Principal Clinical Psychologist/ Family Therapist

Sheffield Children's; Sheffield; On-site; GBP 62,000 - 73,000

Job description

Principal Clinical Psychologist/ Family Therapist

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

Join our CAMHS Eating Disorders Team at Sheffield Children's Hospital. This new role is part of our commitment to the Sheffield Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Team (SEDATT).

You'll be an important part of the SEDATT leadership team, providing high-quality service to children and families. Collaborating with a dynamic multi-disciplinary team, you'll support service development through training, consultation, and supervision, while working with acute hospital colleagues and partner agencies.

You will receive support from our wider Psychologist Services team, which includes Clinical Psychologists, Family Therapists, CBT therapists, and more, working across community, specialist, inpatient CAMHS, and Paediatric Services.

Please note there are two job descriptions and personal specifications attached to this vacancy - Principal Clinical Psychologist & Principal Family Therapist / Highly Specialist Systemic Psychotherapist - please ensure to refer to the JD/PS for the particular role you are applying for and ensure to match the personal specification/role requirements in your application. Also, outline which role you are wishing to be or eligible to apply for in your application.

Main duties of the job

Reporting into the Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist, your responsibilities will include:

1. Provide specialist Clinical Psychology services to children, young people, and families referred to SEDATT.
2. Conduct psychological assessments and interventions, including reports, formulations, and consultations.
3. Provide supervision and training on psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and carers.
4. Join the Senior Leadership team to help manage the running of the service, including proposal and implementation of policy changes in the specialist area.
5. Work autonomously within professional guidelines, ensuring quality psychological practice.
6. Use research skills for audit, policy, service development, and research.

About us

At Sheffield Children's, our purpose is clear: to provide healthier futures for children and young people. Our three strategic aims are:

• Brilliant Place to work
• Leaders in Children's Health

We work with local, regional, and national partners to provide physical and mental healthcare across acute and community settings. Many of our clinicians are amongst the best in their field, recognised nationally and internationally for their expertise.

As well as having enormous pride in what we do, we are a friendly, welcoming, and motivated NHS Trust who are guided by our CARE values: Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. Our nearly 4000 colleagues live these values, ensuring kind and compassionate care that makes patients and their families feel safe and at home.

As we approach our 150th anniversary in 2026, we remain committed to enhancing our reputation in children's health leadership, improving the experiences of both patient and colleagues, and focusing on our communities and population health.

Sheffield Children's provides great benefits to support your wellbeing, with excellent annual leave and pension schemes, health programmes, and exclusive discounts--helping you succeed at work and beyond.

Job responsibilities

For more information on the main responsibilities for this post, please refer to the job description and person specification.

Please note that Sheffield Children's uplift pay to meet the Real Living Wage, which is £12.60 per hour.

Diversity Statement

At Sheffield Children’s, we are committed to creating an inclusive environment that celebrates diversity and supports everyone's success. We prioritise Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in our recruitment practices, creating a welcoming space for people of all backgrounds, including ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ members.

Recognising that inclusivity is an ongoing effort, we review our processes and welcome feedback to enhance our practices. A diverse team strengthens our organisation and the quality of care we deliver.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology, (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology
• Further specialist training & supervision in specific psychological approaches and with specific client groups supported by a programme of professional development as identified in an agreed personal development plan.
• Further post-doctoral training, supervision and experience in the specific area of service
• Registration as a Clinical Psychologist with Health Professions Council (or other domain title as agreed)
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
• Further training in systemic practice
• Further training in treatment of eating disorders
• Further training in assessment/diagnosis of neuro divergent presentations.
• Further training in leadership
• Accreditation in specialised psychological approaches

Experience

• Assessed experience and competencies normally acquired through working as a qualified clinical psychologist for a minimum of four years with 2 years at a specialist level and including significant experience in services for children with mental health, health and/or neurodevelopmental difficulties.
• Experience of working and communicating with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course; in particular children of pre-school, primary school age and adolescents, as well as work with family groups and adults, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal and physical abuse
• Specific experience and competencies in child clinical psychology
• Experience of delivering and/or supervising child and family presentations across a range of sectors- including (a) CAMHS, (b) physical health/paediatrics, (c) child development, (d) learning disabilities, (e) neuropsychology, (f) social services/child protection, (g) pre-school/early years, (h) adolescence, (I) forensic, (j) primary care and community development.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
• Experience of representing a psychological perspective within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of children with highly complex needs
• Experience of assessing and treating clients across a range of care settings
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.

Knowledge

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to children of all ages, 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 and or equivalent of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practised within the field of clinical psychology.
• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g., eating disorder, dual diagnoses, child protection, chronic or terminal illness, severely challenging behaviours etc.)
• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessment and intervention approaches in specific modalities (e.g., family therapy, cognitive therapy, psychotherapy etc.) or integrative approaches

Personal Attributes

• Ability to identify provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
• Ability to identify, and employ as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
• Commitment and competencies in multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

£62,215 to £72,293 a year per annum pro rata