Senior Clinical Psychologist

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South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good'.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I'm going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you'll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

This is a fantastic opportunity for a Senior Clinical Psychologist to join the Lewisham CAMHS Neurodevelopment Team (NDT), a thriving multi-disciplinary service currently undergoing expansion. The successful candidate will have an overview of the clinical input to young people within NDT, including the care pathways. They will also offer expert clinical supervision to Band 7 clinical psychologists and play an important role in service development, including liaison with other agencies and allied health professionals within the Kaleidoscope Children's Centre and the wider community.

The ideal candidate will therefore need to have highly specialist skills in mental health assessment and experience offering evidence based treatment to children and young people with comorbid mental health disorders and complex neurodevelopmental issues.

We work closely with our Community Paediatrics colleagues in their autism assessment clinics, therefore previous experience of these assessments and recognised training in ASD assessment tools (such as ADOS) would be beneficial. If you however have post registration experience in CAMHS we would support your development into this role by offering the relevant ADOS/ADI training. There are also opportunities to train in systemic approaches, attachment based interventions, positive behaviour support (PBS) and parenting interventions such as NVR

Main duties of the job

To provide a highly specialist clinical service for CAMHS Neurodevelopment Team (NDT) including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes, for young people with ASD/LD and mental health problems.

To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.

To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a senior specialist in

To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.

To work as an autonomous professional within appropriate guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.

To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.

To develop and oversee care pathways at the interface between NDT and other teams

Working for our organisation

South London & Maudsley NHS Trust has the largest child and adolescent mental health service in the country. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Directorate operates across the Trust and has a budget of circa £25 million. The Directorate provides local child and adolescent mental health services in the London Boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon as well as a National and Specialist out-patient service and 4 in-patient wards.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To provide highly specialist clinical assessments, formulations and interventions for children and young people in CAMHS

To provide culturally appropriate professional interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.

To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

To select and deliver evidence based specialist therapeutic interventions, drawing from a broad spectrum of systemic models, monitoring outcome and modifying and adapting interventions as necessary, based on the highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To act as care co-ordinator taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing care plans and meetings.

To undertake specialist neuropsychological assessments.

To provide psychological support to clients who are emotionally distressed. Either due to the serious consequences of their illness or due to other traumatic events in their lives.

To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues taking account communication needs.

To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities which make up CAMHS and at all times to work in ways that are sensitive to and appropriate for the needs of families from a wide range of racial, cultural and religious backgrounds, and to be aware and sensitive to the different contexts that different families may be acting out of.

To provide psychological support to clients and their families who are emotionally distressed, either due to the serious consequences of their illness or due to other traumatic events in their lives.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a clinically psychotherapeutically informed framework for the service area.

To provide consultations to other clinical staff on the use of clinical techniques and, where appropriate, to jointly work with other team members in the provision of therapeutic interventions

To provide consultation and facilitation to multi-disciplinary staff in case discussions, planning and decision making.

To contribute to the team or service's delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.

To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.

To contribute towards the provision of advice and consultancy to local teams/services for clients. In this respect, to advise on the development and integration within the team of your given clinical modality based assessment and intervention techniques that might at a systems level be incorporated within the team's operational policy, and be applied on a routine basis by other team members

To advise other members of the service on specialist psychotherapeutic care of clients.

To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice and/or currently understood best practice-based evidence, in individual work and work with other team members.

To participate in helping develop services to family and carers of service users

Person specification

Qualification & Registration

Essential criteria

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or masters in Clinical Psychology), appropriate HCPC registration, and demonstrable practice in this field (A/I)
• Additional training in a specialised area of practice through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses and/or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of the specialist modality to CAMHS
• Advanced knowledge of specialist clinical models in clinical assessment and treatment including knowledge of specific modality theories and evidence
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and young people's mental health issues and child protection.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of providing specialist modality therapy assessment, formulation and intervention with clients across a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in CAMHS.
• Experience of providing teaching and training to specialist modality or other professional groups.
• Experience of providing teaching and training to specialist modality or other professional groups.
• Experience of working with, and addressing issues of, diversity, including experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Skills

Essential criteria

• To select and administer specialist clinical assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources.
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.

Abilities

Essential criteria

• Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
• Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity

Please note:

• That all applications for this post will need to be made online
• That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not successful
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
• That we are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe'

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

• NDT JD & PS Band 8a (PDF, 640.5KB)
• SLaM Staff Benefits (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Happy to Talk Flexible Working (PDF, 680.1KB)