Band 8a - Highly Specialist Paediatric Palliative Care Clinical Psychologist Lead

Looking for an exciting challenge with an opportunity to expand your skills and knowledge whilst enjoying your job? Specialist Children and Young People's Services (SCYPS) in Newham have the perfect opportunity for you to join us in the role of Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist Lead for the Diana Children's Community Palliative Care Psychology and Play Service.

This is unique and exciting opportunity for a dynamic, motivated and experienced Clinical Psychologist to lead our specialist community palliative care psychology and play service. You will ensure high quality and holistic care is provided to the families of babies, children and young people with life-threatening/limiting conditions (including bereaved families), alongside providing specialist advice, consultation and teaching for the professional networks supporting children with palliative and end of life care needs in Newham.

You will be joining a service which aspires to provide care of the highest quality, in collaboration with those who use our services. We embrace continuous improvement and learning and you will be instrumental in leading the service to think differently, be innovative, and give everyone, at every level, the skills they need to lead change.

Main duties of the job

In SCYPS we provide a range of services to support the residents who reside within the London Borough of Newham. Newham is culturally the most diverse of all London boroughs, with people from a rich variety of ethnic, religious, and linguistic backgrounds.

The Diana Palliative Care Team within SCYPS provides a multidisciplinary service for babies, children and young people who have a range of palliative diagnoses (for example Edwards Syndrome, Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Palliative Oncology Conditions) at various stages on their journey from receiving prognosis, through living with the condition and medical interventions, symptom management, end-of-life care and bereavement.

About us

This is a 0.8wte 8a post and is a fixed term opportunity to cover maternity leave. Applications for flexible or part-time working are welcomed as are secondment opportunities.

You will be working as part of a supportive and friendly multidisciplinary team with good links to national and pan-London palliative care networks. You will also have opportunity to participate in systemic consultation sessions and access clinical supervision from a consultant clinical psychologist and family therapist in children's palliative care.

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.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Working closely with community childrens nurses, health play specialist, clinical psychologist and family therapist team colleagues in the Diana Team, you will lead the psychology and play service and ensure equity of access to a high-quality community clinical psychology assessment, therapy and consultation service for young people living with complex life-shortening health conditions, their families and the social and professional networks around them.

You will lead the bereavement service to families and staff support groups after the death of children with life-shortening conditions and drive quality improvement and service development projects for the team.

You will need excellent organisational and interpersonal skills, be able to demonstrate effective leadership and you must be able to operate at both operational and strategic levels. You should be highly motivated, caring and passionate about improving the healthcare and wellbeing of the people of Newham. You will work in an environment that actively supports continuous professional development and is part of a wider service that enjoys a successful relationship with colleagues from a range of disciplines and organisations.

Please read the attached Job specifications and person specification carefully. You should provide evidence in your application of the essential qualities required and why you would be an asset to our Service. We put all our patients at the heart of all we do.

For an informal discussion and further information please contact

Hazel Dean (Head of Nursing for SCYPS Newham) hazel.dean3@nhs.net or Dr Amy Volans (Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Family Psychotherapist) amy.volans@nhs.net

Person Specification

Education/ Qualification/ Training

Essential

• Doctoral level training in Clinical Psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometric and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS
• Registration as a Psychologist with the HCPC

Desirable

• Training in the supervision of other psychologists

Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment 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 and presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal abuse
• Experience of working in a paediatric psychology and/or community child learning disability setting
• Experience of working in children's palliative care and/or bereavement
• Experience of working collaboratively with families / therapy with more than one client in the room
• Experience of facilitating consultation / reflective practice groups for health care workers

Desirable

• Experience of service development/service improvement projects
• Experience of collaborative systemic approaches to working with families / staff groups
• Experience of service user involvement projects
• Experience of supervising and line managing other psychologists

Employer details

Employer name

East London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Appleby Health Centre

London

E16 1LQ

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

363-SS5817722