Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job summary

If you are passionate about working with young people, are up for a challenge, want to work with supportive colleagues and wish to feel valued this is the role for you!

A rare opportunity has arisen for a permanent Band 8a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist role in the Child and Family Team (CFT) in Hammersmith & Fulham CAMHS.

This is a part-time WTE post ( hours per week).

We can also offer a "Band 7 to 8a preceptorship" post for candidates that fulfil Band 7 competencies but need support in getting to Band 8a level.

If this is the case, we will put in place the structure and support to help the candidate to progress from a Band 7 to a Band 8a role while in post.

• The Child and Family Team prides itself of close, respectful and supportive working relationships. We have high retention rates and low turn-over indicating that clinicians in our team value relationships with colleagues and enjoy the working environment;
• We value the rich and varied contributions of all clinicians in the multi-disciplinary team, treasure multi-disciplinary work and have opportunities for joint work on clinical cases;

You will join the CFT to offer highly specialist assessment and psychological treatment for children and young people with complex and chronic mental health needs.

You will also join the wider CAMHS team on the duty and urgent slot rota, to offer the local community and clients prompt information and intervention when needed.

Main duties of the job

As part of this role you will offer assessments and treatment to children and families in a flexible manner depending on clinical need.

This could be individual work with the child or young person, work with parents or joint family sessions according to your formulation and the agreed care plan.

You will also act as care-coordinator for the family, which includes coordinating different interventions in CAMHS and liaising with the professional network ( school and Children Services).

You will also offer specialist CBT intervention to children and young people referred to CFT psychology; please note that this is a core clinical responsibility of this post.

In addition, you will be part of the rota offering urgent assessments for young people with high risk presentation (self-harm, suicidal behaviours or intent) as well as the duty rota which aims to respond to queries that come to CAMHS on the day.

It is also a responsibility of the post-holder to offer supervision to junior psychologists, psychology trainees and assistant psychologist as needed.

We encourage our specialist Psychologists to take the lead in areas of Clinical Governance as required ( Service User Involvement, Safeguarding etc.

wherever possible matched to the clinician's interests.

About us

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services.

The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.

Our high secure services care for patients from South of England and we provide low and medium secure services across eight London boroughs.

The Trust also provides mental and physical healthcare in three London boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham).

We employ 4,500 staff, of whom 56% are BME. Our turnover for 2023-24 is £426m.

The Trust is rated as 'Good' overallby the Care Quality Commission. Forensic services are rated as 'Outstanding'.

The Trust is an established partner and contributor in the development of the evolving North West London Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Board.

The Trust leads the NW London

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required.

Please view as attached

The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.

The link below will also provide useful information.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services staff share their stories of working for the NHS. (

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society, or equivalent if trained overseas
• Eligible to work as a Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical) as approved by the Health Care Professions Council.
• Training in supervision.

Desirable

Training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and / or other fields of applied psychology.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and their families across a range of care settings, ( outpatient, community, primary care, in patient settings).
• Experience of working with children, adolescents and their families which will have involved maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience working as a specialist clinical psychologist in CAMHS.
• Experience of teaching, training and / or supervision.

Desirable

Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) with learning disability and / or neurodevelopmental conditions (eg.

ASD, ADHD, etc) in a CAMH setting.

• Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) with a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder.
• Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) who present in crisis and have provided therapeutic input to prevent inpatient admission.
• Experience of working with other agencies and providing consultation.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working with children / young people with special educational needs and challenging behaviour or mental health difficulties and their families.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment and intervention with children, young people and their families.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and / or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practised within the clinical fields of psychology
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to children / families, mental health and children's social care.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS / HCPC (dependent on grade).

Desirable

• Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups those in crisis, have a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder and / or neurodevelopmental difficulties, or specialist skills in working with children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of application of therapeutic models to children who have special educational needs.

Other Requirements

Essential

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Commitment to provide support to children, their families / carers and linked professionals and maintain high levels of aspiration for the population referred to the service.
• Commitment to working flexibly and collaboratively with team colleagues and to support innovative ways of working.
• To approach clients with empathy and adaptability and to be open to development of new approaches to work with clients.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
30+ days ago