Job summary
We are really pleased to offer an exciting opportunity to join our Neuro-developmental team in Bedfordshire CAMHS services. We are looking for a band 8a Senior Clinical Psychologist to join our well established multi-disciplinary Team. We are a team that prides itself on creative, innovative and evidenced based approaches to our work with service users and carers and value a supportive and reflective culture in the work environment. We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated Clinical Psychologist and would welcome applications from a Clinical Psychologist with experience of working with children and young people with diagnoses of Neurodivergence and Intellectual Disability.
Main duties of the job
The Bedfordshire and Luton Neurodevelopmental Team (NDT) consists of a group of highly experienced and motivated professionals who work closely as a team and with partnership agencies to provide a very well-respected service to children and their families. The team combine clinical, teaching and research skills to deliver up-to-date, evidence-based interventions for children with neurodevelopmental differences, who also have either severe behaviours that can challenge or moderate to severe mental health difficulties in both Luton and South Bedfordshire.
ELFT CAMHS is a well-established multidisciplinary service that provides a comprehensive stepped model of care for children, young people and their families in the locality. The service compromises teams of clinicians that currently includes Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology, Systemic Family Therapy, Community Mental Health Nurses and a variety of other key psychological therapy and clinical disciplines. The post holder will be providing specialist mental health assessment and intervention as part of the Neurodevelopmental Team (NDT), will help to coordinate the delivery of the service as well as provide specialist supervision, consultation, training and direct clinical interventions. The NDT works with children and young people with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities, and those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Condition, and their carers and families.
About us
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.
We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.
Job description
Job responsibilities
For further details / informal visits contact:
Contact name :
Dr Ellen Mackey
Contact job title :
Principle Clinical Psychologist- Luton and South Beds NDT
Contact email address:
Contact telephone number :
01525 638613
Person Specification
Education/ Qualification/ Training
Essential
1. Postgraduate (Doctoral) Training in Clinical Psychology leading to Practitioner Psychologist Registration with the HPC
2. Post doctoral training in supervision.
Experience
Essential
3. Some experience within the specialty of child and adolescent clinical psychology, in particular within a learning disability setting, and assessed experience of working at an equivalent to Band 8a level in child and adolescent mental health.
4. Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings.
5. Experience of liaison and joint work with other statutory, including Social Services and Education, and voluntary agencies, including crisis management.
6. Experience of the application of psychology and delivering services in different cultural contexts.
7. Experience of teaching, training and professional and clinical supervision.
8. Experience of assessing children and adolescents for therapy including risk assessment.
9. Experience of providing interventions to patients with complex problems.
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
10. Masters or Doctorate level knowledge of clinical psychology or counselling including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies.
11. Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the health and welfare of children and adolescents and mental health.
12. Specialist knowledge Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Positive Behavioural Reinforcement, and adapting therapy to working with young people with intellectual disabilities and ASC.
13. Specialist knowledge - Complex Cases Knowledge of severe child and adolescent mental health problems, including comprehensive multi-disciplinary assessment, systems of psychiatric classification and intervention.
14. Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies for complex presentations in adolescence, psychosis, OCD, eating disorders, severe depression, neuro-developmental disorders and their assessment, dual diagnosis.
15. Communication & Relationship skills A high level ability to communicate effectively at both a written and oral level complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to adolescent clients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS.
16. Able to use highly specialist skills of empathy and diplomacy to overcome significant barriers to understanding and acceptance often in a highly emotive and sometimes hostile atmosphere.