CYP Clinical Psychologist, F/T and CBT Therapist, CYP Psychotherapist

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job description

Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Job overview

The post holder will be a post-graduate qualified psychological practitioner (e.g. clinical psychologist, family therapist, child and adolescent psychotherapist, CBT practitioner) fully registered with the appropriate professional or regulatory body (e.g. HCPC, AFT, ACP, BABCP).

The post-holder will provide clinical interventions and assessment within their professional sphere of expertise in CYPMHS. They will be responsible for assessment, treatment and systematic outcome measurement and the extensive clinical supervision of assistant psychologists throughout the CYPMHS locality teams.

They will ensure that a high quality, timely, accessible, and evidence-based service is available to all service users who need it throughout the CYPMHS team.

The post-holder will establish and maintain excellent working relationships with wider mental health and wellbeing services and ensure adherence to evidence-based treatments by all clinical staff across the CYPMHS team.

The post-holder will be directly involved in delivering and supervising a range of therapeutic interventions, which may include parent work, group work, school observations of children, short term CYPMHS input and specialist psychological treatments.

They will be responsible for all specialist psychological assessments and treatments within their professional sphere of expertise within CYPMHS.

Main duties of the job

• To provide an efficient, effective, comprehensive and specialist psychological service for children and adolescents with emotional and mental health problems, their carers/parents, and families.
• Where appropriate to supervise assistant psychologists and trainees across the locality teams in CYPMHS.
• To contribute to multi-disciplinary assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with emotional and mental health problems, their carers/parents, and families.
• To undertake a range of clinical work, assessment work and parenting support.
• To contribute to audit and research.
• To actively engage in treatment and outcome monitoring, including the use of normed measures associated with CYP-IAPT.
• To work in clinical practice, making use of supervision, within the overall framework CYPMHS and the Trust's policies and procedures.

Working for our organisation

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.

They are:

• We are kind.
• We are respectful.
• We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

NELFT place great importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks, including mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focussing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,313 to a maximum of £5,436 p.a. pro rata for part time).

High Cost Area Supplement - Fringe

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 5% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £1,192 to a maximum of £2,011 p.a. pro rata for part time).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To act as an autonomous professional fully registered with the appropriate professional or regulatory body (e.g. HCPC).
• To use appropriate clinical understanding in assessing, jointly with colleagues in the multidisciplinary team, children, adolescents, and their families to formulate their strengths and difficulties and to determine the most appropriate treatment plan.
• To work alongside other colleagues in CYPMHS and in the care pathway to provide an indepth comprehensive assessment of the child's, young person's, and family's functioning where there is a constellation of high dysfunction and entrenched difficulties in the family.
• To provide therapeutic interventions with due regard to issues of cultural, racial and religious difference and sexual orientation.
• To provide clinical assessment of children and young people with severe, highly complex and persistent mental health problems.
• To undertake observations of children in school settings as part of wider assessments.
• To undertake observations of children in school settings as part of wider assessments. To provide therapeutic interventions (including parent/child work, group work, parent support input, psycho-education and brief individual work with children and young people.
• To facilitate the development of a positive and 'supportive' team culture by taking responsibility for dealing effectively with potential conflict.
• To take an active interest in working parties and groups within the Trust to develop and improve on service delivery, protocols, and guidelines.
• To participate in the audit process, linking in with the clinical governance agenda.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Successful completion of a post-graduate training (e.g. clinical psychology, family therapy, child, and adolescent psychotherapy, CBT therapist)

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• An awareness of NHS Priorities and Issues
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of short term and long term in clinical interventions in CAMHS
• Excellent knowledge of emotional, developmental, mental health problems and life span issues.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and adolescents and safeguarding procedures and policies.
• Knowledge of NHS, Social Care and Education structures, national policies and frameworks, evidence based practice

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively highly complex and sensitive matters
• Ability to integrate complex clinical information into a coherent formulation
• Ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information
• Ability to tolerate anxiety without recourse to premature action whilst appreciating the role of the supervisor
• Capacity to write clear records and observe policies, procedures and guidelines.
• Ability to work on their own, using own initiative with their professional remit and seeking further support as needed

Experience

Essential criteria

• Extensive experience of working with children and adolescents with co-morbid difficulties and special needs
• Extensive experience of working with challenging children/young people requiring skilled and complex interventions.
• Extensive experience of working therapeutically with parents/carers/families of children and young people with complex mental health problems
• Experience of carrying out generic assessment with other colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of initiating, organising and planning inter-agency meetings

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans, reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email [e-mail].

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

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.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure consideration.

If you require any additional support during the application process please contact [e-mail]. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment journey.