Highly Specialist Clinical or Counselling Psychologist

NHS; Huntingdon; On-site; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization as a Clinical Psychologist in a dynamic team dedicated to improving mental health for children and adolescents. This role offers the chance to provide specialized psychological assessments and interventions, ensuring high-quality care for young patients. Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team while enjoying a supportive environment that fosters professional growth. If you are passionate about making a difference and have the qualifications to excel in this role, we invite you to apply and be part of a team that truly cares about the community's wellbeing.

Qualifications

• Qualified clinical psychologists with experience in mental health.
• Ability to work under pressure and provide specialist assessments.

Responsibilities

• Provide psychological assessments and interventions for children.
• Supervise and consult with other staff, including trainees.

Skills

Psychological Assessment

Clinical Formulation

Communication Skills

Teamwork

Leadership Skills

Education

Doctoral level training in Clinical Psychology

HCPC Registration

Job description

Job summary

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated Clinical Psychologist to join our CAMHS Core Team. The team works with children and young people with moderate to severe mental health difficulties.

The ideal candidate will have a strong team work ethic, sense of accountability and leadership skills, accompanied by an ability to work under considerable pressure at times. This post is open to qualified clinical psychologists with the right attributes and experience to enhance the team.

If you are looking for a new challenge, enjoy variety in your work and wish to be part of a team striving to make a difference for our community by supporting people with neurodevelopmental disorders and co-morbid mental health issues then we want to hear from you. The post will be based in the Central Cambridgeshire area covering Huntingdonshire and Fenland.

Main duties of the job

o This post allows the post holder an exciting opportunity to provide a highly specialist clinical or counselling psychology service to children and adolescents and their families/carers with a wide spectrum of mental health, developmental and psychological difficulties.o The post holder will provide highly specialist clinical assessments and interventions for children and their families/carers.The post holder will provide supervision and consultation to other members of staff, including clinical psychologists in training, as required.

About us

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high-quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting andempowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services, not only via inpatient and primary care settings, but also within the community. These services include children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, research and development.

To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high-calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.

Please be advised we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date should we receive sufficient applications.

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.

For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at www.cpft.nhs.uk

Details Date posted

07 May 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£53,755 to £60,504 a year per annum pro rata

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

310-MCYPF-7143904

Job locations

Newtown Centre

Nursery Road

Huntingdon

PE29 3RJ

Job description Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

1. To provide highly specialist psychological assessments of children and adolescents referred to the CAMHS team based upon the appropriate use and integration of complex data from a variety of sources, including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, their families and others involved in the clients care (including professionals from other agencies).2. To individually formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatments and/or management of a clients mental health or other complex psychological problems based on an appropriate conceptual framework adapting/utilising several psychological models and employing methods of proven efficacy.3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individual clients, families/carers, and via groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing on different explanatory models including developmental, cognitive, learning theory, biological, and neuropsychological, and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.4. To provide specialist child neuropsychology assessments, providing advice and consultation on this information to other NHS professionals, clients and their families, and other agencies as appropriate.5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of own clients and manage and maintain caseload in line with service requirements.6. To provide highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.7. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of own (case holder) clients and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.8. To participate in the CAMHS multi-disciplinary weekday duty rota.9. To work in partnership and maintain effective links with the statutory and non-statutory, and primary-care agencies as appropriate.10. To regularly deal with family breakdown, serious mental illness and child abuse.

Job description Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

1. To provide highly specialist psychological assessments of children and adolescents referred to the CAMHS team based upon the appropriate use and integration of complex data from a variety of sources, including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, their families and others involved in the clients care (including professionals from other agencies).2. To individually formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatments and/or management of a clients mental health or other complex psychological problems based on an appropriate conceptual framework adapting/utilising several psychological models and employing methods of proven efficacy.3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individual clients, families/carers, and via groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing on different explanatory models including developmental, cognitive, learning theory, biological, and neuropsychological, and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.4. To provide specialist child neuropsychology assessments, providing advice and consultation on this information to other NHS professionals, clients and their families, and other agencies as appropriate.5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of own clients and manage and maintain caseload in line with service requirements.6. To provide highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.7. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of own (case holder) clients and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.8. To participate in the CAMHS multi-disciplinary weekday duty rota.9. To work in partnership and maintain effective links with the statutory and non-statutory, and primary-care agencies as appropriate.10. To regularly deal with family breakdown, serious mental illness and child abuse.

Person Specification Education / Qualifications Essential

• Doctoral level training in Clinical, Educational or Counselling psychology
• HCPC Registered

Desirable

• Undertaken training in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists.
• Undertaken post-doctoral training in one or more relevant additional specialised area of psychological practice.

Experience Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient 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, 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 exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified clinician and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care-plan.
• Experience of application of psychology in different contexts.

Skills & Abilities Essential

• Able to demonstrate commitment to high quality care and service provision.
• Excellent skills of assessment, formulation, evaluation and treatment, using complex methods 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, including contentious and potentially highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.

Knowledge & Understanding Essential

• Highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology and models of psychopathology and learning relevant to children and young people.
• Good knowledge of psychological evidence-based interventions applicable to referred clients.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in child and adolescent/ children with learning disability.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.

Person Specification Education / Qualifications Essential

• Doctoral level training in Clinical, Educational or Counselling psychology
• HCPC Registered

Desirable

• Undertaken training in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists.
• Undertaken post-doctoral training in one or more relevant additional specialised area of psychological practice.

Experience Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient 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, 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 exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified clinician and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care-plan.
• Experience of application of psychology in different contexts.

Skills & Abilities Essential

• Able to demonstrate commitment to high quality care and service provision.
• Excellent skills of assessment, formulation, evaluation and treatment, using complex methods 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, including contentious and potentially highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.

Knowledge & Understanding Essential

• Highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology and models of psychopathology and learning relevant to children and young people.
• Good knowledge of psychological evidence-based interventions applicable to referred clients.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in child and adolescent/ children with learning disability.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Additional information 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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details Employer name

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Newtown Centre

Nursery Road

Huntingdon

PE29 3RJ

Employer's website

https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details Employer name

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Newtown Centre

Nursery Road

Huntingdon

PE29 3RJ

Employer's website

https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)