Clinical Specialist

Job summary

The Merton Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) service provides out-patient and consultation services to children experiencing a range of mental health and neurodevelopmental difficulties.

In Merton, the CAMHS Single Point of Access team provides triage and screening assessments for children, adolescents and their families experiencing a range of mental health, neurodevelopmental and emotional health difficulties. The CAMHS SPA works in collaboration with the trust's Tier 3 CAMHS services, who specialise in the provision of high-quality assessments and evidence-based treatments for children and young people presenting to the service with moderate to severe mental health and neurodevelopmental difficulties and assessment of risk.

As the Merton CAMHS SPA service manages the screening for all neurodevelopmental referrals, we also liaise closely with the trust's CAMHS Neurodevelopmental Assessment Team (NDT), which is a specialist ADHD and ASD assessment team, operating across the five London Boroughs within the SWLSTG CAMHS Service Line.

Merton CAMHS SPA is a friendly team. The screening and assessment processes are led by qualified clinicians with support from assistant psychologists and administrators. The whole team values having supportive relationships with each other.

Main duties of the job

We have developed an exciting new full-time opportunity for a Band 7 Clinical Psychologist or Clinical Nurse Specialist with strong assessment skills and excellent communication who is looking to develop this interesting and fast paced role. You will be a committed Professional who is passionate about working with children and young people and has a special interest in neurodiversity.

The successful candidate will be able to contribute to the overall mental health assessment service but will develop leadership specifically on the neurodevelopmental screening care pathway as well as providing consultation and supervision of Assistant Psychologists working in this pathway within the CAMHS SPA team.

This role is open to qualified clinical psychologists with the following:

Qualification as Clinical Psychologist registered with the HCPC or Nurse Registered with NMC with relevant B6 experience. Experience of working with children and young people Experience of work within a multi-disciplinary team The ability to relate and provide accessible services to a diverse community. The ability to efficiently manage a caseload. Knowledge and skills in risk management and safeguarding Ideally a special interest in child neurodevelopment and neurodiversity The ability to adapt to the fast-paced nature of CAMHS SPA work, with good IT and computer recording skills to navigate between the various IT record systems within CAMHS, SWLSTG Trust and Achieving for Children

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:

Mitcham (Merton)

Based at Birches House overlooking the cricket green in Mitcham. The Merton CAMHS team base is convenient for local amenities and transport links.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical

To provide specialist assessments of children/ young people 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. Teaching, Training, and Supervision To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior colleagues To gain additional experience and skills relevant to the profession and/or the service (as agreed with the responsible professional and team manager) in accordance with the CAMHS Directorates common expectations for P&P staff 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 If required, to provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings Management, Recruitment, Policy and Service Development To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the services operational policies and services (as directed), through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit To contribute to a culture that is therapeutic, productive, accessible, inclusive and flexible to meet the needs of the local population Research and Service Evaluation 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. Person Specification

Training & Qualifications

Essential

oQualified Clinical or Counselling Psychologist registered with the HCPC as an applied psychologist oPost-graduate doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS and HCPC, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.

Desirable

oTraining as part of a CYP IAPT collaborative in a recognised evidenced based approach oOther relevant training related to neurodevelopment or child development.

Experience

Essential

oDemonstrable experience of working with children and young people in a variety of mental health 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 oExperience of working with neurodevelopmental disorders

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