Principal Clinical Psychologist

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 8b Clinical Psychologist to join our busy CAMHS Eating Disorders Team. This is a new role in the team and demonstrates Sheffield Children's Hospital Foundation Trust's commitment to continue to supporting and developing the Sheffield Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Team (SEDATT)

In this post you'll be an important part of the SEDATT leadership team working together to provide a high quality service to the children and families we see. You'll be working with this dynamic multi disciplinary team including Psychology, Family Therapy, Cognitive Therapist, mental Health and Paediatric Nurses, Dietician, Psychiatrists and Paediatrician.

You'll be contributing to service development, including supporting staff through training, consultation and supervision. You will be liaising closely with our colleagues on the acute hospital site and in our other partner agencies.

As a Clinical Psychologist you will be well supported by the wider Psychologist Services Team (PS). This is a large group including Clinical Psychologists, Family Therapists, CBT therapists, Child Psychotherapists, Art, Drama and Music therapists, Assistant Psychologists, Clinical Associate Psychologists, Child Well Being Practitioners and Mental Health Education Support Workers. PS work into community, specialist and in patient CAMHS and into our large Paediatric Service.

hours per week.

Main duties of the job

To provide a qualified specialist Clinical Psychology service to children, young people and their families referred to SEDATT at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust. Specifically, to provide the provision of specialist psychological assessments and interventions. Including the provision of specialist reports, formulation, consultation, supervision and training on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and professional and non-professional carers. To join the Senior Leadership the SEDATT to ensure the effective running of the service. To propose and implement policy changes within the specialist area served. To develop and maintain effective working relationships within the multi-disciplinary team. To work autonomously within professional guidelines, and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the SEDATT Service. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.

About us

At Sheffield Children's, our purpose is clear: to provide healthier futures for children and young people. Our three strategic aims are:

Outstanding Patient Care

Brilliant Place to work

Leaders in Children's Health

We work successfully with local, regional, and national partners to provide physical and mental healthcare across acute and community settings. Many of our clinicians are amongst the best in their field, recognised nationally and internationally for their expertise.

As well as having enormous pride in what we do, we are a friendly, welcoming, and motivated NHS Trust who are guided by our CARE values: Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. Our nearly 4000 colleagues live these values, ensuring kind and compassionate care that makes patients and their families feel safe and at home.

As we approach our 150th anniversary in 2026, we remain committed to enhancing our reputation in children's health leadership, improving the experiences of both patient and colleagues, and focusing on our communities and population health

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical

To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological & neuro-psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the formulation and implementation of plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems in the context of the family and the wider system, and employing methods of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses. 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, family or group. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans. To provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals including those from other agencies and contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan. To ensure that all those involved in the clients case have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management. To coordinate, where appropriate, intervention plans in respect of children and young people, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and, multi-disciplinary care. To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by team members.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

To work within the Leadership team to offer a high quality, responsive and accessible service. To be responsible for managing the psychological resources available to the team, whether in the form of other qualified and unqualified graduate psychology staff, or in the form of psychological materials used in the assessment and treatment of children and families. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team. To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, retention and wellbeing.

Teaching, training, and supervision

To provide clinical placements for trainee Clinical Psychologists, ensure that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good psychological care and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies. To gain highly specialised/extended expertise in particular psychological approaches and/or with particular client groups and/or in management through further specialist supervision and experience supported by a programme of professional development as identified in an agreed personal development plan. To provide post-qualification training (CPD) and clinical professional supervision to other qualified clinical psychologists within the Psychological Services. To provide advice, consultation and training and clinical supervision to other professionals for their provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve clients functioning. To provide pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical psychology as appropriate. To maintain and develop skills in the area of pre-and post-graduate training and clinical supervision. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Research and service evaluation

To take the lead in the evaluation, monitoring and development of aspects of the teams clinical practice, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit and ensuring incorporation of psychological frameworks for understanding and provision of high quality care. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members. To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research. To initiate project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service to help develop and improve services to clients and their families.

General

To ensure the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes. To ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by exercising the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, 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. 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. To ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychology within the service area and contribute across the service. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health. It is a requirement of the post that the post-holder must maintain registration with the Health & Care Professions Council as a Clinical Psychologist (or other agreed domain title as appropriate) and to maintain this registration at all times.

Note:

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with the manager.

This job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.

The post holder is expected to comply with all relevant Trust policies, procedures and guidelines, including those relating to Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety and Confidentiality of Information.

Inclusive Recruitment & Selection

We offer encouragement and active support to applicants with additional needs, including those from ethnic minorities, with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community. If you wish to adjust any aspect of the recruitment process or wish to find out more about our recruitment & selection processes, please get in touch with our Recruitment Manager:

We are currently reviewing our recruitment & selection process and are looking to make our job adverts more inclusive. This will support the long-term aim of Sheffield Childrens being a champion of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. If you have any ideas in how we can make our recruitment & selection process more inclusive, please get in touch with Catherine Gilbert at

Trust Values

The Trust is committed to providing great quality patient care and keep children, young people and families at the heart of what we do by following our CARE values:

Compassion leading by kindness and showing empathy, understanding and respect Accountability striving to do the right thing and owning responsibility Respect value differences, tackling inequality and fostering a culture of inclusion Excellence delivering a high-quality standard of care Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology, (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology Further specialist training & supervision in specific psychological approaches and with specific client groups supported by a programme of professional development as identified in an agreed personal development plan. Further post-doctoral training, supervision and experience in the specific area of service Registration as a Clinical Psychologist with Health Professions Council (or other domain title as agreed)

Desirable

Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice Further training in systemic practice Further training in treatment of eating disorders Further training in assessment/diagnosis of neuro divergent presentations. Further training in leadership Accreditation in specialised psychological approaches

Experience

Essential

Assessed experience and competencies normally acquired through working as a qualified clinical psychologist for a minimum of four years with 2 years at a specialist level and including significant experience in services for children with mental health, health and/or neurodevelopmental difficulties. Experience of working and communicating with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course; in particular children of pre-school, primary school age and adolescents, as well as work with family groups and adults, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal and physical abuse Specific experience and competencies in child clinical psychology Experience of delivering and/or supervising child and family presentations across a range of sectors- including (a) CAMHS, (b) physical health/paediatrics, (c) child development, (d) learning disabilities, (e) neuropsychology, (f) social services/child protection, (g) pre-school/early years, (h) adolescence, (I) forensic, (j) primary care and community development. Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan. Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision

Desirable

Experience of representing a psychological perspective within the context of multi-disciplinary care. Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of children with highly complex needs Experience of assessing and treating clients across a range of care settings Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.

Knowledge

Essential

Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to children of all ages, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS. ls in providing consultation to other professional and non professional groups Doctoral level knowledge and or equivalent of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practised within the field of clinical psychology.

Desirable

Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (, eating disorder, dual diagnoses, child protection, chronic or terminal illness, severely challenging behaviours etc.) Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessment and intervention approaches in specific modalities (, family therapy, cognitive therapy, psychotherapy etc.) or integrative approaches

Personal Attributes

Essential

Ability to identify provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours. Ability to identify, and employ as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour ommitment and competencies in multi-disciplinary and multi agency working. Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings

Desirable

Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

---