Clinical Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Service & Team:

We are seeking an innovative and enthusiastic Clinical Psychologist to join our team who work with children in care known to the Local Authority.

You will be employed by Cornwall Council on Agenda for Change terms and conditions which will acknowledge your NHS continuous service and allow you to continue an NHS pension. We have close links with Clinical Psychologists in CPFT who support our clinical governance and CPD.

The post is Band 8a, but we encourage applications from newly/early qualified psychologists to be appointed at Band 7 under a preceptorship to work towards requirements for Band 8a, subject to satisfactory completion of preceptorship process. Full details available on request.

We work with children, young people and their families who are known to the Local Authority. The children we support have experienced neglect, abuse, trauma, loss and many have had a number of adverse childhood experiences. We use a range of attachment and trauma/recovery approaches in assessment, formulation and to guide our interventions. Our aim is to improve outcomes (including stability, attachment security, trauma recovery and permanence) for children from vulnerable groups. We are trauma-informed and are curious to understand what has happened to children (and their families) from a psychological perspective. The social care teams we support, value psychology highly and welcome our input.

The Role:

We have a 0.5FTE (2.5 days) post within our Therapeutic Parenting Stream, which provides Clinical Psychology input to the Children in Care and Fostering Teams in the Local Authority. We are embedded in the Children in Care social work teams, and the role is focused on supporting carers (kinship and foster carers), Social Workers and other professionals involved (through consultation, training and group supervision) to think psychologically about the children they support. We also support carers (kinship and foster carers) in adopting a therapeutic parenting approach to meet childrens needs and supporting recovery by offering regular therapeutic parenting groups (PACE informed), Circle of Security Reflective Parenting groups and training workshops. We also supervise our Attachment Mentors, who are experienced foster carers in adopting therapeutic parenting themselves, and who offer mentoring to other carers.

The post offers exciting opportunities to join a highly experienced and supportive multi-disciplinary team of Clinical Psychologists and Post Abuse Counsellors. Our team are happy in their work and are supported with relational-based, trauma-informed leadership. The team is part of Education & Community Health within the Together for Families Directorate of Cornwall Council with close links to Specialist CAMHS and the voluntary sector.

The role is subject to an enhanced criminal record disclosure check.

This is a public/customer-facing role, where the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers applies

Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and is an equal opportunities employer

What youll need to succeed:

You will need to have a post graduate qualification in Clinical Psychology and be registered with the HCPC. You will be experienced in working with children and young people with social / emotional and mental health needs and have a passion for improving outcomes for vulnerable groups. You will need a good understanding of attachment theory and complex developmental trauma and experience of working psychologically through consultation and training. You will be resilient and have well developed self-care skills as well as experience in supporting other professionals in working successfully with emotionally challenging and emotive subjects including trauma and abuse. We welcome enquiries and discussions about flexible working.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Please refer to the attached role profile.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Cornwall Council

Address

New County Hall

Treyew Road

Truro

Cornwall

TR1 3AY

Employer's website

https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)