Principal Clinical Psychologist Haemoglobinopathies

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for experienced Clinical Psychologists to join the Children’s Psychological Medicine team at the Children’s Hospital Oxford. The 0.6 WTE capacity will support delivery of psychological services in Haemoglobinopathies. Psychology is embedded within the MDT to deliver high-quality, evidence-based, family-integrated care. Children's Psychological Medicine consists of psychologists, psychiatrists, and a family therapist, offering formal and informal consultation with colleagues from a range of therapeutic approaches. The department operates an inpatient rota for the children’s hospital, and there are opportunities for advice and support on a daily basis. The Trust supports flexible working and CPD, with funds available for additional training.

Main duties of the job

• Work systemically, supporting paediatric teams to deliver psychologically informed care to young people and families, and provide targeted specialist psychological input.
• Liaise closely with relevant hospital and community services to ensure continuity along the patient pathway.
• Provide training and consultation to colleagues, including contributions to CPM meetings and Children’s Grand Rounds.
• Undertake direct clinical work with children, siblings, parents and families; develop and review psychological formulations; deliver individual, family and group interventions drawing from CBT and other models (e.g., ACT, CFT, EMDR, systemic).
• Provide clinical supervision, data collation and contribute to service evaluation, audit and research.
• Participate in the Children’s Hospital inpatient psychology rota as required.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide a highly specialist inpatient and outpatient clinical psychology service for children and young people with Haemoglobinopathies.
• Receive and communicate highly complex, sensitive or contentious information arising from referral, assessment and therapy, often with distressed clients and families.
• Provide expert psychological assessment based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from interviews, psychometrics, rating scales, structured observations and collateral information.
• Assist clinical teams in planning management informed by psychological formulation; implement highly specialist interventions, adjusting and refining hypotheses and maintaining multiple provisional formulations as appropriate.
• Administer specialised psychological and cognitive assessments, with accurate manipulation of materials and detailed recording and dissemination of clinical findings.
• Develop specialised plans for intervention based on individual formulation, informed by treatment efficacy and psychological principles.
• Make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options considering theoretical models and complex developmental factors.
• Exercise full responsibility and autonomy for treatment and discharge within a psychologically informed care plan, ensuring appropriate communication with referrers and stakeholders.
• Undertake risk assessment and management (including abuse, suicide and self-harm) and provide specialist advice on psychological aspects of risk.
• Communicate effectively and empathically with patients, families and carers on complex, emotionally charged matters (e.g., lifelong conditions, trauma, bereavement).
• Communicate clearly with clinical colleagues via formal written and verbal reports and day-to-day liaison and consultation.
• Maintain very high levels of mental and emotional concentration for prolonged periods during assessments, clinics and therapy sessions; manage challenging behaviour where present.
• Provide expertise and specialist psychological advice and consultation to other professionals; ensure psychologically based frameworks inform care across the MDT.
• Carry out clinical research as a routine activity; lead audit and service evaluation for CPM within these specialties; supervise research of trainees/assistants.
• Provide clinical and professional supervision to qualified and assistant psychologists; provide placements and teaching for doctoral trainees; deliver formal/informal teaching and training to other staff groups.
• Contribute as a senior clinician to service development and implementation, policy work and project delivery; plan and organise the work of trainees/assistants in addition to own caseload.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.