Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

See full job description in supporting documentation

Clinical:

1. To provide specialist psychological services to adopted children and their carers referred to the 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, family members and others involved in the client's care, including foster carers, school staff, other staff of the Education Authority and other workers in health, social services and the voluntary sector.

2. To formulate and implement plans for psychological support for adopted children who have emotional or behavioural difficulties or a mental health disorder, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

3. Support and plan for a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and network, within and across services employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

4. To evaluate and make decisions about psychological support 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.

Person specification

EXPERIENCE

Essential criteria

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, (e.g. outpatient, community, primary care, in patient settings)
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, 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 training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Child Clinical Psychology Lead
• Experience working with children and young people in a CAMH setting

Desirable criteria

• Experience of teaching, training
• Experience of offering supervision to other psychologists
• Experience of working with other agencies
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working with adopted children or care experienced children
• Experience of working in Social Services settings

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Essential criteria

• 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 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
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS (dependent on grade)
• Knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups (e.g. looked after children)
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and families and mental health
• Knowledge of application of therapeutic models to care experienced children who may have a history of trauma, loss and/or attachment difficulties

OTHER

Essential criteria

• 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 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 behaviour
• material and challenging behaviour. Commitment to provide support to children, their families/carers and linked professionals and maintain high levels of aspiration for LAC population
• Willingness to work flexibly when necessary
• Commitment to working flexibly and collaboratively with team colleagues and to support innovative ways of working
• To approach clients with empathy and adaptability and to be open to development of new approaches to work with clients

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential criteria

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society.
• Eligible to work as a Practitioner Psychologist as approved by the Health Care Professions Council.

Desirable criteria

• Training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

As an employee of West London NHS Trust, you have a responsibility to maintain a sound understanding of, and a commitment to uphold the National Health Service values and principles set out in the NHS Constitution.

We reserve the right to close adverts prior to the closing date stated should we receive a high volume of applications.

By applying for this post you are agreeing to West London NHS Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, you will be required to undergo a pre-employment checks which can take between 4-8 weeks . After which your information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system (ESR ).

Please ensure you include email addresses for your referees which MUST be at supervisory or managerial capacity covering the last 3 years of employment to date to avoid delay in the recruitment process.

West London NHS Trust is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We encourage the thoughtful use of technology as a demonstration of strong time management and a commitment to innovation. However, we encourage applicants to personalise their recruitment application to showcase their unique skills and experiences.

While AI-generated content can be a helpful tool, relying solely on generic responses instead of highlighting your own strengths and achievements may impact the success of your application. The success of an application will always be assessed against the essential and desirable criteria for the role, so it is important to ensure that your application and any supporting information clearly demonstrate how you meet these requirements.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• AD & JD (PDF, 952.2KB)