Specialist Clinical Psychologist

The Ealing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for Learning Disabilities (CAMHS LD) team is a small, expanding, well respected, supportive, hard-working team based at Carmelita House (London W5 2PJ). CAMHS-LD provides assessment and intervention for children and young people with learning disabilities and their families where there are concerns about mental health difficulties and/or behaviours that challenge. We have excellent links with our colleagues in Education, Health and Social Care and we work collaboratively and jointly for many of the clients under our care. The team believe strongly in the importance of accessible, equitable, high quality care for children and young people with learning disabilities.

Carmelita House is in a convenient central Ealing location, very close to many transport options, shops and green spaces.

The CAMHS-LD team considers ongoing CPD to be very important and we have an active CPD programme; we will support the post holder/s to access CPD/training relevant to this post. Furthermore, West London CAMHS has developed new ways of working; our staff provide a combination of face-to-face clinical contact as well as clinical contact via virtual platforms, resulting in a combination of onsite and remote working.

We welcome all enquiries and are happy to answer any questions you may have; you are welcome to apply for full or part time hours. 3rd year Trainee Clinical Psychologists who are yet to qualify are very welcome to apply.

Main duties of the job

The Specialist Clinical Psychologist will join the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for Learning Disabilities (CAMHS-LD) Team that provides assessment and intervention for children and young people with disabilities and their families where there are concerns about emotional, behavioural and psychological difficulties, including challenging behaviours, mental health difficulties and social/family difficulties.

The Clinical Psychologist will hold a clinical case load of young people with a Learning Disability up to the age of 18, with a range of mental health and behavioural difficulties in the Ealing CAMHS-LD team and could also offer clinical work in the Ealing ITSBS which aims to enable children with Learning Disability and challenging behaviour to remain in the community, preventing family placement breakdown and a move to residential care.

The Specialist Clinical Psychologist will provide specialist CAMHS assessments and interventions for children, young people and their families with significant and complex problems. The successful applicant could also offer supervision to more junior staff, will receive regular professional and management supervision, and will support with team and service development as appropriate.

Job responsibilities

The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. Please view as attached.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Training

• Clinical/Counselling Psychologists: completion of Clinical/Counselling Psychology Doctorate
• Registration with regulatory body (or pending)
• Further training in working within child and adolescent mental health.
• Further training in working with children and young people with a Learning Disability
• Further training in assessment and intervention for behaviours that challenge, specifically within the LD population.

Experience

• Assessment and intervention with children and young people with mental health difficulties, and their parents, carers and networks.
• Assessment and intervention with children and young people with Learning Disabilities, and their parents, carers and networks.
• Work experience with families, children or adults with mental health difficulties and/or other disabilities, or who have had involvement with social care.
• Experience of clinically relevant research or audit.
• Experience of working with families from different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working with children and young people in care, on the child protection register, and with highly complex professional networks.
• Experience of paid work in direct care provision.
• Experience of working within an Education or Social Care setting.
• Experience of work with children with learning disabilities or Autism who display high levels of challenging behaviour.
• Experience of teaching and training, or group work.
• Experience of Positive Behaviour Support.

Experience Knowledge and Skills

• High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive.
• Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance.
• An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems, other disabilities, and social difficulties.
• An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health and social care context.
• Knowledge of the issues of conducting research/evaluation in the context of multi-agency teams.
• Knowledge of specific strategies for working with children with Autism or Learning Disabilities.
• Experience of having written research and/or evaluation reports and papers.
• High standard of report writing. Experience using computers for databases or data-analysis, for example Excel, SPSS for Windows.
• An ability to recognise, acknowledge and address issues of difference and power in relation to race, gender, class, sexuality, dis/ability and other social constructs.
• An understanding of psychology applied to health and social care.
• An understanding of the different cultural understanding of mental health and psychological theory, and how to address this within your work.
• Knowledge and skills in functional analysis and positive behavioural interventions.
• Experience of implementing specific strategies for working with children with Autism or Learning Disabilities.

Personal Qualities

• Experience of working within a multi-cultural framework, with people with a diverse range of backgrounds.
• An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines. An ability to interact with children, young people and families who have complex needs and may be hard to engage.
• Ability to work independently, reliably and consistently with work agreed and managed at regular intervals.
• Willingness to work flexibly when necessary.
• Commitment to working flexibly and collaboratively with team colleagues and to support innovative ways of working.
• An interest in working with people with social and mental health/health difficulties or disabilities, especially children and young people with such difficulties.
• A flexible, hard working and collaborative approach to work.
• An interest in service development and research and a passion for evidence-based practice.

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.

£51,883 to £58,544 a year pa including 15% HCAS.