Lead for Psychology and Psychotherapy Croydon CAMHS

NHS; Croydon; On-site; GBP 82,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health care provider in Croydon seeks a Lead for Psychology and Psychotherapy. The successful candidate will be responsible for overseeing a specialized psychological therapy service, providing expert clinical input, and ensuring professional standards are met. This role is ideal for an experienced leader in child and adolescent mental health with strong clinical skills and cultural competence.

Qualifications

• Minimum requirement of a professional Doctorate or equivalent in psychological therapy.
• Experience working under supervision in CAMHS.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the delivery of psychological services within Croydon CAMHS.
• Ensure the provision of culturally appropriate psychological therapy interventions.

Skills

Clinical psychological assessment

Cultural competence

Team leadership

Education

Recognised qualification in Psychological Therapy

Formal leadership training

Job description

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Lead for Psychology and Psychotherapy Croydon CAMHS

The closing date is 08 December 2025

About the role

Croydon CAMHS are looking to recruit a Lead for Psychology and Psychotherapy for the service. The role will consist of 2 days protected for the Lead P&P role and remaining 3 days will be dedicated clinical time.

The 3 days clinical time will be linked to the specialism of the successful applicant with opportunities across the service.

As local Lead for Psychology & Psychotherapy you will provide professional leadership to the psychology and psychotherapy staff working across Croydon CAMHS. This will also involve leading, managing and planning the delivery of a highly specialist psychology and psychotherapy service to Croydon CAMHS and personally providing expert clinical input. You will also ensure the carrying out of research, service evaluation and audits relevant to Croydon CAMHS and the CAG research agenda.

The successful candidate will have undertaken a recognised qualification in one of the core Psychological Therapy professions that has been accepted for purposes of professional registration. They will be asked to apply for an Enhanced Disclosure. Further information about the Disclosure scheme can be found at www.disclosure.gov.uk.

Main duties of the job

Job Purpose

To develop strategy for and lead, manage and plan the delivery of a highly specialist psychological therapy service within Lewisham CAMHS and personally provide expert clinical input.

To be responsible to the Professional Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy for the monitoring and implementation of professional standards in the practice of psychological therapy and for the systematic and effective provision of professional supervision.

To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.

To ensure the conduct of research, service evaluation and audits relevant to the service and the research agenda.

To develop standards for and take a lead in ensuring the good clinical governance, quality and appropriateness of the work of psychological practitioners in the service.

To work as an autonomous professional within registration body guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by principles and policies or procedures, and interpret these and be responsible for their implementation within the service areas of responsibility.

To take a lead on staff support within their area, working closely with Corporate Psychology and Psychotherapy to support colleagues and ensure all staff in SLaM have access to evidence-based support. To participate, as a recipient, in staff support work when appropriate.

About us

About the team:

Croydon CAMHS provides a multidisciplinary diagnostic assessment, treatment, advisory and consultative service for children and adolescents.

Croydon has dedicated mental health teams as well as a growing Autism Assessment Team.

The service is committed to evidence-based practice and hold regular clinical governance meetings. Team members use a variety of assessment and intervention models including CBT, Systemic family therapy and psychodynamic approaches.

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To plan, organise and ensure the delivery of psychological services within Croydon CAMHS.

To plan and organise the integrated delivery of psychological services with other agencies and service providers and ensure co‑ordination of psychological therapy with other services.

To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions for children, young people, families and carers within Croydon CAMHS.

To provide culturally appropriate psychological therapy interventions with children, young people, families and carers within Croydon CAMHS.

To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities served by Croydon CAMHS.

To act as care/CPA co‑ordinator, keyworker, taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing care plans, CPA co‑ordination and meetings.

KR 2 Responsibilities for team or service clinical functioning

To work with the leads/managers of other SLaM services and of other agencies services to plan and deliver joint services that are integrated around the needs of service users.

To co‑ordinate (and chair) team and service meetings for the service to ensure effective functioning and review when appropriate.

To ensure the effective working of the team or service and a psychologically informed framework for the service.

To take a lead in ensuring the team or services ability to deliver accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.

To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.

To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of children, young people, families and carers.

To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with children, young people, families and carers in order to develop and review care plans.

To utilise theory, evidence‑based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To liaise with the service/MDT and other professionals.

KR 3 Policy and service development

To lead on strategy development and the development of policy and guidance for application in the service. To be responsible for the interpretation and implementation of policy.

To plan, initiate, implement and ensure appropriate service developments to improve the quality and delivery of services in the service and in partner services.

To ensure the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

To participate in, or lead when appropriate, Trust and Directorate strategic development and implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines), through membership of committees and/or working parties.

To lead in the development and application of clinical governance standards within the service and ensure that these are maintained and improved.

