Clinical Psychologist

Job responsibilities

Clinical

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of children and young people referred to the teams based upon the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with the child, their family members and other involved people.

2. The communication of highly complex information and diagnostic outcomes to parents/carers, young people, and other professionals in a sensitive manner.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. To develop and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of the child or young person, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of their problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of environmental settings.

6. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for children/young people, their families, carers, teachers, or support workers, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

7. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the child/young person, their family or carers.

8.To act as care coordinator, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the childs needs, coordinating the work of others involved with care, taking responsibility for arranging CPA reviews as required and communicating effectively with the child/young person, his/her family and all others involved in the network of care, and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.

9. To monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care, and to provide appropriate reports on this.

10. To produce reports in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment, formulation and treatment outcome 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. The post demands periods of concentrated effort both mental (therapy and verbal mediation and written communication) and physical (administration of psychometric assessment, therapy and report writing).

11. To manage the workloads of assistant and trainee clinical psychologists, within the framework of the teams policies and procedures.

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 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.

7. To work in partnership with other disciplines and to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory and primary care agencies as appropriate.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. To provide professional and clinical supervision of assistant psychologists and to act as placement supervisor for doctoral clinical psychology trainees, taking clinical responsibility for the supervisees work.

12. To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and other applied psychologists, as appropriate.

13. 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.

14.To undertake, within NCH&Cs IPR, PDP and Clinical Governance policies, CPD through teaching, clinical supervision, discussions, visits, study days, courses and relevant reading as agreed with professional and line managers. Supervision and management of Assistant Psychologists.

15. 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 postholders professional and service manager(s).

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

17.To undertake appropriate research including, where appropriate, making ethics and/or funding applications.

18. To undertake service orientated and clinically relevant research as agreed by NCH&C and Professional Psychology Lead.

19. 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.

20. To prepare research reports for dissemination in peer-reviewed journals or at local or national conferences.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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. In common with all clinical psychologists receives regular clinical supervision in accordance with good practice guidelines.

4. To receive regular clinical supervision from one or more consultant clinical psychologists and where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues in line with BPS guidelines.

5.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.

6. To advise both service and professional management in the teams on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

7.To be involved, as appropriate, in the recruitment process of assistant psychologists.

8. To use appropriate computer software to produce statistical data, including analysis and presentation of date.

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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.

Qualifications

Essential

• Good honours degree in Psychology.
• Graduate membership of BPS.
• Post-graduate doctorate in Clinical Psychology field, accredited by the BPS.
• Training in the supervision of clinical psychologists
• Registration or application to register with Health and Care Professions Council.

Desirable

• Chartered Clinical Psychologist
• Training in psychological assessment, formulation and treatment for learning disabilities and mental health needs.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of children and young people across a range of care settings.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different contexts.
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist or an alternative agreed by the Head of Speciality.

Desirable

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Experience in the processes for safeguarding vulnerable children.
• Experience in assessment and process for Domestic Violence.

Skills, Abilities and Knowledge

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, psycho-logical formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgement skills.
• Skills in family work, individual and group work and in programme planning.
• Planning and organising skills for caseload management.
• Skills in self-management, including time-management.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to children and their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Good understanding of other professionals' theoretical perspectives of children and young people.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group.
• 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 practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.
• Ability to teach and train others using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in children with autistic spectrum disorders, children with learning disabilities and severely challenging behaviours and childhood mental health problems.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of safeguarding children and The Children's Act 2004.

Personal Attributes / Behaviours

Essential

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, enabling formation of networks with professionals within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective team working.
• Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from children and their families.
• Able to contain and work with organisational stress.
• Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult, volatile situations.
• Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information.
• Ability to exercise appropriate levels of self-care and to monitor own state, recognising when it is necessary to take active steps to maintain fitness to practice.
• Good organisational skills.
• Motivated towards personal and professional development with a strong CPD record.
• Able to identify with the Trust's commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.

Other

Essential

• Able to make own travelling arrangements.
• Able to speak English Language.
• Enhanced CRB check.
• To implement Norfolk Steps physical interventions.

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).