Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

South West London & St George's Mental Health NHS Trust; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 43,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Career development

Job summary

South West London & St George's Mental Health NHS Trust seeks a newly qualified Band 7 Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to lead service developments within Merton SPA and supervise junior colleagues. The role includes triaging, high-quality assessments, and coordinating with partner agencies to support a cohesive clinical offer.

The post involves day-to-day running of Merton SPA, supervising clinicians and students, and contributing to the wider multidisciplinary team.

Qualifications

• Provides specialist assessments using psychological tests, self-reports, and structured interviews.
• Leads supervision of band 7 clinicians and students.
• Contributes to service development and cross-agency liaison.
• Coordinates clinical activity to enhance coherence of the clinical offer.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct therapeutic work as part of Merton SPA.
• Lead in day-to-day running of Merton SPA and support junior colleagues.
• Triaging and conducting assessments within Merton SPA.
• Provide supervision to band 7 clinicians and students.
• Advise managers on clinical issues related to preschool children and team training needs.
• Coordinate with partner agencies to align services and attend TAC/TAF meetings.

Skills

Clinical supervision

Leadership

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity for a newly qualified Band 7 Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to develop their career. This role will eventually include providing supervision to band 7 qualified clinicians and students, taking a lead role in service developments. The successful candidate will also take a lead in the day-to-day running of Merton SPA including supporting with case discussions for more junior colleagues. The role will also involve triaging and provision of quality assessments within Merton SPA, liaison with partner agencies, and playing an active part in the wider multidisciplinary team.

• Supervision will be provided by the experienced 8a and 8b Professional Lead.
• The role is part of an exciting new project to develop new support streams within Merton SPA. These include self-referrals for 16 and 17 years old, short-term treatment sessions and enhanced consultation to schools through attendance at TAC/TAF meetings. We have recently received additional funding for this role.
• The role will involve supporting the 8b in providing leadership to Merton SPA. This includes providing supervision to band 7 qualified clinicians and students, and taking a lead role in implementing these new support streams.
• The successful candidate will also take a lead in the day-to-day running of Merton SPA including supporting with case discussions for more junior colleagues.
• The role will also involve triaging and assessments within Merton SPA.
• Supervision will be provided by the 8b Professional Lead already in post.
• To work as a core member of Merton SPA, providing direct therapeutic work in accordance with an agreed job plan.
• To model high standards of clinical practice in terms of safety, effectiveness and user experience.
• To coordinate clinical activity in order to enhance the overall coherence of the clinical offer.
• To meet with leads of other agencies and teams of relevant services e.g. health visitors, perinatal services, in order to coordinate the work of the Merton SPA Team with these services.
• To advise managers and Professional Leads about clinical issues relating to work with preschool children, and in relation to training needs for the team., 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.
• To provide specialist assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and management of a child's difficulties and distress, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the child's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of therapeutic interventions employed individually and in synthesis, maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses, adjusting and refining formulations or understandings, drawing upon different explanatory models and.
• Employing methods of intervention that are based upon evidence of efficacy.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options in line with relevant theoretical and therapeutic models and the factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of an individual case load that can include individual, family, and group-based treatment.
• To provide specialist clinical advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to a child's formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual children and to provide advice to other teams and services on specialist risk assessment and risk management for this client group.
• To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans including children, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care.
• To communicate, in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of children to parents and carers.
• To ensure effective communication within the team and share relevant information as required.
• To implement and participate in crisis intervention measures with families in conjunction with other agencies.

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 of benefits 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.