Band 8a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist - Bristol

Main area Learning Disability - Clinical Psychology Grade Band 8a Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 22.5 hours per week (Wednesday, Thursday & Friday) Job ref 342-CAMHS075-1026

Employer Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust Employer type NHS Site South Gloucestershire - CAMHS Learning Disability Team - Kingswood Hub Town Bristol Salary £57,528 - £64,750 per annum pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 20/10/2026 23:59

Band 8a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist - Bristol

Band 8a

Job overview

To provide a highly specialist clinical psychology direct assessment/intervention and consultation service to children and young people with learning disabilities (LD) and their carers referred to the CAMHS Learning Disability Team (CAMHS LD).

The postholder will be expected to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team whilst at the same time, for clinical governance purposes, to be professionally accountable to the iPBS Service Lead.

Provision of specialist psychological advice, consultation and training for other professionals, teams and agencies involved in the care of children with learning disabilities referred to the CAMHS LD.

Supervision of trainee clinical psychologists and other professionals working with children and young people with learning disabilities who are experiencing emotional, behavioural and mental health difficulties as appropriate.

Propose changes in service developments, guidelines, protocols and projects relevant to children with learning disabilities in consultation with the Service Leads.

Undertake or support research and audit relevant to this area of healthcare.

Provision of teaching, as required, to other health care professionals, and to professional staff from other agencies.

Main duties of the job

To provide expertise in Positive Behaviour Support and other related fields in the support of children and families referred to CAMHS LD.

To provide clinical reports within the appropriate time scales.

To work as part of the CAMHS LD Team and provide evidence-based, specialist psychological assessments and interventions for children and young people with learning disabilities and their carers.

To provide psychological consultancy and staff support for other staff within multi-professional, service delivery systems for children and young people referred to CAMHS LD and their carers.

To liaiseandco-operatewithotherprofessionalsand agenciesprovidingservicesto children and young people with learning disabilities and their families in the area to enable coordinated psychologicalintervention, care planning andcase management.Thiswillinclude jointworkand consultation as appropriate.

To participate in regular clinical and multi-agency meetings concerning the delivery of services for children and adolescents with learning disabilities and their families within the Trust.

To carry out other clinical duties as may become appropriate in discussion with the CAMHS LD.

Working for our organisation

We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provideHigh Quality, Compassionate Careeverywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

CLINICAL

• To provide a high quality and largely autonomous and systematic clinical/counselling psychology service.
• To undertake highly specialist assessments, including neuropsychological assessment, risk assessment and assessment for suitability for specialist psychological therapies with clients and their carers (as appropriate to the role).
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of clients’ 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 providing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers 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 provide at least one specialist evidence based psychological intervention as dictated by the needs of the service.
• To provide highly specialist consultation to members of the various teams in the area and beyond regarding formulation and psychological management of clients of those teams.

li>To use highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills to contribute to the more effective management of patients by teams.

• To be involved in the development and delivery of training within the Trust.
• To participate in clinical and caseload supervision arrangements provided by the Service.
• To maintain accurate records and to monitor clinical workload using agreed systems.
• To support the full implementation of CPA or equivalent including acting as care-coordinator as appropriate to the needs of the service.
• To enter data as requested by the Trust in a timely manner.

MANAGEMENT

• Delegated caseload supervision
• Represent the service at specialist meetings as requested
• The co-ordination of small scale projects as requested

PROFESSIONAL

• To fully adhere to the Policies and Procedures of the HCP. To fully observe the BPS (1996) Code of Conduct and the DCP Guidelines for the Professional Practice of Clinical Psychology (1995).
• To be aware of, adhere to, and where appropriate, contribute to the formulation and review of Trust, Area, Clinical Psychology policies and procedures. Copies of Trust Policies can be accessed via the staff intranet or from your manager.
• To participate in local psychological therapy and psychology meetings and trust wide meetings as appropriate.
• To maintain and develop high standards of clinical psychology practice by engaging in continuing professional development and co-operative working/networking with other clinical psychologists.
• To participate in an annual performance appraisal.
• To participate in clinical supervision.

SERVICE GOVERNANCE

• To participate in service governance processes in the profession and in the LDU to maintain a safe, effective service which responds to Service User feedback.
• To support and participate in multidisciplinary clinical audit.
• To liaise with other disciplines and agencies to ensure that best practice is shared.
• To promote the use of effective interventions in the service.

TRAINING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

• To provide supervision for clinical psychology trainees from regional training courses and elsewhere as appropriate.
• To provide training, supervision and consultation in psychological approaches to other staff in multidisciplinary teams. This is to include joint assessment, formulation of psychological problems and planning of interventions to be implemented by other team members with service users.
• To contribute to the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care across service settings through providing teaching, training, consultation and supervision.
• To provide training and supervision to assistant psychologists.

li>To participate in peer supervision arrangements for psychologists in the area.

