Clinical Psychologist

Job summary

This is a fixed term contract for 12 months.

We have an exciting opportunity for a clinical psychologist to join our caring and supportive team within the Neurodevelopmental service in CAMHS. You will part of a multi-disciplinary team providing specialist clinical psychology to the service with a special focus on the ASD pathway. This is a secondment opportunity to cover maternity leave and we would like to encourage internal applicants to apply.

We are a multidisciplinary team working with youngsters with a diagnosed moderate to severe Learning Disability and we provide assessment and treatment for Autism and ADHD. The team provides mental health assessments of youngsters with a neurodevelopmental disorder and also psychological therapies for co-morbid mental health disorders. This post has a particular focus on the Autism pathway.

The ideal candidate will have a strong team and work ethic, sense of accountability, interest in research and service development, accompanied by an ability to work under considerable pressure at times.

If you are looking for a new challenge, enjoy variety in your work and wish to be part of a multidisciplinary team striving to make a difference for our community by supporting children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders and co-morbid mental health issues, then we want to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

This post allows the post holder an exciting opportunity to provide a highly specialist clinical or counselling psychology service to children and adolescents and their families/carers with a neurodevelopmental condition (ADHD, ASD or LD) plus a wide spectrum of mental health, developmental and psychological difficulties. The post will be primarily based in the Neurodevelopmental CAMHS team but sometimes may be required to work in the Core CAMHS team, as demand requires. The post holder will provide highly specialist clinical assessments and interventions for children and their families/carers as well as offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to both professional colleagues and staff from other agencies. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of both the Trust's and the neurodevelopmental pathway's policies and procedures. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

About us

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.

To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share our vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments of children and adolescents referred to the Neurodevelopmental team, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, their families and others involved in the clients care (including professionals from other agencies). To individually formulate, plan, implement and evaluate plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health or other complex psychological problems based on an appropriate conceptual framework adapting/utilising several psychological models and employing methods of proven efficacy, across a range of care settings. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individual children and young people, families/carers, and via groups, within and across teams, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing on different explanatory models including developmental, cognitive, learning theory, biological, neuropsychological, and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses. To provide specialist child neuropsychology assessments, providing advice and consultation based on this information to neurodevelopmental professionals, clients and their families and other agency professionals (especially education) as appropriate. To lead and participate in the Neurodevelopmental Service. 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 their family and/or carers. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, psychological formulation, treatment and discharge of own clients, and to manage and maintain caseload in line with service requirements. To provide highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan. To 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 these children and their families. To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of own (caseholder) clients and/or carers and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care and joint work with other agencies Person Specification

Education/Qualifications

Essential

Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the HCPC. HCPC Registered.

Desirable

Undertaken training in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists. Undertaken relevant post-doctoral training. Chartered Clinical / Counselling Psychologist.

Experience

Essential

Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient settings. Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity, maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse. Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified clinician and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care-plan. Demonstrate further specialist training/experience.

Desirable

Experience of teaching. Experience of group working. Experience of working with children with a learning disability. Experience of working with people with an autistic spectrum disorder. Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different social and cultural contexts.

Knowledge & Understanding

Essential

Good understanding of other professionals' theoretical perspectives of this client group. Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour. Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group. Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology. Highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology and models of psychopathology and learning relevant to children and young people. Knowledge of national strategies in relation to children and young people and mental health.

Desirable

Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in child and adolescent/ children with learning disability. High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.

Physical Requirements

Essential

Able to travel within the locality.

Other

Essential

Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings. Ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines. Ability to articulate and interpret clearly the role of the profession of clinical psychology based upon a good understanding of the framework of governance and national professional policy. Recognise people's right to privacy and dignity, treating every person with respect. Willingness to be flexible in approach and attitude

Skills and abilities

Essential

Excellent clinical skills of psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgement skills. Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and potentially highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, enabling formation of networks with professionals within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective teamworking with clients. Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from clients. Able to contain and work with organisational stress. Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult, volatile situations.

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