Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society, or equivalent if trained overseas.
• Eligible to work as a Practitioner Psychologist as approved by the Health Care Professions Council.
• Training in supervision

Desirable

• Training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and their families across a range of care settings, (e.g. outpatient, community, primary care, in patient settings).
• Experience of working with children, adolescents and their families which will have involved maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience working as a specialist clinical psychologist in CAMHS.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.

Desirable

• Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) with learning disability and/or neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. ASD, ADHD, etc) in a CAMH setting.
• Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) with a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder.
• Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) who present in crisis and have provided therapeutic input to prevent inpatient admission.
• Experience of working with other agencies and providing consultation.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working with children/young people with special educational needs and challenging behaviour or mental health difficulties and their families.

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment and intervention with children, young people and their families.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to children/families, mental health and children's social care
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS/HCPC (dependent on grade).

Desirable

• Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups e.g. those in crisis, have a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder and/or neurodevelopmental difficulties, or specialist skills in working with children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of application of therapeutic models to children who have special educational needs.

Essential

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Commitment to provide support to children, their families/carers and linked professionals and maintain high levels of aspiration for the population referred to the service.
• Willingness to work flexibly when necessary.
• Commitment to working flexibly and collaboratively with team colleagues and to support innovative ways of working.
• To approach clients with empathy and adaptability and to be open to development of new approaches to work with clients.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.