Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job summary

WTE: 0.6 (3 days a week)

Job Overview:

An opportunity has arisen for a band 8a clinical psychologist to work with young people and families in the boroughs of Kingston and Richmond who have been historically underrepresented in mainstream services. The role forms part of the CAMHS provision provided into Kingston and Richmond Youth Justice Service (YJS).

The postholder will be joining a passionate team in an established and valued role which will contribute to the development and delivery of services that seek to transform mental health delivery for marginalized young people involved in or at risk of offending.

The role offers a balance of direct clinical work, specialist consultation, training delivery, service development, and supervision and is embedded within Kingston and Richmond Youth Justice Service. Candidates will also have access to relevant specialist training as per their development plan.

The service is informed by systemic, trauma-informed and attachment-based principles and is working towards implementing community psychology and co-production into its practice model. The team also takes a critical approach to addressing ethnic, racial, and social disproportionality within the Youth Justice System.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will be working within a multi-disciplinary context to deliver creative and adapted evidence-based care, including direct psychological assessment and treatment to young people and families. This would include cases where there are forensic risks and contextual harms such as child criminal exploitation. These are often complex and require engagement and support from several agencies which provides opportunities for creative multi-agency joint working.

Alongside direct clinical work, there will be an expectation to provide leadership, consultancy, and training to CAMHS and partner agencies to embed psychological and trauma informed care. The role also includes providing specialist consultation around forensic risk and harmful sexual behaviour, and the ability to undertake cognitive assessments where appropriate. There will also be opportunities to contribute to policy work, wider service development, and become involved in co-produced projects including a psychology-led team formulation pathway.

There will also be opportunities for the postholder to provide clinical supervision to qualified staff.

Candidates will be committed to partnership working, hold excellent communication, engagement, and people skills, and have experience of working with marginalised young people in Youth Justice and/or social care contexts.

About us

Unless expressly stated in the job advert this role is not subject to sponsorship, please be advised that all offers of employment are subject to evidence of right to work in the UK.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services as we invest a further £120m to upgrade and modernise our estate by 2027.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety ofbenefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.

Job responsibilities

YJS is a multi-agency service, requiring good coordination between professionals in order to deliver high-quality services to young people with complex needs. The YJS

CAMHS psychologist within Kingston and Richmond will offer mental health assessments and psychological treatments to service users and their carers/families who meet the referral criteria of the disciplines within the team and will provide:

specialist assessment and intervention services

training and consultation to staff within Kingston and Richmond Youth Justice Service and other adjacent services) as appropriate and in agreement with Kingston and Richmond YJS Managers and the CAMHS Clinical/Professional Lead for Psychology & Psychotherapies with responsibility for Youth Justice Services (YJS-CAMHS).

will attend relevant meetings in relation to cases open to Kingston and RichmondYouth Justice Service caseload for example, risk strategy panels such as the Multi Agency Child Risk of Harm (MACROH) panel.

CAMHS clinicians operating in this environment need to retain a distinct child mental health professional identity and also work as a cooperative member of a service comprising colleagues with different, but complementary, roles.

The primary clinical record, through which the post holder is held accountable, is within CYP IAPTUS. However, information will be shared in accordance with a local information-sharing agreement, and in accordance with Trust policies. This will require additional entry into the YJS system.

The postholder will be working within a multi-disciplinary context to deliver creative and adapted evidence-based care, including direct psychological assessment and treatment to young people and families. This would include cases where there are risks of contextual harm such as child criminal exploitation. These are often complex cases that require engagement and support from several agencies and provide opportunities for creative multi-agency joint working.

Alongside direct clinical work, there will be opportunities to provide consultancy and training to partner agencies such as Pupil Referral Units, the wider Youth Justice Service, Childrens Social Care and Police to embed psychological and trauma informed care. There will also be opportunities to contribute to policy work, wider servicedevelopment, and become involved in co-produced projects within the local authority including a psychology-led team formulation pathway for complex cases.

The postholder will have the opportunity to provide clinical supervision to band 7 clinicians and Trainee Psychologists.

The skills of a CAMHS clinician are crucial in the early identification of mental health needs, working with difficult-to-engage young people in order to improve motivation, and the delivery of effective treatments that reduce distress and improve wellbeing.

In addition, the clinician is expected to contribute to good decision-making, better quality information for decision-makers, and the construction of suitable packages of care that improve young peoples life-chances.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in job applications

If you have used AI to support the preparation of your application, please briefly indicate how it was used within your supporting statement or application form.

Please remember, your application is your opportunity to tell us about your skills, experience and motivation for the role. We encourage applicants to complete their application and supporting statement in their own words wherever possible. We recognise that AI tools can be helpful in supporting accessibility, and for improving spelling, grammar and structure.

Applications that rely heavily on AI-generated content can become generic and fail to accurately reflect an applicant's individual experience. Applications that clearly demonstrate your own voice, reflections and experiences are often the most effective and help us better understand your suitability for the role.

Please be aware that information provided in your application and supporting statement may be explored further during the selection process. It is important that all applications accurately represent your own knowledge, skills and experience.

Person specification

Training & Qualifications

Essential

• Qualified Clinical Psychologist (or equivalent) registered with the HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Post qualification training in the clinical supervision of trainees.

Desirable

• Training as part of a CYP IAPT collaborative in a recognised evidenced based approach.
• Formal training in the supervision of a psychotherapeutic modality.
• Further training in a recognised evidence based psychological therapy.

Experience

Essential

• Consolidated experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care, and in-patient settings.
• Consolidated 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.
• Demonstrate further specialist training and experience by having received a minimum of 50 hours of clinical supervision of working as a specialist psychologist over a minimum of 18 months.

Desirable

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of service development or of a leadership role.