Clinical Psychologist - children/young people & learning disabilities

The Trust also provides inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs at our Sunflower House building newly relocated, and opened on the hospital site.

We currently have more than 4,000 staff working across our community and hospital sites. We’re also a teaching and training hospital providing education and training to around 540 medical and over 500 nursing and allied health professional students each year.

As black and minority ethnic (BME) employees are currently under-represented in this area, we particularly welcome applications from members of our BME communities. All appointments will be made on merit.

You can expect a warm welcome at Alder Hey Childrens NHS Foundation Trust, our staff are friendly and welcoming. We listen to each other and work together to embed our Trusts values and behaviours. At Alder Hey we appreciate our staff and reward them with an outstanding benefits package including:

• Great flexible working opportunities
• Lease car scheme and Home Electronics Scheme
• Generous annual leave and pension scheme
• Extensive staff health and well-being programmes

Job overview

B7 Clinical Psychologist

Permanent - 37.5 Hours

We expect applicants to be a clinical psychologist with experience of working with children and young people with a learning disability.

We welcome clinical psychologists from underrepresented or disadvantaged communities.

This an exciting opportunity for a Clinical Psychologist specialising in supporting children and young people with a learning disability to join the Liverpool Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

The post holder will provide a range of appropriate, evidence based clinical interventions informed by assessed individual need. The post holder may be required to provide support, advice and consultation to families/carers and other professionals involved in the life of the child/young person.

Further training in positive behaviour support would be an advantage. We are looking for individuals who have skills and experience in engaging families who are from communities that may be at increased risk of social exclusion or marginalisation.

Main duties of the job

Main duties of the job: to provide highly specialised CAMHS assessment and therapeutic interventions and to offer advice and consultation to other professionals across a range of agencies including: primary care, social care, and education. The post holder will have clinical responsibility for complex therapeutic and risk management work with children and young people with a learning disability who have been assessed to require specialist CAMHS intervention.

Working for our organisation

The services comprise of several multi-disciplinary teams including staff from varied backgrounds, including psychology, psychiatry, social work, nursing and psychotherapy. In addition, our team members are trained in a wealth of different therapeutic interventions and approaches, making the teams truly multi-disciplinary.

Refer a friend – Alder Hey staff

Successful candidates who are introduced to the trust by existing staff members will receive £1000 after completion of six months in post. Please include the name/Alder Hey email for your friend in the additional information section of your application.

This will be paid in two parts, £250 in first month pay on commencement in post, and £750 on completion of six months.

Accommodation

Alder Hey will support the cost of accommodation for up to 3 months from the date of employment (up to £500 per month)

The cost is to be paid by the staff member and reclaimed as expenses.

Relocation package

Relocation packages to support new hires and will be consulted on an individual basis, please link in with [email protected] for further information.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Maintain comprehensive clinical notes and consultation records in accordance with trust policies and procedures

Contribute to the development, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the Service Group’s operational policies and procedures.

Participate in MDT and multi-agency meetings

implementing service developments.

Contribute to the management of workloads of appropriate staff within the framework of the Service Group policies and procedures.

Person specification

Education and Training

• Qualified in core profession such as Mental Health Nurse (RMN/RLD), Mental Health Practitioner, Clinical Psychologist, Occupational Therapy, Social Work or creative therapies e.g. Art Therapy – with evidence of relevant professional registration
• Alternatively a recognised degree level broad based health & social care qualification which will require completion of The British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) Knowledge Skills and Attributes
• Post qualification study in chosen mental health field

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in other fields of child and adolescent mental health, research methodology, staff training

Experience

• Experience of specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions with children and young people with mental health problems and their families
• Working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team
• Working collaboratively with other agencies in a variety of venues.
• Must be experienced in providing risk assessment of self harming behaviour
• Must be experienced in analysing presenting problems and able to demonstrate ability to work autonomously utilising a range of therapeutic perspectives and modalities, depending on the needs of the client.
• Must be experienced in and able to demonstrate ability to provide case management supervision for lower banded team members, students and other service group/team professionals as required
• Must demonstrate ability to be self-reflective and to organise own supervision appropriately. Must be able to demonstrate ability to develop and evaluate consultation and training to other professionals and to staff groups.

• Experience of working with a wide variety of child mental health problems, across the whole age range, reflecting all levels of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal and physical abuse
• Experience of teaching, training or supervision
• Experience of the application of specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions in different cultural contexts
• Experience of working with children and young people in a range of clinical settings

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
• Must demonstrate knowledge of the evidence base in their practice
• Must demonstrate understanding of child development and psychosocial influences
• Must demonstrate a working understanding of systemic, psychodynamic and cognitive theories along with recognition of when each approach is appropriate

We reserve the right to close vacancies without notice when we have received a sufficient number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply regularly as we will contact you using this regarding your application. All candidates will be notified via email whether or not they have been shortlisted.

We actively promote equality and diversity and operate a Zero Tolerance policy to aggression, violence, bullying and harassment.

Please declare within the supporting information if artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in your application.