CAMHS Specialist Clinical Psychologist (N&S SCAAND- Neuro)

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to providing high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for the care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good'.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I'm going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you'll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

This Band 7 Clinical Psychology full-time post sits within the Neuropsychiatry stream of SCAAND Outpatients. The NHS England pathway (SCAAND) focuses on complex assessment and intervention for young people with autism and co-morbidities, while the ICB pathway of this service specialises in assessment and intervention for young people with complex presentations such as ADHD, mental health co-morbidities associated with brain injury and epilepsy, functional disorders and other complex presentations in the absence of complex autism. This team is a smaller unit within the SCAAND service, with each discipline represented.

Main duties of the job

This role involves a balanced combination of MDT assessment work (ADOS assessment, cognitive and neuropsychological testing, young person and parent interviews) and intervention cases within a CAMHS outpatient model. Intervention is varied, ranging from direct work with young people with a range of presentations and needs, work with their parents or carers, and joint work with other disciplines such as consultations to the local network. Given the complex nature of young people seen in our service, time is made for complex formulation meetings. Main duties of the role include:

1. To provide a specialist psychology service with a specialism in neurodevelopmental conditions and associated mental health difficulties to National Specialist CAMHS including specialist assessment, treatment, care planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
2. To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
3. To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate.
4. To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.
5. To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct and guided by the policies and procedures of the service, taking responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions with support of clinical supervisor.

Working for our organisation

Maudsley Hospital (headquarters)

Our Trust headquarters is located at Denmark Hill less than 5 minutes from the train station (zone 2) and is within walking distance from the beautiful green spaces of Ruskin Park and the vibrant high-street that offers great shopping opportunities and a wide range of restaurants.

Flexible working:

As one of the few Trusts in London we are proud to offer flexible working as part of our new ways of working, and we are happy to talk flexible working at the interview stage. In this role you will be able to work Monday to Friday in the time frames from 8am to 6pm, giving you the very best of a good work-life balance. (This may include working early mornings, later evenings or Saturdays as part of the core working hours/working pattern for this post)

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical and Client Care

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in Neuropsychiatry team service including assessing/working with autism, learning disabilities and associated mental health difficulties, within limits expected at Band 7, i.e., achievable by newly qualified psychologists after a few months on-the-job training.
2. To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
3. To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
4. To act as keyworker taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing care plans, case co-ordination in the context of a specialist service and clinical record Key Performance Indicator completion.

Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

1. To contribute to the effective working of the Neuropsychiatry team and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
2. To contribute to the team or service's delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse regional and national communities.
3. To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
4. To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
5. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-informed practice in individual work and work with other team members.

Policy and service development

1. To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
2. To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
3. To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.

Care or management of resources

1. To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust's equipment and physical resources.
2. To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

Management and supervision

1. To be responsible for the allocation and clinical supervision of the work of an assistant psychologist if required, under supervision from a more senior psychologist.
2. To provide line management for assistant psychologist.
3. To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism after completion of the relevant Training Course's Supervision Training.

Teaching and Training

1. To provide occasional specialist training in psychological approaches to care to other professions as appropriate.
2. To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

Record-keeping and Information Governance

1. To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
2. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

Research and development

1. To undertake regular complex service evaluation, audits or research relevant to service needs.

Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria

• Clinical psychologist: Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent (A)

Desirable criteria

• Line management training / qualification (A/I)

Experience
Essential criteria

• Experience of receiving clinical supervision across a range of client needs. (A/I)
• Experience of psychological assessment and intervention for clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature (in children's mental health services). (A/I)
• Experience of developing and carrying out research projects. (A/I)

Understanding and Knowledge
Essential criteria

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for children and young people with autism spectrum disorders and associated neurodevelopmental conditions (including intellectual disability) and co-occurring mental health disorders. (A/I)

Skills
Essential criteria

• To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources. (A/I)

Desirable criteria

• Experience in teaching or consultation with other professionals regarding children and young people with mental health conditions. (A/I)

Abilities
Essential criteria

• Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles. (A/I)
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate. (A/I)
• Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour. (A/I)

Desirable criteria

• Ability to follow SLaM guidance in order to provide line management to assistant psychologist (A).

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice.
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment.
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity.

Please note:

• That all applications for this post will need to be made online.
• That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria.
• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible.
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs.
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful.
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees.
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process.
• That we are a smoke-free Trust.

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe.