Clinical Psychologist

Are you looking for a unique opportunity? We are excited to offer a new role for a B7 Clinical Psychologist to work across the two Tier 4 CAMHS units, covering the age range 0-17: The Croft Family and Children’s unit and The Darwin Centre for Young People.

The Croft is the only mental health unit that admits carers alongside their child, offering comprehensive complex assessment and treatment of children under 13 years alongside parental work with a focus on attachment and neurodevelopmental disorders.

The Darwin Centre is a trauma-informed 14 bed acute inpatient psychiatric unit for young people aged 13-18 presenting with a range of mental health difficulties. We also work closely with our Home Treatment Team as part of our ‘Psychology Hub’ of clinicians that can follow young people’s treatment across both Tier 4 services.

You will be joining the senior psychologists in each team and working within our dynamic and skilled multi-disciplinary teams. This includes our Systemic Psychotherapists, Consultant Psychiatrists, Creative Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Social workers and assistant psychologists in addition to the strong clinical nursing team led by the Clinical Nurse Specialists.

The units are situated roughly four and a half miles south of Cambridge in pleasant grounds and admits young people from around the region. The Pilgrim PRU run schools on both units which consistently receives an outstanding rating from Ofsted.

• To provide a clinical service to young people and their families under the care of The Croft and The Darwin.
• To provide specialist evidence-based assessment and therapy and offer advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to both professional colleagues and staff from other agencies.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of both the trust’s and CAMHS’ policies and procedures.
• To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service
• To provide training on psychological theory to the MDT and nursing team.

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.

To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share out vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disable people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

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

2. To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence and which incorporates developmental,
interpersonal, societal, cultural and biological factors

3. To develop and implement plans for the therapeutic treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.

4. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

5. To evaluate and make decisions about the most effective therapeutic approach and intervention taking into account a range of theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, carers or group.

6. To monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions

7. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation and treatment plan.

8. To promote psychological formulation and apply psychological models within the team in order to support other professionals to make sense of, manage and respond to a wide range of complex situations, feelings and reactions associated with working on the ward.

9. To facilitate a self-reflective and compassionate environment on the ward both within the team and client group.

10. 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.