Job responsibilities
Clinical
1. To take the lead, within a multi-disciplinary team, on the assessment, formulation and intervention planning and delivery, for children and young people with suspected Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ADHD/ASD).
2. To contribute towards diagnostic decisions, alongside the multi-disciplinary team.
3. To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence, and which incorporates interpersonal, societal, cultural, and biological factors.
4. To develop and implement pre and post diagnostic interventions for the child, young person, or their family.
5. The communication of highly complex information and diagnostic outcomes to parents/carers, young people, and other professionals in a sensitive manner
6. To produce reports in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment, diagnostic assessment and formulation in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including children/young people, and referrers.
7. The organise and deliver teaching and training to professionals, clients and carers on issues related to child development and Neurodiversity.
8. The post holder will be expected to plan their workload, including prioritising cases in terms of urgency and risk.
9. The post demands periods of concentrated effort both mental (assessment, intervention, and written communication) and physical (administration of psychometric/standardised assessments and report writing).
10. To manage the workloads of Band 7, trainee, and assistant clinical psychologists, within the framework of the teams policies and procedures.
11. The post holder will use computerised systems for record keeping and reference systems.
12. The post holder will be required to travel between a range of appointment venues in both urban and rural locations.
13. To take the lead on the review of service issues relating to the pathway, in collaboration with the Clinical Lead. This advice may focus on:
o Workload
o Service Priorities
o Interface with other services/professionals
o National trends
Professional
1. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of children and young people, and manage and maintain a caseload in line with service guidelines.
2. To provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to a shared formulation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
3. To promote psychologically based frameworks of understanding and care to the benefit of all children and young people of the services, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
4. To communicate, in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, to children and young people, their family, carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care.
5. To assist in the management of the team caseload with regard to prioritising cases in terms of appropriateness, urgency, and risk.
6. To work in partnership with other disciplines and to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory and primary care agencies as appropriate.
7. To gain additional specialist experience and skills relevant to clinical psychology and/or the service (as agreed with the Professional Lead) in line with BPS policy on CPD.
8. To maintain skills and knowledge of child protection procedures from the Local Safeguarding Children Board and ensure training in this area for assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists in the team.
9. To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training, and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work as appropriate. To organise and deliver teaching and training to clients, carers, and others.
10. To provide professional and clinical supervision of band 7 psychologists, and assistant psychologists and to act as placement supervisor for doctoral clinical psychology trainees, taking clinical responsibility for the supervisees work.
11. To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and other applied psychologists, as appropriate.
12. To provide supervision and training to staff working with children and young people referred to the teams across a range of agencies and settings where appropriate.
13. To undertake, within NCH&Cs Appraisal and Clinical Governance policies, CPD through teaching, clinical supervision, discussions, visits, study days, courses, and relevant reading as agreed with pathway lead and line managers. Supervision and management of Assistant Psychologists.
14. To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holders professional and service manager(s).
15. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature, and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
16. To undertake appropriate research including, where appropriate, making ethics and/or funding applications.
17. To undertake service orientated and clinically relevant research as agreed by NCH&C and Professional Psychology Lead.
18. To provide advice to other professionals as required on research design and methodology including complex audit and clinical and service evaluation to help develop service provision.
19. To prepare research reports for dissemination in peer-reviewed journals or at local or national conferences.
20. To contribute to the development and promotion of best practice in psychology across the service, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.
21. To maintain and develop the profile of psychology within the Trust, regionally and nationally as appropriate during all professional contacts with families, carers, colleagues, and the public.
22. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies, and issues in relation to children and young people, mental health/learning disability and early support.
23. To work in accordance with Trust policies and procedures, The BPS Code of Conduct and DCP Professional Practice Guidelines and to be aware of changes in these. To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of all relevant legislation and local policies and procedures implementing this
Organisational
1. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual children and young people and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures.
2. To represent the team at appropriate meetings.
3. To receive regular clinical supervision from one or more clinical psychologists and where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues in line with BPS guidelines.
4. To contribute to the analysis, development, evaluation and monitoring of the Trusts and teams operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
5. To advise both service and professional management in the teams on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
6. To be involved, as appropriate, in the recruitment process of other psychologists and members of the multidisciplinary team.
7. To use appropriate computer software to produce statistical data, including analysis and presentation of date.
8. To provide advice, consultation, supervision, and training to staff working with children and young people referred to the teams across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.
9. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.
10. To produce psychological reports and notes in a timely manner and to provide management information in line with Trust policies and procedures in a timely manner.
