
Blue Smile collection tin coordinators
Would you like to work as a part of a small team to oversee our network of collection boxes in shops, cafés, pubs and restaurants? You would help us raise vital funds for this expanding children’s mental health charity, while publicising the essential work our therapists do to improve the lives of troubled children.
The work involves keeping track of the tins via our log, making sure they are emptied reasonably regularly, counting the collection and returning it to the office or to the bank and sending a thank you certificate to the premises owner or manager. You would be given support by our team working in the office and, as this is a new role, we could discuss with you how best it could work to make sure that it suits you. We depend upon donations, great and small, so this is a vital volunteering role, which could also be very satisfying and fun for two or three friends. The amount of time you would volunteer would be your choice, but a regular commitment would be greatly appreciated.
To apply to be a Blue Smile volunteer, please complete and return the application below, and let us know if you are applying for a specific role.
Volunteer Office Hero
We are looking for an ‘Office Hero’ to volunteer in Blue Smile’s central office to help us provide essential support in clinical administration, communication and fundraising for our service as it works towards our vision of a world where happier children have brighter futures.
In our clinical teams
Team Leaders and Deputy Team Leaders
Each partner school is led by a Team Leader and a Deputy Team Leader. These roles involve coordinating the service delivery in schools, supporting staff and handling referrals and a personal caseload. Team Leader and Deputy Team Leader posts will be advertised on the website as they become available.
Outreach Associate Therapists
In Blue Smile’s Outreach service, offering:
- clinical hours and experience of work with a diverse range of clients
- paid admin time supporting the clinical work
- the opportunity to work quite independently but with the oversight of an experienced Outreach Manager
- the chance to build managerial skills in handling referrals and liaising with teachers
- training and CPD
- career progression within exciting clinical service.
Outreach Associate Therapists work in an allocated school, picking up several cases. There is some flexibility, so the work can fit well with existing commitments and builds into very valuable professional development to more senior roles.
Therapist Clinical Placements
Therapist clinical placements – volunteer counsellors and therapists
Blue Smile uses an arts-based therapeutic model to help children and young people to regulate their emotions and organise their thoughts. Ideally, we are looking for applicants who are in at least the second year of a level 6 course (or equivalent) in counselling or therapy with children. However, we will consider applicants at an earlier stage of training but who have significant therapeutic experience of working with children in relevant settings.
A Blue Smile therapist clinical placement offers:
- Experience of working as part of a team in a school
- Clinical hours
- Training and continuing professional development
- Group supervision
- Career opportunities
Team Leaders will provide on-going support and guidance throughout the placement.
Therapist clinical placement volunteers will be required to have an interview, enhanced DBS (criminal record) check, references and an induction.
Our placements involve a minimum of half a day once a week in term time, ideally for a commitment of at least one academic year. The work may be both short and long-term, depending on an assessment of need on referral. We provide fortnightly group supervision, as well as training and career development opportunities.
Please contact: info@bluesmile.org.uk
Mentoring counsellor placements
Mentoring counsellor placements are aimed at students who may be at an early stage of a child and adolescent counselling training course and are seeking direct work experience with children. These placements help build listening, play and emotional support skills. It is expected that any course the applicant is currently undertaking will include a personal development component, clinical supervision, and opportunities to reflect on practice.
A Blue Smile mentoring counsellor placement offers:
- Experience of working as part of a team in a school
- Hours counted towards BACP accreditation
- Training and continuing professional development
- Monthly supervision with your Team Leader
- Career opportunities
Team Leaders will provide on-going support and guidance throughout the placement.
Mentoring counsellor placement volunteers will be required to have an interview, enhanced DBS (criminal record) check, references and an induction.
Our placements involve a minimum of half a day once a week in term time, ideally for a commitment of at least one academic year. The work may be both short and long-term, depending on an assessment of need on referral.
Please contact: info@bluesmile.org.uk
Volunteer mentoring
Blue Smile offers mentoring opportunities which involve supporting a child or young person in school struggling with some emotional or behavioural difficulties. Mentors are required to have experience of working with children in relevant settings, particularly with children who need support because of the difficulties they face.
A pupil with such difficulties may not require counselling, but would really benefit from a reliable and consistent adult in their lives, prepared to go the extra mile for them. Mentors become a valuable role model who will listen, play and help a child make sense of confusing or difficult feelings.
Volunteer mentors commit to giving at least an hour a week to befriend one or two children in a school, helping to build their self-esteem, to engage better in school life and to simply have fun.
Volunteers will be required to have an interview, an enhanced DBS (criminal record) check, references and an induction interview.
Contact: info@bluesmile.org.uk
Criminal record (DBS) checks
Much of our work involves one-to-one work with children in schools, so we ensure all our practitioners have enhanced criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and undertake regular safeguarding training.
