Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job overview

Band 7 preceptorship progressing to 8a after 24 months and completion of the supervision course

Full Time 37.5 hours M-F

This is an exciting opportunity for a newly qualified Band 7 Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to develop their career.  This role will eventually include providing supervision to band 7 qualified clinicians and students, taking a lead role in service developments. The successful candidate will also take a lead in the day-to-day running of Merton SPA including supporting with case discussions for more junior colleagues. The role will also involve triaging and provision of quality assessments within Merton SPA, liaison with partner agencies, and playing an active part in the wider multidisciplinary team.

Supervision will be provided by the experienced 8a and 8b Professional Lead.

Main duties of the job

The role is part of an exciting new project to develop new support streams within Merton SPA. These include self-referrals for 16 and 17 years old, short-term treatment sessions and enhanced consultation to schools through attendance at TAC/TAF meetings.  We have recently received additional funding for this role. The role will involve supporting the  8b in providing leadership to Merton SPA. This includes providing supervision to band 7 qualified clinicians and students, and taking a lead role in implementing these new support streams. The successful candidate will also take a lead in the day-to-day running of Merton SPA including supporting with case discussions for more junior colleagues. The role will also involve triaging and assessments within Merton SPA

Supervision will be provided by the 8b Professional Lead already in post

To work as a core member of Merton SPA, providing direct therapeutic work in accordance with an agreed job plan

To model high standards of clinical practice in terms of safety, effectiveness and user experience.

To coordinate clinical activity in order to enhance the overall coherence of the clinical offer.

To meet with leads of other agencies and teams of relevant services e.g. health visitors, perinatal services, in order to coordinate the work of the Merton SPA Team with these services.

To advise managers and Professional Leads about clinical issues relating to work with preschool children, and in relation to training needs for the team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To provide specialist assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and management of a child’s difficulties and distress, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the child’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.

To be responsible for implementing a range of therapeutic interventions employed individually and in synthesis, maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses, adjusting and refining formulations or understandings, drawing upon different explanatory models and  employing methods of intervention that are based upon evidence of efficacy.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options in line with relevant theoretical and therapeutic models and the factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of an individual case load that can include individual, family, and group-based treatment.

To provide specialist clinical advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to a child’s formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual children and to provide advice to other teams and services on specialist risk assessment and risk management for this client group.

To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans including children, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care.

To communicate, in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of children to parents and carers.

To ensure effective communication within the team and share relevant information as required.

To implement and participate in crisis intervention measures with families in conjunction with other agencies.