Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/Family Therapist/Psychotherapist

Job Overview

• To join the multi-disciplinary CAMH Service in the delivery of mental health care to children and young people and their families, including involvement in the multi-disciplinary assessment pathway.
• To provide specialist psychological and/or mental health input to children and young people and their families.
• To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy including specialist assessments for neurodevelopmental concerns (e.g. ASD and ADHD).
• To offer advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to colleagues from all disciplines and to individuals external to CAMHS working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.

Main duties of the job

• To work as a member of the multi-disciplinary CAMH service for children and young people, within the clinical governance structures and protocols of the service.
• To undertake generic and specialist psychological and neuropsychological assessments of children and families referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests (including WISC-V, ADOS-2, 3Di, ABAS etc.), self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, including frontline workers in health, education, Social Services and the voluntary sector.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of emotional and behavioural disorders in children, young people and families, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

Working for our organisation
Hillingdon CAMHS is based at Minet Clinic, Uxbridge. The team is well established and is staffed by a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians. We aim to provide an accessible, flexible and responsive local service for patients and professionals working with children in the area using the whole range of therapeutic interventions, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, systemic and family therapies, psychotherapy, psychoeducation and therapy groups and multi-family work. Hillingdon CAMHS consists of five main sub-teams:

• Emotional Disorders Team
• Neurodevelopmental Team
• Enhanced Treatment Team
• Learning Disabilities (LD-CAMHS)
• Multi-Agency Psychology Service (MAPS; for children looked after)
  The post holder may be required to travel to other parts of the catchment area and/or wider service and trust as necessary, including working within the community (e.g. schools). The service operates Monday to Friday 09.00 to 17:00 with some flexibility to work extended hours to meet service need.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

• To support the psychological assessment and therapy provided by other professionals and to offer supervision as agreed per job plan.
• To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the areas served by the services.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of one’s psychological practice.

Person specification

Education And Qualifications
Essential criteria

• Post-graduate doctoral level training (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) in clinical psychology, or counselling psychology, as accredited by the BPS. Training should include specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuro-psychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
• HCPC Registration as Practitioner Psychologist: Clinical Psychologist.
• OR A professional training and relevant CAMHS experience in combination with professional registration with one of the following statutory bodies: the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC), Health Professional's Council (HPC), Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP), The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).

Desirable criteria

• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice especially relevant to complex CAMHS. In particular:
  • Research
  • CYP-IAPT Therapy Training
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
  • ADOS-2
• Recent Safeguarding children training

Previous Experience
Essential criteria

• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity around mental health concerns across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of working within a multidisciplinary Specialist CAMHS team and of providing specialist CAMHS assessment and intervention.
• Experience of delivering evidence-based treatment using a range of modalities in a number of cultural contexts.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of providing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and other therapies to young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and other neurodevelopmental differences (e.g. Learning Disabilities).
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Supervised experience of evidence-based treatment in relation to children with mental health concerns.

Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies.
• Knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration, in particular as applied to complex problems including cognitive behavioural methods.
• Knowledge of the theoretical evidence base for understanding, formulating and providing interventions for mental health concerns experienced by children and young people.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information including diagnoses and formulations 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.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance and as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Experience of assessing mental health risk and safeguarding concerns.
• Training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy acquired during Doctorate Qualification and/or trained to minimum diploma level.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). In particular, knowledge and experience of the Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) process.

Desirable criteria

• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of other specialised psychological CAMHS or family treatments.
• Knowledge of CAMHS legislation.
• Knowledge and experience of research methodology.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Experience of planning and delivery group treatments.

Personal
Essential criteria

• Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery and an ability to articulate the value added by clinical psychology services within the context of multi-disciplinary mental health services.
• Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to ‘hold’ the stress of others.
• Able to build constructive relationships with warmth and empathy, using good communication skills.
• Treats service users with respect and dignity at all times.
• Enthusiastic, flexible and confident approach to working.
• Able to prioritise own workload and meet performance requirements for the role.
• Willingness and ability to learn new skills and adapt to change.

Other
Essential criteria

• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
• Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behavior. In particular:
  • Understands and able to implement and promote the Equal Opportunities Policy at a level appropriate to the post.
  • Understands and can apply confidentiality and information sharing policy and procedures.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.