Senior Clinical Psychologist, Paediatric Tics/Tourette's (Annex 21)

Integrated Care System; St Helens; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 63,000; Part time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider is seeking a Senior Clinical Psychologist to run a specialist clinic for children with tics and Tourette's in St Helens. This part-time role (7.5 hours/week) offers training in behavioral therapy and peer supervision. Ideal for Clinical Psychologists aspiring to specialize in pediatrics and develop their skills in a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• Expertise in psychological assessment, formulation and intervention with paediatric clients.
• Qualified in multiple psychological therapies.
• Experience in paediatric settings and collaboration with medical teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological clinics for children with tic disorders.
• Develop and implement assessment and intervention strategies.
• Ensure compliance with clinical governance and supervision policies.

Skills

Specialist psychological assessment

Complex psychological interventions

Effective communication skills

Team collaboration

High-level self-awareness

Education

Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology

Job description

Go back Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Senior Clinical Psychologist, Paediatric Tics/Tourette's (Annex 21)

The closing date is 26 August 2025

This post may be offered under Annex 21 AfC Terms & Conditions, subject to experience, competency and suitability.Part Time 7.5 hours per week

To run an established tics and Tourette's clinic to the St Helens area for children and their parents, supporting the management of tics and Tourette's. Support will be provided by the Senior Clinical Psychologist who has led the clinic since 2022.

An opportunity has arisen for a secondment for an experienced or aspiring Senior Paediatric Clinical Psychologist to join the Tics and Tourette's Service in St Helen's.

You will be provided with training in behavioural therapy for tics, supervision from an experienced Paediatric Clinical Psychologist in the area and the opportunity to engage in peer supervision with other psychologists working in the tics service. You will join an aspiring expanding paediatric service, gain clinical experience in a specialised area enabling potential future opportunities.

This role would be ideal for Clinical Psychologists interested in specialising in paediatrics as in the future we hope there will be potential opportunities more broadly within the service.

This post is part of a joint role with two other paediatric psychology posts, totalling 3.5 days per week

Main duties of the job

KEY DUTIES

• To be responsible for the systematic provision of highly specialist psychological clinic for children and young people with complex tic presentations, and their families/carers.
• To provide services that meet the agreed service priorities consonant with practitioner experience and expertise. Such services to include the development and implementation of highly specialist psychologicalassessment and intervention strategies including clinical casework and the provision of consultancy work generally for the assurance of quality in the use of psychological methods by other team members.
• The post holder will demonstrate an attitude which respects and values service users and their carers.
• The post holder will embrace the core values of the organisation and adopt the principles of Recovery. These principles will recognise the need to:

o Promote safe practices

o Value the aims of service users

o Work in partnership and offer meaningful choice

o Be optimistic about the possibilities of meaningful change

About us

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Job responsibilities

For more information, please see the attached job description.

Clinical Duties

To undertake specialised assessment, formulation, intervention, communication and reporting of sensitive clinical information related to paediatric tics and Tourette's, running a clinic one day per week for St Helens.

Ensure appropriate policies, procedures and rigorous governance processes are followed accordingly.

Ensure appropriate clinical supervision is received.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology and/or equivalent qualification and experience) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and Neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology
• Qualification in research methodology and/or equivalent qualification and experience

Knowledge

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention with clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings (Annex 21)
• 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
• Doctoral level knowledge (or its equivalent) of research design and methodology, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
• Experience of working in a paediatric setting and with medical teams
• Experience of working within a CAMHS setting (Annex 21)
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision in psychology (Annex 21)
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
• High-level knowledge of the theory of at least two specialised psychological therapies
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to CAMHS (Annex 21)
• Knowledge of current psychological evidence base and best practice in working within CAMHS (Annex 21)

Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management, frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, complex, highly technical &/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional groups (Annex 21)
• High-level skills in the practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies

Other

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Appreciation of the interface between personal and professional lives, high level of self-awareness and knowledge of principles of self-care
• Ability to assess and manage risk
• Ability to recognise and challenge age discrimination
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS
• Demonstrate a commitment to respecting and displaying the Trust Values at all times
• Ability to identify and employ methods of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour (Annex 21)
• Personal experience of coping with life stressors
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations in public, professional and academic settings

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.

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

£55,690 to £62,682 a yearper annum, pro rata (Annex 21)

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time,Flexible working,Compressed hours,Term time hours