CAMHS Senior Clinical / Counselling Psychologist
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Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.
The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.
Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video
Job overview
We are very excited to share that our Waltham Forest Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (WF CAMHS) has an opportunity for an existing or aspiring Band 8a Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join our large and established team.
The post holder will work across the following parts of our service:
• Our Neurodevelopmental Pathway: providing assessment and formulation of autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (for 0.6WTE / 3 days)
• Our Emotional Difficulties Pathway: providing assessment, formulation, and interventions for children and young people with a range of moderate to severe mental health difficulties (e.g. anxiety, low mood/depression, OCD, trauma) and/or their networks (for 0.3WTE / 1.5 days)
We welcome pre-application conversations. Working from home is possible on days that do not require face-to-face contacts (many colleagues work in a hybrid way). We may also consider working compressed hours.
You will be part of a large, supportive multi-disciplinary CAMHS team that has significant psychology presence. Our friendly Psychology & Allied Professions meet face-to-face once a week and include 10 clinical and counselling psychologists, 3 CBT therapists, trainee psychologists, 3 assistant psychologists, and a PBS practitioner. The Emotional Difficulties and Neurodevelopmental Pathway MDTs also each meet twice per week (combination of virtual and in-person).
Main duties of the job
As senior psychologist you would work closely with the Lead Psychologist and be supported to lead coordination within an area of psychology, which could include e.g. our Cognitive Assessment clinic, CYP IAPT/BABCP accreditation liaison, trainee course liaison.
As a senior clinician you will hold a caseload of children and families with complex needs, including supporting children who may be on the edge of inpatient admission. You will have a commitment to collaborative working and actively supporting and liaising with other health, education, and social care professionals in line with a trauma-informed, evidence-based, and inclusive model of practice within the service. You will be passionate about ensuring the child's voice is central to the work we do and work in partnership with families/carers and other agencies to achieve the best possible outcomes for the child. You will actively contribute to our MDT and professional meetings and appropriately support others in doing so, especially those whose voices may generally be less heard. You will supervise and line manage Band 7 Psychologists and other junior members of the team, and provide consultation to the wider service. You will promote co-production with those with lived experience and contribute to service development.
Working for our organisation
We pride ourselves on a compassionate, trauma-informed, evidence-based, and inclusive approach that puts both staff wellbeing and CYP at its centre. This is a great time to join NELFT, as we have had significant investment in senior leadership of psychological professions across the Trust and expect ongoing commitment to developing and retaining high quality staff through CPD, supervision and an annual psychological professions conference. The Trust also has various committees as part of our commitment to promoting equality and diversity (e.g. LGBTQ+, EDI, and disability, amongst others), which frequently provide free training and regular meetings. As part of our trauma-informed approach, we strongly encourage good work/life balance, compassionate and approachable leadership, and collaborative team decision-making whenever possible.
Starting with NELFT
NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).
High-Cost Area Supplement
This post attracts payment for High-Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £4,313 and a maximum payment of £5,436 per annum pro rata).
Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer closely to this when completing your application.
We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Any development needs to help you succeed in the role, can be discussed at the interview stage.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Postgraduate degree in clinical or counselling psychology
- HCPC registration
- Formal training in specific therapeutic modality
Desirable criteria
- Formal training in supervision
- Formal leadership training
- Formal training in neuropsychological/neurodevelopmental assessment
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience working within CYP mental health
- Experience working with moderate to severe and complex mental health issues
- Experience working with ND issues
Desirable criteria
- Experience providing clinical supervision
- Experience providing line management
- Leadership experience
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Knowledge of child development
- Knowledge of ND issues
Desirable criteria
- Transferable knowledge
Benefits
We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:
- A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
- A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
- Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
- Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.
Supporting our Armed Forces
We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.
Equal opportunities employer
We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.
We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.
Correspondence with us
You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.
In the event of a high number of responses to any advert, NELFT reserves the right to close the vacancy early. If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date then please assume you have not been successful on this occasion.
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
- WFCAMHS 8a Clinical Counselling Psychologist JD & PS (PDF, 482.7KB)
- NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)