Clinical Psychologist

This job represents an exciting opportunity for a newly qualified clinical psychologist to develop their skills and experience in the field of paediatrics. You will be part of a growing paediatric psychology service based at Northwick Park Hospital with a responsibility for supporting children and young people (CYP) with diabetes across Ealing hospital and Northwick Park hospital. Alongside working with CYP with diabetes, there will be the possibility of supporting CYP with other diagnoses such as epilepsy.

Main duties of the job

• To provide a qualified specialist clinical psychology service to CYP being seen within the Paediatric Service at Northwick Park Hospital and Ealing Hospital across all sectors of care; providing specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on patients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers.
• The majority of the post would be working as an integrated member of the well-established paediatric multidisciplinary diabetes services at Ealing and Northwick Park hospitals. The remaining part of the role would be to work with CYP being seen within the paediatric epilepsy service. Work would include the provision of inpatient and outpatient support.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients 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 client’s care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, 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.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment 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.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• 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.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of psychological care plans including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

Person specification

Training & Qualification

• 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 BPS.
• Registration with the HCPC as a clinical psychologist – domain of clinical psychology.
• Training and qualifications in a relevant field of applied psychology/research methodology.

Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including child, young people and their families.
• Pre and/or post qualification experience of working in a paediatric psychology team.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervising.

Knowledge & Skills

• 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 offering consultation/reflective practice within multidisciplinary acute health setting.

Other

• 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.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible. Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.

Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period. If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

You must have appropriate UK professional registration. This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

We offer a generous relocation package (subject to eligibility assessment) and flexible working options, including bank assignments for most roles. For more information on these and other benefits of working for us, see our Benefits, Reward and Wellbeing page.