To take a lead role in ensuring that services to children, young people, families and carers are of a high quality and are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

To be responsible for the management of psychological resources.

To ensure that the service has sufficient materials and equipment.

To be an authorised signatory for the service.

To ensure the cleanliness and safe functioning and use of equipment that will be used by children, young people, families and carers using the service.

To monitor and advise children, young people, families and carers on the safe use of materials and processes.

To ensure adequate confidential and safe storage for artefacts produced during the therapy process in line with professional guidelines.

To be responsible for obtaining, storing and maintaining all necessary materials and equipment for the provision of therapy in work setting within budgetary constraints.

To ensure that the post‑holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Management and supervision

To deputise when appropriate for the Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy for CAMHS.

To provide leadership to psychological practitioners and other professionals in the service.

To ensure appropriate systems are in place for the clinical and professional supervision of psychological practitioners in the service.

To lead recruitment of psychological practitioners.

To lead appraisals of, and personal development plans for psychological practitioners in the service.

To be responsible for the management of psychological therapists and practitioners in the service, including allocation and review of work and initial stages of grievance or disciplinary action.

To provide professional, clinical and management supervision to less senior psychological practitioners, assistants and trainees and the psychological work of other professions as appropriate and after completing the relevant training.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

To organise access to and provide specialist clinical placements for trainee applied psychological practitioners.

To be responsible for planning, organising, and the delivery of teaching and training of pre and post‑qualification psychological practitioners and specialist training to other professions.

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.

To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7 Record‑keeping and Information Governance

To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.

To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post‑holder has management or leadership responsibility.

KR 8 Research and development

To ensure the planning, initiation and completion of research, service evaluation and audits relevant to the service and the directorate research agenda.

To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychological practitioner according to professional and Trust guidelines.

To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with registered body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the Standards for Continuing Professional Development.

To maintain an up‑to‑date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.

To comply with the registered body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.

To ensure that all psychological practitioners for whom the post‑holder has leadership or management responsibility, maintain professional standards and continuing professional development.

KR 10 General

To travel to home visits, community placements, meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.

To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.

To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations such as challenging behaviour, abuse and other related circumstances and to support others involved in such situations.

To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or Saturday working, within the overall Job Plan.

To work closely with Corporate Psychology and Psychotherapy to ensure consistent and timely delivery of staff support within their area across all disciplines, contributing to the development of the staff support offer in line with relevant quality improvement projects.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• To have undertaken a recognised qualification in one of the core Psychological Therapy professions
• Entry‑level qualification in applied psychological therapy or equivalent and demonstrable practice in this field (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration.
• Registered with / accredited by professional body as appropriate to discipline HCPC/ UKCP/BABCP etc. (A/I)
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the professional body. (A/I)
• Additional training beyond entry‑level qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice (e.g. CBT, DBT, Family therapy) through formal post‑qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), or a combination of specialist short courses and/or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice‑based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by a registered body and/or an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher. (A/I/R)
• Formal leadership training
• ADOS training or other neurodevelopmental assessment training
• Formal supervision training

Experience

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in Child & Adolescent mental health (A/I)
• Experience of undertaking leadership roles (A/I)
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature. (A/I)
• Experience of supervising assistants and trainees having completed the relevant training. (A/I)
• Post‑qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. (A/I)
• Senior leadership and management experience within a CAMHS team

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of management and leadership. (A/I/R)
• Advanced theoretical knowledge of child & adolescent psychopathology and the evidence base. (A/I/R)
• Advanced knowledge of the theory of psychological practice/processes and their therapeutic application.
• Awareness of assessment and clinical psychometrics. (A/I/R)
• Advanced knowledge and experience in the administration of relevant assessment tools. (A/I/R)

Skills

• To deliver specialist psychological therapy across cultural and other differences. (A/I/R)
• To select and administer specialist assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources, on which expert opinion may differ. (A/I/R)
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with children, young people, families and carers, overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information. (A/I/R)
• To plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual children, young people and families and groups and carers (and for meetings such as CPA and case reviews where appropriate). (A/I/R)
• To plan allocation of tasks to assistants/trainees as appropriate. (A/I/R)

Abilities

• Ability to work effectively within a multi‑disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles. (A/I/R)
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate. (A/I/R)
• Ability to develop and use complex multi‑media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings. (A/I/R)
• Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these. (A/I)
• Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self‑harming or aggressive behaviour. (A/I)
• Commitment to Anti‑Racist and Culturally Competent Practice. Applicants must demonstrate a clear commitment and ability to work in an anti‑racist and culturally competent manner. This includes having an understanding of how structural inequality and racism can impact mental health outcomes, and the ability to deliver care that is respectful, inclusive and responsive to the needs of individuals. (A/I/R)

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.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

£82,906 to £94,632 a yearper annum inclusive of HCAs