CAMHS Clinical Psychologist

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 30 April 2025

Job summary

We love what we do & we think you will, too!

Interested in developing a career in Clinical Psychology & having a rewarding job in a great team?

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical Psychologist to join our Core Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) team across Gloucestershire, providing high quality mental health interventions to children, young people, and their families with moderate to severe mental health difficulties. We pride ourselves on working within a strong and supportive multi-disciplinary team with opportunities for learning, development & progression.

We welcome newly qualified Psychologists as well as those with previous experience who are passionate & motivated to work with young people & families.

We are proud of offering in-depth assessments & a wide range of evidence-based interventions including an established CBT clinic (and third wave approaches), family therapy clinic, NVR, DBT, psychoanalytic psychotherapy & creative therapies. We also work closely with the neurodevelopmental team & other specialist CAMHS teams (e.g. Under 5's, and the vulnerable children's service). We offer individual, family and group interventions which may be time limited or longer-term therapies according to need & we ensure the young person and families' voice remains at the centre of all we do.

Our service is currently going through a transformation and there are many opportunities to contribute to service development and areas to meet your interests.

Main duties of the job

Have a key role in conducting assessments (inc. risk assessments); developing formulations & delivering a range of interventions. Be able to demonstrate the clinical, consultation & communication skills needed to offer an outstanding service. You will be able to share psychological skills & knowledge in direct work with young people & within the locality MDT & multi-agency colleagues (e.g. social care & schools) that we work closely with.

Key elements :

Providing psychological perspective to the team
Providing Care Coordinator responsibilities for a caseload of children & young people presenting with complex & high-risk mental health issues. There will be a specific focus upon providing specialist clinical assessment, formulation & treatment, including self harm assessments & embedding the voice of the child within personalised care plans.
Providing / contributing to training to the wider CAMHS MDT.
Supervision of Assistant Psychologists / Mental Health Navigators as required.
Ability to lead projects or other clinical based initiatives as part of delivering innovative & high-quality services to children & young people.
Demonstrating a commitment to ensuring routine outcome measures are embedded within clinical practice to demonstrate clinical based improvements for children, young people & parents/carers

This is a community based post and therefore a valid UK driving licence plus the use of own transport for business purposes is essential.

About us

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Date posted

01 April 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£46,148 to £52,809 a year Per Annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

327-25-260

Job locations

TBC

Evergreen House

Cheltenham

GL53 9DZ

Job description

Job responsibilities

Provide a range of specialist CAMHS assessment and treatment interventions for children and young people (0-18yrs) as well as their families/carers who present with emotional and mental health difficulties as well as those children and young people who have learning disabilities. Provision will be in accordance to the application of a range of profession specific models of clinical practice.

Provide clinical leadership within the team alongside undertaking clinical responsibility for a caseload involving complex and high-risk clinical formulation and decision making, adhering to risk management and care planning processes in line with Care Programme Approach (CPA) and liaising with Trust and multi-agency partners across Gloucestershire as required. There will be a specific focus upon providing specialist clinical assessment, formulation and treatment for those highly vulnerable children and young people who have high clinical risk and other complex/multi agency needs. For Clinical Psychology or equivalent level health-relevant Applied Psychology: to provide a direct service for complex psychological issues

Provide CAMHS specialist clinical risk assessments and complex risk management plans as part of routine clinical work ensuring that all aspects of clinical caseload work adheres to current Trust safeguarding as well as risk assessment and management best practice procedures. This will include undertaking specialist Self Harm risk assessments of children and young people.

Demonstrate enhanced competency regarding complex clinical decision making and clinical formulation. For Clinical Psychology or equivalent level health-relevant Applied Psychology: Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for assessment and case management through psychologically based care plans.

Ensure high quality, accurate and contemporaneous clinical record keeping is maintained in line with current Trust policies

Ensure regular attendance at service wide and other CAMHS CPD/core competency training

Provide specialist CAMHS clinical interventions within a multidisciplinary team where expected roles, responsibilities and activity/performance expectations are outlined within a personal (team based) job plan. This job plan will be reviewed on a quarterly basis and may be adjusted to meet team or service led requirements.

As agreed within personal job plan, to provide specialist, profession-based interventions within specific CAMHS care pathways or clinics.

Provide high quality and specialist clinical reasoning, consultation, signposting and support to children young people and their families as well as professionals/workers within universal and targeted settings (e.g. Primary Care, GCC, voluntary sector).

Provide high quality and specialist profession based clinical reasoning, knowledge, skills and competencies regarding a range of CAMHS therapeutic interventions.

Provide specialist professional consultancy regarding service delivery of evidence based generic and professional practice to CAMHS colleagues and those workers in universal settings in line with the annual CAMHS Service Plan.

Provide specialist clinical reasoning as well as CAMHS specific consultation, training and advice to professionals working within a range of childrens services within Gloucestershire on a routine basis.

Participate in the recruitment and selection of new staff, including overseeing local induction when required.

Work flexibly to provide CAMHS interventions within a range of clinical and community settings dependent on client and service need. Situations may demand an unpredictable work pattern and difficult situations as well as the need to balance a range of complex and high risk clinical needs and presentations.

Ensure local lone working arrangements are considered and adhered to when delivering interventions within a community setting.

Demonstrate clinical leadership and commitment to working with team colleagues to develop a strong multidisciplinary ethos and focus to delivering high quality clinical services. This includes commitment to the CAMHS Children and Young Peoples Charter by ensuring routine clinical work reflects proactive involvement and collaborative working with children, young people and their parents/carers.

Demonstrate clinical leadership and commitment to ensuring the voice of the child is central to developing personalised care planning for all children and young people.

Demonstrate commitment to working effectively with team colleagues to develop a strong multidisciplinary ethos and focus to delivering high quality clinical services.

Contribute to service wide clinical rotas as requested (i.e referral management, responding to same day urgent referrals, CAMHS Practitioner Advice Line), including leading rotas where requested.

Provide high quality and specialist written clinical/professional reports and other means of effective communication as part of routine clinical responsibilities.

Implement and evaluate routine outcome measures (i.e. ROMS/HEF) as part of CAMHS Care Coordinator responsibilities.

Be accountable for maintaining own professional actions guided by the profession specific standards and Code of Conduct. This includes carrying out continuous professional development (CPD) activity to maintain knowledge of legislation, national, local policies and issues in relation to both specific client group and wider clinical practice. This includes maintaining a professional Continuing Professional Development (CPD) log to meet professional expectations and requirements.

Demonstrate clinical leadership and actively contribute to delivery of the current CAMHS Service Plan as well as considering new/innovative ways of delivering clinical care to the CAMHS population

Contribute to providing out of hours CAMHS services if requested by CAMHS Management

Change work base as requested by the CAMHS Service Director

As part of a clinical leadership role, to deputise for the Team Manager as requested by CAMHS Management.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.