An exciting opportunity has arisen for a full-time substantive Psychologist to join our supportive and dedicated team at Chalkhill.

Chalkhill is an adolescent inpatient service for young people aged 13 to 18 years old, providing a service for young people presenting with a wide range of difficulties requiring assessment and/or intervention. You would be joining a dynamic and enthusiastic psychological therapies team in providing effective assessment and evidence-based individual and group interventions to young people and their families or carers. You would be supported to work closely with the multidisciplinary team and would be able to take on an active role in the design and implementation of innovations in care.

The Trust is supportive of ongoing professional development and you would be supported to access regular CPD. You would be supported to complete Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) training, and to subsequently access specialist DBT supervision.

This post would suit a motivated psychologist who is dedicated to delivering high-quality care to young people and their families. We are very passionate about growing and developing our clinical psychologists in Tier 4 CAMHS and we therefore welcome applications from 3rd year Trainee Clinical Psychologists.

We welcome enquiries about the post and would be happy to support applicants to have an informal visit to the service. Please contact the Lead Psychologist on 01444 472670 to find out more.

Main duties of the job

As a practitioner psychologist at Chalkhill, you will assess, plan, implement and evaluate psychological interventions delivered in the service as part of the psychological therapies team. You will take an active part in the day to day life on the unit including attending ward rounds and team meetings. You will work as part of a multidisciplinary team providing evidence based individual and group work and will work closely with your multidisciplinary colleagues to deliver a high quality, safe and effective service. You will contribute to admission and discharge processes and be able to effectively assess risk and develop risk formulation and management plans. You will utilize and promote the use of outcome measures and feedback tools within the service and support quality improvement projects. You will be expected to value and promote collaborative working and our team ethos of young person and family centered care.

Regular clinical supervision would be provided, and you would be supported to continue developing and expanding upon your clinical and professional skills. Opportunities would be available to develop your supervision and leadership skills in order to support your ongoing career development.

The position is full-time (37.5 hours per week). We know that a positive work-life balance brings about huge health-related benefits, which has a positive impact on the care we provide. Please speak to us about flexible working options.

About us

We provide mental health and learning disability care for children, young people and adults across Sussex and for children and young people in Hampshire. As one of the largest providers of children and young people's mental health services, our Care Delivery Service (CDS) provides care across Sussex and Hampshire. Supported by our Clinical Academic Group (CAG) we work to put research, innovation and learning into practice. Our offer is for a career not just a job, in a team and a Trust committed to delivering the best care possible to the community whilst being committed to the wellbeing of its staff. Our staff are our greatest asset.

Working in Sussex:

• Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns there's always new experiences to be enjoyed
• Embrace the city life with great access to visit Brighton and London
• With easy access to Gatwick and Heathrow and excellent railway links across the UK there is plenty of opportunity for adventure

We'd love you to join our organisation that is rated 'good' overall and 'outstanding' for caring by the Care Quality Commission. Our staff agree, with 82% of people in our recent staff survey telling us that they recognise that care for patients is our top priority.

Other key staff survey results include:

• 70% highlighting flexible working opportunities as a key point for satisfaction at work
• 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work within their team

Job description Job responsibilities

• To provide a qualified, high-quality specialist psychology service to young people, carers, families and groups, within Chalkhill, in line with best, evidence-based practice and trust care pathways.
• To be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload and to exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the planning and prioritising of own workload and working as part of the multidisciplinary team in the assessment, treatment and discharge of young people, within the bounds of the service operational policy.
• To use analytical and judgment skills and be responsible for taking clinical management decisions in complex clinical issues.
• To clinically supervise Assistant Psychologists and Trainee Clinical Psychologists.
• To professionally supervise Assistant Psychologists and Trainee Clinical Psychologists
• To provide consultation and advice about psychological issues to other members of the team and other professionals or teams working with young people admitted to Chalkhill.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.
• To contribute to local service developments under the supervision of the professional lead.
• To utilise research skills to undertake service evaluation, audit and research as appropriate and disseminate the results in the service and nationally.
• To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service.
• To protect the health and safety of our staff/workers, patients, and those attending our sites, we encourage our workforce to get fully vaccinated against COVID

Person Specification Qualifications Essential

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in applied psychology [or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or outside the UK], including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as approved by the HCPC
• Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HCPC)

Knowledge/Experience Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological working (assessment, formulation and treatment) 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, inpatient and residential care settings, maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of applied psychology
• High level of knowledge and skills in neuropsychology and evidence of further practice and/or training since qualification
• Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

354-CS-20888-A