Senior Mental Health Practitioner - Clinical Psychologist

Job responsibilities

CLINICAL

1. Provide specialist assessments of children and young people referred to the service group
2. Develop, implement and review a range of evidence based treatment plans informed by clinical assessment and the specific needs of the individual within their wider social context
3. Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of children/young people in the context of Care Aims and CAPA models
4. Provide specialist advice, guidance and consultation to other professional groups
5. Undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual children and young people and to provide advice to external agencies regarding appropriate risk
6. Act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under CPA
7. Effectively communicate with families and other professionals involved in the life of the child/young person
8. Actively record all clinical outcomes.
9. Participate in the Service Group MDT as appropriate and at the direction of senior clinicians within the Team.

CLINICAL SUPERVISION/TRAINING/TEACHING

1. Receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with professional guidelines
2. Provide clinical supervision support to staff from own and other service groups/teams where appropriate
3. Contribute to the development and delivery of CPD programmes for own profession.
4. Develop skills in own area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and consultation.
5. Contribute to appropriate pre- and post-qualification training.

SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

1. Contribute to the development, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the Service Groups operational policies and procedures.
2. Participate in MDT and multi-agency meetings
3. Share responsibility with other team members, as appropriate, for implementing service developments.
4. Contribute to the management of workloads of appropriate staff within the framework of the Service Group policies and procedures.

RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND SERVICE EVALUATION

1. Utilise theory, literature and research to support evidence-based practice
2. Participate in agreed research activities and carry out specific research projects within own specialist area.
3. Undertake specific project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, as requested

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

1. Maintain comprehensive clinical notes and consultation records in accordance with trust policies and procedures
2. Utilise patient electronic record data for the implementation of audit and service delivery purposes to inform service developments.
3. Provide appropriate statistical returns as required.

PROFESSIONAL

1. Maintain professional registration and adhere to professional code of conduct and ethics
2. Undertake continued clinical professional development and maintain clinical standards through ongoing training as identified through CPD and PDR processes

GENERAL

1. Work as part of an MDT and support continual service improvement
2. Contribute to the delivery of national and local priorities as set out in the Trusts corporate objectives.
3. Perform other duties ,appropriate to banding, as required by the Operational Manager

Alder Hey Childrens NHS Foundation Trust is committed to supporting all staff to balance work and other life needs. This is the responsibility of all employees and will be achieved by consultation, open communication and involvement of all team members. The Trust operates a Flexible Working Policy that is available to all staff.

Education and Training

Essential

• HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of child and adolescent mental health.
• Post- graduate (masters and above) level study

Experience and Knowledge

Essential

• Experience of specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions with children and young people with mental health problems and their families.
• Working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team
• Working collaboratively with other agencies in a variety of venues
• Experience of working with a wide variety of child mental health problems, across the whole age range, reflecting all levels of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal and physical abuse.
• Must be experienced in providing risk assessment of self-harming behaviour. Must be experienced in analysing presenting problems and able to demonstrate ability to work autonomously utilising a range of therapeutic perspectives and modalities, depending on the needs of the client.
• Must be experienced in and able to demonstrate ability to provide case management supervision for lower banded CAMHS Workers, students and other service group/team professionals as required.
• Must demonstrate ability to be self-reflective and to organise own supervision appropriately. Must be able to demonstrate ability to develop and evaluate consultation and training to other professionals and to staff groups.
• Some knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Must demonstrate knowledge of the evidence base in their practice.
• Must demonstrate understanding of child development and psychosocial influences.
• Must demonstrate a working understanding of systemic psychodynamic, and cognitive theories along with recognition of when each approach is appropriate.
• Must demonstrate knowledge of audit and evaluation methodology.
• Must demonstrate knowledge of research methodology
• Must demonstrate an understanding of current government initiatives underpinning service developments. Must demonstrate strong organisational skills.
• Must be able to demonstrate the ability to manage aspects of service development in line with government initiatives.

Desirable

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of the application of specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions of in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working with children and young people in a range of clinical settings.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised therapies/interventions
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of child and adolescent mental health.

Skills

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of mental health 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 nonprofessional groups.
• Must demonstrate ability to autonomously managed own workload balance

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Must demonstrate a commitment to the overall vision of the development of the professional group of CAMHS Worker.
• Must show enthusiasm and appreciation for multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working.
• Must demonstrate a professional manner.
• Must demonstrate a high level of communication skills commensurate with the nature of clinical and professional contacts required of the post.
• Accountable for own professional actions
• Works within professional ethics and Trust policies

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

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.

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).