• To collaborate with colleagues to develop and offer training courses, workshops and supervision groups to develop psychological skills for staff in the area.
• To contribute to the teaching of students and trainees in psychology, medicine, nursing and other health care disciplines.
• To agree a plan of personal development with the line manager and professional lead for the service.
• Provide inclusive, compassionate and effective leadership for your team by setting clear vision and direction.
• Develop a culture and environment in which members of staff are encouraged and supported to deliver high- quality services and are supported to innovate and improve services where appropriate.
• Encourage your team to feel able to raise concerns openly and safely.
• Promote equality of opportunity in service delivery and employment, ensuring that no person receives less favourable treatment than another on the grounds of gender, marital status, race, religion, creed, colour nationality ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation or disability.
• Support prompt recruitment by identifying vacancies to the AWP Recruitment Team as soon as they arise, and participate in the selection and effective induction and onboarding of new joiners to the team.
• Ensure that all team members have a very positive introduction to the team and a wellsupported first year.
• Take responsibility for encouraging people to stay with AWP, ensuring that you are aware whenever a member of your team is considering leaving, seeking to understand their reasons and encouraging them to stay.
• Ensure that key messages are cascaded in your team and that your team are encouraged to put forward suggestions.
• Show appreciation to your team when they do good work and support them when they are struggling.
• Consider the individual needs of team members for a healthy work-life balance and think about how their needs can be supported by providing flexible ways of working.
• Support all team members to keep their mandatory and statutory training up-to-date and identify the learning and development needs of all team members of the team ensuring that everyone has an up-to-date personal development plan (PDP).
• Ensure every team member as at least an hour of supervision (one-to-one meeting) each month, this may include both managerial and clinical supervision.
• Ensure all team members receive a constructive assessment of their performance each year and set SMART objectives for the coming year.
• Seek support from the HR Team to tackle any worries regarding matters of discipline, including both conduct and capability concerns, supporting a ‘just and restorative culture’. Take prompt action regarding serious concerns and ensure clear plans are in place for problems which are less serious in nature but prove difficult to resolve.
• Act as a positive role model at all times, encouraging people to feel equal members of the team whilst working within clear frameworks and policies.
• Promote effective use of bank and agency nursing staff, providing a safe and effective service, complying with regulatory standards.

PERFORMANCE AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the agreed key performance indicators for your service, particularly relating to outcomes and essential standards to be met.
• Ensure that you and your team understand data quality standards and that all the necessary records for your service are maintained and reported.
• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the clinical and business action plans relevant to your services.
• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the monitoring, auditing and reporting systems relevant to your services.

SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

• Actively seek opportunities for improvement for the services which you and your team provide by identifying research evidence and best practice elsewhere, interpreting/translating and facilitating adaptation for AWP.
• Analyse and interpret data to inform the strategic direction of the services which you and your team provide
• Ensure multidisciplinary involvement and the use of quality improvement (QI) techniques in service improvement, by negotiating shared solutions, facilitating the resolution of complex or contentious issues and managing any conflict into constructive outcomes.
• Ensure effective risk identification, analysis, mitigation and management within your services, encouraging all members of your team to be aware of and to manage risks.

GOVERNANCE AND POLICY

• Ensure that you understand all of the key governance requirements, policies and standards for your services and that these are communicated to your team; make sure your team understand the importance of good governance.
• Support the development of policies relevant to your services, including your team in this work.

SERVICE/POLICY DEVELOPMENT

• To collaborate with specialist staff and other agencies in the LDU to extend the range of specialist psychological individual, family and group interventions available across the area.
• To propose changes to policies and procedures in multidisciplinary teams as appropriate.
• To advise managers of service developments

Person specification

Qualifications/Registration/Experience

• Doctoral Clinical Psychology or Counselling Psychology qualification or equivalent.
• HCPC Registration
• Eligible for Chartered Psychologist status
• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in the specialism. Ability to use this knowledge to think systemically/ organizationally.
• Evidence based therapeutic interventions with client group
• Experience of risk assessment and management.
• Experience of working alongside multidisciplinary colleagues.
• Empathy for individuals who have experienced mental health problems and ability to cope with behaviour which may be challenging at times.
• Ability to cope with workload pressure/ prioritise workload.
• Relevant R&D or clinical audit work post qualification.

We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with ‘lived-experience’ of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,– we are a ‘Disability Confident Employer’ offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) describes algorithms that can be used to produce new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos. It is developing all the time and is now being used as a support mechanism for all kinds of content-based creations. Please note the use of AI is monitored and if you have used it in your application you are required to declare this.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Name Chris Lloyd Job title Team Manager Email address awp.camhsldadmin@nhs.net Telephone number 01454866258 Additional information Imogen Clarke - Clinical Psychologist / iPBS Service Lead Tel: 01454866258

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