Welcome from our Chief Executive

Our organisation is expanding and we're looking for people with the right values, skills and/or potential to join us. We need people with energy, expertise, enthusiasm to help us provide the very best possible specialist NHS mental health and learning disability care. This involves helping us achieve our strategy to improve the quality of life for the communities we serve through People, Prevention and Partnerships.

So what can we offer you in return?

We're an organisation which puts people first. We'll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. We'll help you learn, acquire new skills and gain further experience to support your career development. And we'll provide the opportunity for you to bring your fresh ideas to work about how we can do things differently and continue improving.

You will also be joining a health and care system committed to working together to do the best we can for the communities we serve. Above all, at Sussex Partnership you'll have the chance to make a difference to the lives of the patients, carers and families across our communities.

If you like the sound of that, then come and join our team.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen within Havant CAMHS for an experienced Senior Clinical Psychologist. This is a full time permanent post at a band 8a. The position also sits within the local leadership team and will feed in to this group locally on behalf of all psychological therapies within the team.

We are looking to recruit someone that is highly motivated and with a passion for working creatively and collaboratively with children, young people and their families/ carers with severe and complex mental health problems. Excellent team working will also be an essential component to the post.

The post holder will identify and deliver relevant treatments and interventions; liaising where appropriate with families, carers and the professional network.

The post holder will be involved in developing and implementing local services and care pathways and will provide a systemic perspective in the team. They will also benefit from and contribute to the well-established countywide Psychology group.

Candidates will require experience of duty work, risk assessments and should be able to demonstrate a good level of initiative and an ability to work with a range of different presenting needs.

Candidates invited to interview will be required to do a 10 minute presentation and will be notified of the topic in the interview invitation.

Main duties of the job

To work as a member of the clinical service/ team, providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to clients, their families or carers. In addition, to support psychological practice within the team through consultation, supervision, formulation and training.

To participate in systematic clinical governance and to offer clinical supervision to assistant, trainee and more junior psychologists and other staff.

To utilise research skills for audit, service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

To protect the health and safety of our staff/workers, patients, and those attending our sites, we encourage our workforce to get fully vaccinated against COVID.

Working for our organisation

Hampshire CAMHS is committed to exploring ways of providing timely, locally delivered, high quality and effective interventions. These aim to maximize mental health and maintain children and young people within their home and educational environment. Hampshire CAMHS places supervision of its staff as a priority. It also uses audits, evaluations and routine outcome measures to continuously improve our service.

The local area provides a perfect match or outdoor activities as we are close to the sea and surrounded by beautiful countryside with excellent shopping and historical opportunities with Portsmouth, Chichester and Brighton easily accessible.

As a team we pride ourselves on being inclusive, friendly and welcoming. We take a person-centred approach which always puts the young person and their family at the heart of everything we do. Well-being is always prioritised. Caseloads are well managed by the team manager and there is access to a senior clinician each day to offer guidance as required. We encourage personal and professional development in areas of special interest, for example we have supported nurses to train as non-medical prescribers, DBT training, coaching, DDP, family and systemic therapy. We also enjoy socialising outside of work with walking groups, yoga and book club, we don't need much excuse to join together for a celebration, including volunteering to support Portsmouth Pride youth events.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To provide a qualified, high-quality specialist psychology service to individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, in line with best, evidence-based practice and trust care pathways.

To be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload and to exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the planning and prioritising of own workload and the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, within the bounds of the service operational policy.

To use analytical and judgment skills and be responsible for taking clinical management decisions in complex clinical issues.

To clinically supervise assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists and junior psychologists, psychological therapists or counsellors and other staff as appropriate.

To professionally supervise and, when appropriate, manage, assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists

To provide consultation, mentorship, supervision and advice about psychological issues to other members of the team/service and other professionals working with service users, across a range of agencies/ settings as appropriate.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team's operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To utilise research skills to undertake service evaluation, audit and research as appropriate and disseminate the results in the service and nationally.

To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service.

Please see job description attached for further details of responsibilities and duties

Person specification

Qualifications
Essential criteria

• Doctoral level training in applied psychology [or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or outside the UK], including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, approved by the HPC.
• Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HPC)

Knowledge/Experience
Essential criteria

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
• Demonstrate specialist experience gained postqualification of working as an applied psychologist with evidence of having received a substantial amount of clinical supervision (normally in the region of approximately 50 hours)
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Knowledge of guidance and legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
• Experience or demonstrable knowledge of working with the particular client group served by the team/service
• High level of knowledge and skills in neuropsychology and evidence of further practice and/or training since qualification.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HPC

Sussex Partnership NHS FT is committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. Our workforce is currently under-represented from Black and Minority, Ethnic and disabled communities and we would welcome applications from these communities.

We regret that we are unable to advise candidates if they have not been shortlisted. If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date please assume that you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.

In the event of an excessive number of applicants the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy earlier than indicated.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust takes its responsibilities for the safeguarding and protection of children and young people and vulnerable adults very seriously and expects this of all its employees and bank workers. The Trust works with adult and children's social care to ensure that the integrated service has systems in place to equip staff and bank workers with the knowledge and skills to recognize abuse, and take action to safeguard and protect vulnerable adults and children and young people. It is expected that all staff and bank workers familiarise themselves with the appropriate structures and policies and with the Sussex child protection and safeguarding procedures and the Sussex multi-agency policy and procedures for safeguarding vulnerable adults and undertake the relevant essential training and further training appropriate to their role.

Successful candidates are normally offered salaries at the bottom of the relevant salary range. However, where previous or equivalent NHS experience in a similar role can be demonstrated and evidenced, this may be taken into consideration when setting the starting salary.