Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work in a band 7 role as a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist within our CAMHS South multidisciplinary team, delivering a high quality service provision that promotes and improves the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people and their families.

CAMHS South is a caring, supportive and hard working team which prides itself on working creatively, innovatively and inclusively. We have a number of ongoing projects including working in partnership with young people to re design our clinic room spaces, working to better meet the needs of young people with neurodiversity who are accessing our service, and the development of the intervention offer for families of our young people.

Members of the team won the HPFT 2022 and 2023 staff awards for "inclusion and diversity" and the team have previously won awards for customer service and working in partnership with our adult services counterparts to improve transitions to adult services.

We welcome all new staff to the team with a robust induction process to equip them for the work they will take forwards and promote leadership at all levels within the team.

CAMHS South is a part of HPFT CAMHS, who have been at the forefront of national developments in CAMHS, including CAPA and CYP-IAPT. The service is rapidly expanding in line the with evolving needs of young people in Hertfordshire.

Main duties of the job

As the Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist you will be expected to:

Act as a senior clinician in the service and provide supervision to junior and pre-qualified clinicians in the service. Provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients' formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan, facilitating the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the teams to the client. Contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group. Provide specialist expertise and psychological support to clients, their carers and staff working with the clients. 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. Act as care coordinator, where appropriate, ensuring provision of a care package appropriate for the client's needs, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of the client's care, including the child/adolescent, their family/carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care. Maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry and recording.

About us

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

Our family of over 3500 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.

The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Our Trust values are:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

These values are at the core of who we are, everything we do, and how we do it

Would you like to be part of the HPFT family? Would you like work with us to ensure our service users live the fullest lives possible they can? Would you like to be supported in your career to be the best that you can be?

Then please read on...

Job description

Job responsibilities

Benefits we offer :

1. A coaching network where trained coaches throughout the Trust are matched with staff of all disciplines to provide a powerful development opportunity2. Leading company discounts and childcare vouchers3. Salary sacrifice schemes enabling staff to drive a new car or bike - saving on tax and insurance included4. Wellbeing activities - from mindfulness to yoga, pilates and our signature craft club join our monthly programme of regular and special events to support your wellbeing. Discounts, including Nuffield Health and David Refer a friend to work for the Trust and receive up to £500 (A payment of £250 will be made when the applicant commences employment with us and a further payment of £250 will be made once they hit 6 months continuous service with us, terms and conditions apply).

To ensure the systematic provision of a highly specialist clinical / counselling psychology service to clients of the Tier 3 Specialist CAMHS quadrant multidisciplinary team, across all sectors of care, within the context of the principles of CAPA (The Choice and Partnership Approach) and CYP-IAPT, providing both Core work (as defined by CAPA)

Contributing to Specific/Specialist work (as defined by CAPA) including contributing to provision of a specific model of evidence-based therapeutic intervention across the CAMHS clinics (for exampleSpecialist provision of Systemic Therapy, Child Psychotherapy, CBT, IPT)

To provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on clients psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues, professionals from other agencies and to other non-professional carers.

The post-holder will offer Core and Specialist/Specific work (according to CAPA definitions) within the quadrant, and Specialist/Specific work as part of a CAMHS-wide therapeutic team as appropriate.

To work effectively as a fully integrated member of the multi-disciplinary team, including taking an active part in MDT meetings.

To provide clinical/professional supervision to less experienced practitioner psychologists within the quadrant MDT.

To provide placements to trainee clinical/counselling psychologists.

To work autonomously within professional practice guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

To propose and implement policy and service development, undertake research, service evaluation and audit for own team/service and to contribute to the training of clinical/counselling psychologists and others.

Person Specification

Knowledge, Training and Experience

Essential

Post-graduate doctorate in clinical/counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, or fully completed training as a Counselling Psychologist At least two years full-time post registration experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment with clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature Full registration with Health Professions Council under the Clinical or Counselling modality Related academic qualifications to masters or doctorate level Experience of independent administration and interpretation in cognitive assessment Training in supervision of clinical / counselling psychologists Experience of research, service development and audit

Desirable

Chartered status with the British Psychological Society Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice including CBT

Areas of Experience and Knowledge

Essential

Assessed experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children/adolescents with a wide range of presentations of varying severity Typically this would involve a minimum of 2 years at specialist level, or its equivalent demonstrated through CV and interview Experience of working with moderate to severe mental health problems with a wide range of client groups across the whole life course with 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 Demonstrate further specialist clinical experience and training within Child and Adolescent Mental Health, through a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a clinical / counseling psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an agreed alternative Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision, including supervision of clinical/counselling psychology trainee(s) Experience working within a multidisciplinary team and inter-agency collaboration Doctoral level knowledge of clinical/counselling psychology including highly developed knowledge of developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, child and adolescent mental health and a range of therapeutic models Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management with clients with complex problems, including specialised psychological interventions for difficult to treat groups (eg multiple mental health and/or physical health problems) Ability to demonstrate an area of special interest/skill and experience in an evidence based therapeutic intervention Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS and HCPC Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively and well, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups Able to plan own workload; and coordinate with other relevant staff in the delivery of clinical service Able to work at a high level of professional autonomy and responsibility, in a collaborative multi-disciplinary Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical / counseling psychology Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for clinical practice in relation to children/adolescents Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups Experience of working within a multi-cultural framework Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups within CAMHS Good presentation and teaching skills and ability to use multi-media materials for formal presentations to large groups Familiarity with computing technology, including keyboard skills, and use of word-processing, e-mail, and internet software

Desirable

Experience of having published in either peer reviewed academic or professional journals and/or books Experience and knowledge of CAPA and CYP-IAPT

Communication Skills

Essential

Ability to work and communicate highly sensitive, contentious information effectively in a highly emotive or hostile atmosphere, and to overcome barriers to acceptance/psychological resistance to potentially threatening information Ability to work with children and young people whose behaviour is personally challenging Ability to establish and maintain professional relationships and boundaries with young people Ability to provide a therapeutic environment which contributes to young people's healthy development Ability to think clearly and express self Ability to assess reports and clinical information and provide clear and concise information tailored for different audiences

Analytical Skills

Essential

Able to prioritise work, to operate a waiting list, meet short deadlines and an unpredictable work pattern which requires regular revision of plans Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behavior

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