Specialist Clinical Psychologist

West London NHS Trust provides a full range of mental health, community and physical healthcare services for children, adults and older people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow.

Are you looking for a role that allows you to work in a trauma-informed way? One that utilises not only your therapeutic skills, but also consultation, service development and leadership skills? Do you have a passion for working with children who have experienced early and relational trauma? If so, we are looking for a full time (37.5 hours) Clinical/Counselling Psychologist for our Children Looked After (CLA) team ‘Connect’. We offer psychological consultation to social care colleagues, deliver training and skills workshops, run therapeutic parent groups, 1:1 therapeutic parenting support and direct assessment and intervention with children and young people in care. There is Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) training and specialist supervision; the post holder will be supported by the Principal Clinical Psychologist and supervised weekly by a Clinical Psychologist (8a) in the Connect Team. Hybrid working is in place and flexible working is supported and common within the team.

The post-holder would be co-located with Ealing’s social care teams and will be part of the wider Brighter Futures Psychology service with psychologists embedded across Ealing’s children social care teams. The team values a committed, empathic and trauma-informed and responsive approach to the work with Children Looked After, their carers, families and the professional network. The psychologist would support the social work team to sustain skills in key values and approaches that underpin Ealing Local Authority’s ‘Brighter Futures’ model (e.g. relationship and trauma models, mentalization based approaches). This is a varied role which offers a mix of both indirect and direct ways of working. Alongside consultation and training to social workers and the network around the child, and therapeutic parenting groups, the psychologist would provide a specialist assessment, support and intervention service to children and young people to support their psychological and emotional wellbeing. This role offers opportunities for involvement in service development and to develop leadership skills including supervising trainees and assistant psychologists.

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services. The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

• 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 British Psychological Society, or equivalent if trained overseas.
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

EXPERIENCE

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, (e.g. outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings).
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of working with children and adolescents and their carer networks.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of working with other agencies including education and social care.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working with children and families under Social Services, including Looked After Children who may also have mental health needs.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• 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 non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Knowledge and skills in specialist neuro/psychological assessment and treatment with children and young people with mental health problems, emotional and/or learning disabilities.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. children with challenging behaviour, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.

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.
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

As an employee of West London NHS Trust, you have a responsibility to maintain a sound understanding of, and a commitment to uphold the National Health Service values and principles set out in the NHS Constitution. We reserve the right to close adverts prior to the closing date stated should we receive a high volume of applications. West London NHS Trust is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

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.

For more information or an informal chat/visit please contact: Dr Alicia Fairhurst, Principal Clinical Psychologist for Brighter Futures alicia.fairhurst2@nhs.net / fairhursta@ealing.gov.uk 0208 8255145