Job summary
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.
Main duties of the job
The team values are a committed, empathic and trauma-informed approach to the work with children, their carers, families and the professional network. Applicants must be keen to facilitate service development and be open to develop new ways of working, demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in their approach to their work and team life and be willing to practice in a collaborative way. Offering consultation to develop reflective thinking and sharing complex psychological knowledge in an accessible way is a key skill within this role. The role will also include delivering training and skills development sessions for social workers, supporting therapeutic parenting approaches, developing psychologically informed plans and collecting and presenting qualitative and quantitative evaluation data. The Adopt London West Team have been trained in Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP) and the post holder will be expected to attend this and any available trainings to support the development of an attachment and trauma-informed model of practice, as well as offering a range of other interventions to support a therapeutically informed social work model. This a varied role which offers the opportunity for service development, leadership skills and working with teams/ systems around adopted children, young people and their families.
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.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. To provide specialist psychological services to adopted children and their carers referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care, including foster carers, school staff, other staff of the Education Authority and other workers in health, social services and the voluntary sector.
2. To formulate and implement plans for psychological support for adopted children who have emotional or behavioural difficulties or a mental health disorder, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. Support and plan for a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and network, within and across services employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. To evaluate and make decisions about psychological support options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
6. To collaborate with other members of the multi-disciplinary network in identifying mental health needs of young people, and devising psychotherapeutic treatments for children and their carers and groups where appropriate.
7. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance, training and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to a shared psychological knowledge and support plan, and more generally to team members, social workers and teachers and other staff working in schools, as well as to workers in other agencies.
8. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. To provide specialist psychological services to adopted children and their carers referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care, including foster carers, school staff, other staff of the Education Authority and other workers in health, social services and the voluntary sector.
2. To formulate and implement plans for psychological support for adopted children who have emotional or behavioural difficulties or a mental health disorder, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. Support and plan for a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and network, within and across services employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. To evaluate and make decisions about psychological support options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
6. To collaborate with other members of the multi-disciplinary network in identifying mental health needs of young people, and devising psychotherapeutic treatments for children and their carers and groups where appropriate.
7. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance, training and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to a shared psychological knowledge and support plan, and more generally to team members, social workers and teachers and other staff working in schools, as well as to workers in other agencies.
8. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
Person Specification
EXPERIENCE
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, (e.g. outpatient, community, primary care, in patient settings)
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
- Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Child Clinical Psychology Lead
- Experience working with children and young people in a CAMH setting
Desirable
- Experience of teaching, training
- Experience of offering supervision to other psychologists
- Experience of working with other agencies
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Experience of working with adopted children or care experienced children
- Experience of working in Social Services settings
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
- 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 the client group and mental health
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS (dependent on grade)
- Knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
Desirable
- Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups (e.g. looked after children, adopted children, children with disabilities)
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and families and mental health
- Knowledge of application of therapeutic models to care experienced children who may have a history of trauma, loss and/or attachment difficulties
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
- material and challenging behaviour. Commitment to provide support to children, their families/carers and linked professionals and maintain high levels of aspiration for LAC population
- 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
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.
- 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.
Person Specification
EXPERIENCE
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, (e.g. outpatient, community, primary care, in patient settings)
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
- Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Child Clinical Psychology Lead
- Experience working with children and young people in a CAMH setting
Desirable
- Experience of teaching, training
- Experience of offering supervision to other psychologists
- Experience of working with other agencies
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Experience of working with adopted children or care experienced children
- Experience of working in Social Services settings
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
- 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 the client group and mental health
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS (dependent on grade)
- Knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
Desirable
- Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups (e.g. looked after children, adopted children, children with disabilities)
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and families and mental health
- Knowledge of application of therapeutic models to care experienced children who may have a history of trauma, loss and/or attachment difficulties
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
- material and challenging behaviour. Commitment to provide support to children, their families/carers and linked professionals and maintain high levels of aspiration for LAC population
- 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
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.
- 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.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
