Hounslow CAMHS are looking to recruit someone passionate about working with looked after children in the role of highly specialist clinical or counselling psychologist within the LAC team (0.6WTE permanent).

The role is embedded within the local authority, and linked to our wider CAMH service, and aims to promote positive outcomes for children and young people by working closely with social workers, foster carers, and other key people in a young person's network.

The successful applicant will be joining another highly specialist psychologist within the LAC local authority team, and will have excellent opportunities for linking in with other CAMH clinicians embedded within the local authority, as well as a large psychology team, and the wider multidisciplinary CAMH service. The post holder will receive regular supervision from the Principal Clinical Psychologist, and there are opportunities to develop further skills in role through regular staff CPD slots and whole service trainings, as well as support to develop specialist skills in working with looked after children and their carers and networks.

Main duties of the job

This role would suit a psychologist with some experience in working with children who are looked after, and who values the opportunity to work with a young person's network through consultation and training in addition to direct work with them and their carers.

Psychologists without LAC experience, but with a passion for working with this client group will be supported to develop the necessary skills. We also welcome applications from newly qualified, or about to qualify, psychologists, who would be considered for a preceptorship post (appointment at band 7/ specialist psychologist level with defined competencies to progress to band 8a).

About us

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK.

Our 3,982 staff care for people in hospital and in the community, helping them to recover and go on to lead full and productive lives. We aim to be the best organisation of our kind in the country.

We provide care and treatment for more than 800,000 people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow, delivering services in the community (at home, in GP surgeries and care homes), hospital, specialist clinics and forensic (secure) units.

We'rerated good overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Together, we're committed to promoting hope and wellbeing, working with patients, service users, carers, families and partners across the communities we serve.

We are keen to ensure that our workforce reflects the community it serves, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ and experience of mental illness.

The regulations mandating vaccination for in-scope roles in the NHS have now been removed. The Trust does however continue to encourage and support staff to be vaccinated as this remains the best line of defence against COVID19. Vaccination data will be collected by our recruitment team during your on-boarding if you are happy to provide a copy of your COVID pass.

Job description Job responsibilities

The post holder will provide a highly specialist clinical psychology service to looked after children and their carers in Hounslow. They will be embedded within the local authority looked after childrens team, working closely with social workers working with children and their foster carers to provide a specialist and intensive assessment, support and therapeutic intervention to support positive change. The post holder will offer consultation to team members and the network around them; offering advice, training and support to non-psychology colleagues on client psychological and mental health needs, as well as to support colleagues to develop their reflective practice and case formulation skills. The psychologist will be expected to be able to work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the teams policies and procedures.

Person Specification TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society, or equivalent if trained overseas.
• Eligible to work as a Practitioner
• Psychologist as approved by the Health Care Professions Council.

Desirable

• Training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

EXPERIENCE Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and their families across a range of care settings, (e.g. outpatient, community, primary care, in patient settings).
• Experience of working with children, adolescents and their families which will have involved maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience working as a specialist clinical psychologist in CAMHS.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.

Desirable

• Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) with learning disability and/or neurodevelopmental conditions (eg. ASD, ADHD, etc) in a CAMH setting.
• Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) with a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder.
• Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) who present in crisis and have provided therapeutic input to prevent inpatient admission.
• Experience of working with other agencies and providing consultation.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working with children/young people with special educational needs and challenging behaviour or mental health difficulties and their families.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment and intervention with children, young people and their families.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to children/families, mental health and children's social care.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS/HCPC (dependent on grade).

Desirable

• Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups e.g. those in crisis, have a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder and/or neurodevelopmental difficulties, or specialist skills in working with children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of application of therapeutic models to children who have special educational needs.

OTHER Essential

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Commitment to provide support to children, their families/carers and linked professionals and maintain high levels of aspiration for the population referred to the service.
• Willingness to work flexibly when necessary.
• Commitment to working flexibly and collaboratively with team colleagues and to support innovative ways of working.
• To approach clients with empathy and adaptability and to be open to development of new approaches to work with clients.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details Employer name
West London NHS Trust
Address
Hounslow CAMHS

Alliance CAMHS team

Hounslow

UB1 3EU

Employer's website
https://www.westlondon.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

222-LS-CAMHS-250-A