Specialist Paediatric Clinical Psychologist

Job overview

This is a permanent post within the Psychological and Mental Health Service at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The post holder will have a specific focus on providing input into our Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Units and the Cardiac/ Respiratory teams. The post sits within the Long Term Health conditions cluster, which covers cancer, cardiology, respiratory, HIV, infectious diseases and intensive care services.

The post holder will ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality clinical service to inpatients and outpatients and their families within the above services. This will include evidence-based psychological and developmental assessment, complex formulation, and individual and family-based interventions. The role also requires a high level of multidisciplinary working supporting parents when their child is acutely and often severely unwell. The post holder will also be expected to provide recommendations and extensive consultation to professional colleagues and other agencies involved in the child’s care, including facilitating staff support and reflective practice.

There are opportunities for supervision of both psychology and non-psychology staff as agreed with the consultant psychologists for their group.

The post holder will be expected to contribute to the flexible delivery of psychology services across the Trust, in response to new developments and organisational changes.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will predominantly provide a specialist psychology service to the NICU, PICU and cardiac/respiratory teams. They will ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality clinical psychology service to patients and families within the above services, across all sectors of care, including specialist assessment, complex formulation and evidence-based interventions. The post holder has a high proportion of direct clinical work, meeting with children and their parents both as inpatients, when the child or young person is acutely and often severely unwell, through to more long-term outpatient work (the outpatient work covers a range of clinical areas). They have responsibility for covering the ICU psychosocial meetings which ensures that the psychological needs of all children are discussed within the multi-disciplinary team (MDT). This fits with the service priorities and recommended standards to ensure that we meet the psychological needs of all babies and children.

Working for our organisation

We are committed to recruiting the best person for the job through a fair, open and consistent process that is free from bias and discrimination.

We are working towards becoming an anti-racist organisation. This means creating a workplace where every colleague feels seen, heard and valued, and where racism in any form has no place. Our anti-racism commitment is backed by action through our Anti-Racism Statement and action plan, developed in collaboration with our REACH staff network.

We actively challenge discrimination, dismantle barriers and embed equity across all aspects of our workforce, including recruitment, progression and development. All applicants will receive equal consideration regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, health condition or employment history.

We particularly welcome applications from ethnically diverse communities, people with disabilities or long-term health conditions, and LGBTQ+ community members. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a member of the Business Disability Forum, and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.

Our staff networks, including REACH, PRIDE, ENABLED and Women’s Networks, are active and executive supported. These employee-led networks play a vital role in shaping an inclusive culture at GOSH and are open to all colleagues.

Together, we are building a culture where inclusion is not optional - it is essential.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents please view the attachment/s below.

Person specification

GOSH Culture and Values

Essential criteria

• Our Always values

Academic/Professional qualification/Training

Essential criteria

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS/HCPC, including clinical psychometrics, neuropsychology and lifespan developmental psychology.
• Post-doctoral training and recorded CPD experience and /or further qualifications in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
• Registration with the Health and Care Professionals Council as Practitioner Psychologist.
• Eligibility for Chartered status and membership of the Division of Clinical Psychology.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists. Experience/

Experience/Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist at a specialist level.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts and of working in a multicultural framework.
• Experience of teaching or training.
• Experience working in a paediatric psychology team.
• Experience working therapeutically with children and young people.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and young people and child protection.
• Experience of supervising trainee psychologists, and/or other professionals.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in a NICU or PICU setting as part of a medical MDT.
• Experience of offering aspects of staff support including debriefs and reflective practice.
• Clinical experience working with children under the age of 2 years and their families.
• Experience in perinatal services and/or specific perinatal training.
• Knowledge and experience of using CFT and/or third wave therapeutic approaches.
• Experience and expertise in working with children who have life limiting and life-threatening conditions, including experience of bereavement work.

Skills/Abilities

Essential criteria

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their carers, and other professionals.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to distressing situations and challenging behaviours.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.
• Evidence of skilled and productive multidisciplinary team working.
• Ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, including verbal abuse.
• Evidence of specialised psychological therapeutic skills as used in complex cases within paediatrics.