Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job responsibilities

Psychology is a very well established profession in CAMHS services and has a large group of staff who deliver innovative and highly regarded clinical services in many different contexts. Each borough holds regular psychology meetings and there are excellent CPD opportunities with regular whole-service trainings in therapeutic approaches. There are also many opportunities to develop further in role; for example through being part of quality improvement projects, or taking a lead in a particular area of interest.

Hounslow LDT sits alongside neurodevelopmental, specialist adolescent and child\family teams, and works in close collaboration with the Community CAMHS services. The LDT are multi-disciplinary, including psychiatry, nursing, and psychology. The post holder will be part of a growing team of clinicians with a special interest and expertise in working with young people with a learning disability.

Please see our Candidate information pack for a comprehensive job description and person specification for this role.

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, (e.g. 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.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of working with children/young people with special educational needs and challenging behaviour or mental health difficulties and their families.

Desirable

• Further specialist experience in CAMHS, for example: Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) with learning disability and/or neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. ASD, ADHD, etc.) in a CAMH setting. Experience of working with other agencies and providing consultation.. Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• 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 the client group and mental health.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the HCPC (dependent on grade). .

Desirable

• Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups e.g. 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.
• To approach clients with empathy and adaptability and to be open to development of new approaches to work with clients.
• Willingness to work flexibly when necessary.
• Commitment to working flexibly and collaboratively with team colleagues and to support innovative ways of working.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).