Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider is seeking an experienced Clinical Psychologist to deliver specialist neuropsychological assessments and interventions for children and young people. The role involves formulating treatment plans, providing consultations, and ensuring high-quality care across various settings. Candidates should have doctoral-level training and relevant HCPC registration, with a commitment to service development and collaboration.

Qualifications

• Experience in specialist psychological assessment and treatment across various settings.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex clinical cases with professionalism.
• Commitment to high-quality care and service provision.

Responsibilities

• Conduct neuropsychological assessments and develop treatment plans.
• Provide specialist advice and consultation to other professionals.
• Coordinate care and monitor progress in interdisciplinary interventions.

Skills

Psychological assessment

Formulation

Intervention

Communication

Analytical skills

Education

Doctoral level training in Clinical, Educational or Counselling psychology

HCPC Registered

Job description

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

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

To provide highly specialist paediatric neuropsychological assessments of children/young people referred to the Service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation 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, parents/carers, teachers, family members and others involved in the client's care.

To develop neuropsychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence, which incorporates anatomical, physiological and developmental perspectives.

To develop and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client's cognitive, social, behavioural and emotional difficulties, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for children/young people, their parents/carers, families and groups, within the Service, adjusting and refining psychological formulations by drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account theoretical and therapeutic models and the highly complex and integrative factors associated with the acquired brain injury and developmental processes. To maintain an awareness of other historical factors, which may have shaped the child/young person, his/her parents/carers and the family.

To provide highly specialist paediatric neuropsychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients' formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care for the benefit of all children/young people referred to the Service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures.

To act as care coordinator, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the clients' needs, coordinating the work of others involved with care, tasking responsibility for arranging reviews as required and communicating effectively with the client, his/her family and all others involved in the network of care and to monitor progress during the course of interdisciplinary interventions.

To communicate, in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, parents/carers, family and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and prognosis of clients under their care.

The team is constantly developing through research, audit and service user collaborations. As such we are looking to recruit an experienced clinical psychologist who has an interest in service development. The post holder will support the Clinical Lead in the day to day management of the team and implementation of new processes and policies. This will include rostering, leave, allocations, and liaison with Integrated Care Boards about new referrals.

Person specification

Education / Qualifications

Essential criteria

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

Desirable criteria

• Undertaken training in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists.
• Undertaken relevant post-doctoral training.
• Specific training in models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the HCPC.

Experience

Essential criteria

• 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.
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working with children with a learning disability.
• Experience of working with people with an autistic spectrum disorder.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different social and cultural contexts.

Skills & Abilities

Essential criteria

• Able to demonstrate commitment to high quality care and service provision.
• Excellent clinical skills of psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgement skills.
• 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.
• Skills in individual and group work and in programme planning.

Knowledge & Understanding

Essential criteria

• 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 of legislation in relation to the client group and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group.
• Doctorate level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology and models of psychopathology and learning relevant to children and young people.

Desirable criteria

• 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.

Here at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) we are dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion. We deliver many of the NHS services that are provided outside of hospital and in the community such as physical, mental health and specialist services.

We are a health and social care organisation, offering a wide range of services, including:

• Integrated physical and mental health services for adults and older people;
• Specialist mental health and learning disability services;
• Children and young people's mental health services;
• Children's community services in Peterborough;
• Social care;
• Ground-breaking research

We strongly encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people and members of our ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities. For further information about our positive equality, diversity and Inclusion work, please visit https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/equalityanddiversity.

CPFT is looking to build upon its pool of temporary workers with Temporary Staffing Services (TSS). You will be asked at interview if you would be willing to register with TSS. This is an excellent opportunity for those looking to take on additional hours that are flexible around your personal circumstances.

Please be advised that in line with the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List, 2020 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust currently are unable to accept applications from overseas candidates whose country of residence is classed as a 'Red List' country.

Applicants who require entry into the UK will be required to provide a valid police certificate from the relevant authority from each country (except the UK) where the applicant has been present for 12 months or more, 10 years before the date of visa application, while aged 18 or over.

If you are successful at interview you will be subject to pre-employment checks, including a DBS (if appropriate), references and Occupational Health. To ensure a smooth process please bring all identity documents to your interview. A list of required identity documents will be attached to your interview invitation.

All communications will be sent to you via TRAC Systems. By applying for this post you are agreeing to CPFT transferring the information contained in this application to TRAC. If you are made an offer, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

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.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Specification (PDF, 264.4KB)
• CPFT Values (PDF, 114.7KB)
• CPFT Mindful Employers (PDF, 51.3KB)
• CPFT Accommodation (PDF, 296.6KB)