CAMHS Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Job summary

Kingston CAMHS is an established Tier 3/Getting More Help service that supports children, young people, and their families with moderate to severe mental health difficulties. Our MDT service is made up of disciplines including psychiatry, psychology, family therapy, CBT therapists and nursing.

The service offer assessments and evidence-based interventions for children and young people, including formulation a range of different therapeutic approaches, as well as recommendations and signposting to our other services provided by partner organisations and services.

We are seeking a Clinical / Counselling Psychologist (HCPC registered) who is enthusiastic and passionate about working with a range of clients (many of whom are difficult to engage) to work in our friendly service. We will also consider applications from newly qualified and recently qualified Clinical/Counselling Psychologists eligible to occupy the post at band 7 in a preceptorship role.

An applicant appointed to the band 7 preceptorship role will be supported through a preceptorship model that includes a professional and clinical development plan for continuing professional development. A Preceptorship Clinical/Counselling Psychologist will be supported to acquire the knowledge, skills and experience that meet the person specifications for the post at band 8a after a period of 18 months. Where these conditions are met the post holder will be expected to progress to band 8a subject to successful interview.

Main duties of the job

Ideally the post holder will have experience of working with young people with mental health difficulties. However, this is not a prerequisite and we will offer in-house training, regular supervision, and a thorough induction to all new staff in order to develop knowledge and skills of working with eating disorders. The post is substantive at WTE, (4 days a week) however if a role was wanted, we could support in finding this in connected teams. Please do contact us if you would prefer part-time hours.

The post holder would offer psychological assessment, formulation and therapy to individuals and groups and contribute to teaching, supervision, service development projects, research, and audit.

The post holder will receive clinical and professional supervision from an experienced Clinical Psychologist and will have the opportunity to provide supervision to an Assistant Psychologist and trainees on placement subject to experience. Kingston CAMHS has recently become a provider collaborative network forming the South London Partnership with the South London & Maudsley EDS. This is an exciting time to be joining our service as we move towards more integrated working across the partnership and developing new initiatives.

About us

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety ofbenefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

About our locations:

Tolworth Hospital, Surbiton

To create the very best environment to care for our patients, this site's layout will be transformed in 2026 to add a number of wards to the existing three. Tolworth has a canteen and is near shops, the A3, Tolworth station, and is a bus ride from Surbiton station, with fast connections to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo.

Job description

Job responsibilities

To provide specialist assessments of young children and their parents/carers referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complexdata from a variety of sources including psychological and where appropriate, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews in line with CYP IAPT methodology To formulate and implement plans for evidence-based interventions, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, to improve the parent/child relationship To be responsible for implementing a range of psychotherapeutic interventions employed individually and in synthesis, maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses, adjusting and refining formulations or understandings, drawing upon different explanatory models and employing methods of intervention that are based upon evidence of efficacy 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 individual and the family To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plan To provide specialist mental health advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to the care of the young child and their parents/carer To contribute to and/or use evidence-based, integrated working tools and processes, to ensure young children and their parents/carers receive holistic and co-ordinated services in response to their mental health needs To undertake risk assessment and risk management for young children and their parents/carers To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of young children and their parents/carers who are under their care To monitor progress during the course of interventions, ensuring that all interventions are fully assessed, planned, implemented and evaluated in conjunction with CYP IAPT minimum dataset standards To maintain accurate and accessible health care records according to Trust policy and Information Governance requirements To demonstrate high level communication skills, both written and verbal, within all agencies. Person Specification

Training and Qualifications

Essential

oQualified Clinical Psychologist / Counselling Psychologist / Child Psychotherapist registered with the HCPC as an applied psychologist oWhere an applicant is in the final stages of training and has not yet obtained registration, an applicant will only be made an offer conditional upon successful registration within a time-scale that is specified.

Desirable

oTraining as part of a CYP IAPT collaborative in a recognised evidenced based approach

Experience

Essential

oDemonstrable experience of working with children and young people in a variety of community settings oExperience of multi-disciplinary team working oExperience of inter-agency working oExperience of safeguarding and Child Protection

Desirable

oExperience of leading case reviews oExperience of working in the NHS oExperience of teaching and liaising with other professional groups

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