Senior Pediatric Psychologist

Position Overview

This role is designed to provide strategic leadership, development, management, and clinical proficiency to the pediatric service at Epsom and St Helier. The individual in this position will oversee the pediatric psychology services within the organization and collaborate closely with the lead for psychology, pediatric consultants, and divisional management.

Key Responsibilities

The primary objective is to ensure the consistent delivery of a high-quality psychological service grounded in current evidence-based guidelines for children and families facing psychological challenges related to physical or medical health conditions within a pediatric framework.

The role requires working independently, adhering to professional standards, and taking responsibility for the systematic governance of the pediatric psychology service. A significant aspect of this position involves acting as a highly specialized resource for both the pediatric psychology and medical teams.

Responsibilities include:

• Developing, proposing, and executing policy and service enhancement initiatives within the pediatric service to continuously improve offerings and manage service demand and capacity.
• Leading the planning and development of services across SW London and Surrey, which includes engaging with local service developers, creating business plans, spearheading recruitment efforts, and ensuring adequate support and supervision mechanisms for multidisciplinary team members.
• Ensuring the service consistently provides evidence-based interventions in alignment with national standards.

About Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

The Trust provides a comprehensive range of services to the communities of southwest London and northeast Surrey, including areas such as Sutton, Merton, and Epsom.

Queen Mary's Hospital for Children is a specialized facility within St Helier's Hospital, dedicated to offering a wide array of services and support for children and young people, along with resources for their families.

The successful candidate will join a small team of psychologists working across various specialties within the acute Trust and will have connections to a larger group based at St George's.

Job Duties

• Conducting advanced specialist psychological assessments of patients referred to the service, utilizing a variety of data sources, including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, structured observations, and interviews with patients and their families.
• Formulating treatment plans for the psychological needs of patients in relation to medical diagnoses, based on a suitable conceptual framework and employing evidence-based methods across diverse care settings.
• Implementing a range of specialized psychological interventions for patients, caregivers, families, and groups, while adjusting and refining psychological formulations based on various explanatory models.
• Making informed evaluations and decisions regarding treatment options, considering both theoretical and therapeutic models, as well as complex historical and developmental factors.
• Exercising full responsibility for the treatment and discharge processes from the psychological service, ensuring effective communication with referral agents and other professionals involved in patient care.
• Providing expert psychological advice, guidance, and consultation to other professionals, contributing to client formulation, diagnosis, and treatment planning.
• Ensuring that all clinical team members have access to a psychologically informed framework for understanding and caring for pediatric patients through advice, consultation, and dissemination of psychological knowledge.
• Conducting risk assessments and management for relevant patients, offering both general and specialized advice on psychological and neuropsychological aspects of risk.
• Acting as a care coordinator when appropriate, ensuring the provision of a care package tailored to patient needs, coordinating the efforts of others involved in care, and facilitating care reviews as necessary.

Qualifications and Experience

Essential:

• Extensive experience in child and adolescent settings.
• Experience in physical health environments.
• Experience working within multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience supervising psychologists and other team members.
• Experience in service development.

Desirable:

• Leadership experience.

Qualifications:

Essential:

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent.
• HCPC registration.

Experience:

Essential:

• Extensive experience as an applied psychologist.
• Experience in physical health settings.
• Experience working with children, young people, families, and staff.