Lead for Psychology and Psychotherapy Lewisham CAMHS

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To plan, organise and ensure the delivery of psychological services within Lewisham CAMHS

To plan and organise the integrated delivery of psychological services with other agencies and service providers and ensure co-ordination of psychological therapy with other services.

To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions for children, young people, families and carers within Lewisham CAMHS

To provide culturally appropriate psychological therapy interventions with children, young people, families and carers within Lewisham CAMHS

To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans

To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities served by Lewisham CAMHS

To act as care/CPA co-ordinator, keyworker, taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing care plans, CPA co-ordination and meetings.

KR 2 Responsibilities for team or service clinical functioning

To work with the leads/managers of other SLaM services and of other agencies services to plan and deliver joint services that are integrated around the needs of service users

To co-ordinate (and chair) team and service meetings for the service to ensure effective functioning and review when appropriate.

To ensure the effective working of the team or service and a psychologically informed framework for the service.

To take a lead in ensuring the team or services ability to deliver accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.

To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.

To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of children, young people, families and carers.

To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with children, young people , families and carers. in order to develop and review care plans.

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To liaise with the service/s MDT and other professionals.

KR 3 Policy and service development

To lead on strategy development and the development of policy and guidance for application in the service. To be responsible for the interpretation and implementation of policy.

To plan, initiate, implement and ensure appropriate service developments to improve the quality and delivery of services in the service and in partner services.

To ensure the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

To participate in, or lead when appropriate, Trust and Directorate strategic development and implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines), through membership of committees and/or working parties.

To lead in the development and application of clinical governance standards within the service and ensure that these are maintained and improved.

To take a lead role in ensuring that services to children, young people, families and carers are of a high quality and are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

To be responsible for the management of psychological resources.

To ensure that the service has sufficient materials and equipment.

To be an authorised signatory for the service.

To ensure the cleanliness and safe functioning and use of equipment that will be used by children, young people, families and carers using the service.

To monitor and advise children, young people, families and carers on the safe use of materials and processes.

To ensure adequate confidential and safe storage for artefacts produced during the therapy process in line with professional guidelines.

To be responsible for obtaining, storing and maintaining all necessary materials and equipment for the provision of therapy in work setting within budgetary constraints.

To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Management and supervision

To deputise when appropriate for the Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy for CAMHS

To provide leadership to psychological practitioners and other professionals in the service.

To ensure appropriate systems are in place for the clinical and professional supervision of psychological practitioners in the service.

To lead recruitment of psychological practitioners.

To lead appraisals of, and personal development plans for psychological practitioners in the service.

To be responsible for the management of psychological therapists and practitioners in the service, including allocation and review of work and initial stages of grievance or disciplinary action etc.

To provide professional, clinical and management supervision to less senior psychological practitioners, assistants and trainees and the psychological work of other professions as appropriate and having completed the relevant training.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

To organise access to and provide specialist clinical placements for trainee applied psychological practitioners.

To be responsible for planning, organising, and the delivery of teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychological practitioners and specialist training to other professions.

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.

To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.

To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post-holder has management or leadership responsibility.

KR 8 Research and development

To ensure the planning, initiation and completion of research, service evaluation and audits relevant to the service and the directorate research agenda

To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychological practitioner according to professional and Trust guidelines.

To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with registered body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the Standards for Continuing Professional Development.

To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.

To comply with the registered body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.

To ensure that all psychological practitioners for whom the post-holder has leadership or management responsibility, maintain professional standards and continuing professional development.

KR10 General

To travel to home visits, community placements, meeting as appropriate and across the Trust when required.

To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.

To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations such as challenging behaviour, abuse etc and to support others involved in such situations.

To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or Saturday working, within the overall Job Plan.

To work closely with Corporate Psychology and Psychotherapy to ensure consistent and timely delivery of staff support within their area across all disciplines. Contributing to the development of the staff support offer in line with relevant quality improvement projects.

Qualifications

Essential

• oTo have undertaken a recognised qualification in one of the core Psychological Therapy professions
• oEntry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy or equivalent and demonstrable practice in this field (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration.
• oRegistered with / accredited by professional body as appropriate to discipline HCPC/ UKCP/BABCP etc. (A/I)
• oEvidence of continuing professional development as required by the professional body. (A/I)
• oAdditional training beyond entry-level qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice (e.g. CBT, DBT, Family therapy) through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses and/an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by a registered body and/or an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher. (A/I/R)

Desirable

• Formal leadership training
• ADOS training or other neurodevelopmental assessment training
• Formal supervision training

Experience

Essential

• oEvidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in Child & Adolescent mental health (A/I)
• oExperience of undertaking leadership roles (A/I)
• oExperience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature. (A/I)
• oExperience of supervising assistants and trainees having completed the relevant training. (A/I)
• oPost-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. (A/I)

Desirable

• Senior leadership and management experience within a CAMHS team

Knowledge

Essential

• oKnowledge of the theory and practice of management and leadership. (A/I/R)
• oAdvanced theoretical knowledge of child & adolescent psychopathology and the evidence base. (A/I/R)
• oAdvanced knowledge of the theory of psychological practice/processes and their therapeutic application.
• oAwareness of assessment and clinical psychometrics. (A/I/R)
• oAdvanced knowledge and experience in the administration of relevant assessment tools. (A/I/R)

Skills

Essential

• oTo deliver specialist psychological therapy across cultural and other differences. (A/I/R)
• oTo select and administer specialist assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources, on which expert opinion may differ. (A/I/R)
• oTo communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with children, young people, families and carers, overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information. (A/I/R)
• oTo plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual children, young people and families and groups and carers (and for meetings such as CPA and case reviews where appropriate). (A/I/R)
• oTo plan allocation of tasks to assistants/trainees as appropriates. (A/I/R)

Abilities

Essential

• oAbility to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles. (A/I/R)
• oAbility to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate. (A/I/R)
• oAbility to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings (A/I/R)
• oAbility to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these. (A/I)
• oAbility to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour. (A/I)

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

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