Skip to main content

This site is independent of the NHS and the Department of Health.

Please wait, loading

Job summary

Main area
Psychology
Grade
Band 7
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Part time - 30 hours per week
Job ref
327-25-260
Employer
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
TBC
Town
Cheltenham
Salary
£46,148 - £52,809 Per Annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
30/04/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust logo

CAMHS Clinical Psychologist

Band 7

We love what we do and we think you will, too!

At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county. 

We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding careWe put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you’.

We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and we are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality teams in all areas of the Trust.

Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience.  We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.

It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC.  We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us .

 

Job overview

We love what we do & we think you will, too!

Interested in developing a career in Clinical Psychology & having a rewarding job in a great team?

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical Psychologist to join our Core Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) team across Gloucestershire, providing high quality mental health interventions to children, young people, and their families with moderate to severe mental health difficulties. We pride ourselves on working within a strong and supportive multi-disciplinary team with opportunities for learning, development &  progression.

We welcome newly qualified Psychologists as well as those with previous experience who are passionate & motivated to work with young people & families.

We are proud of offering in-depth assessments & a wide range of evidence-based interventions including an established CBT clinic (and third wave approaches), family therapy clinic, NVR, DBT, psychoanalytic psychotherapy & creative therapies. We also work closely with the neurodevelopmental team & other specialist CAMHS teams (e.g. Under 5’s, and the vulnerable children’s service). We offer individual, family and group interventions which may be time limited or longer-term therapies according to need &  we ensure the young person and families’ voice remains at the centre of all we do.

Our service is currently going through a transformation and there are many opportunities to contribute to service development and areas to meet your interests.

Main duties of the job

Have a key role in conducting assessments (inc. risk assessments); developing formulations & delivering a range of interventions. Be able to demonstrate the clinical, consultation & communication skills needed to offer an outstanding service. You will be able to share psychological skills & knowledge in direct work with young people & within the locality MDT & multi-agency colleagues (e.g. social care & schools) that we work closely with.

Key elements :

  • Providing psychological perspective to the team
  • Providing Care Coordinator responsibilities for a caseload of children & young people presenting with complex & high-risk mental health issues. There will be a specific focus upon providing specialist clinical assessment, formulation & treatment, including self harm assessments & embedding the voice of the child within personalised care plans.
  • Providing / contributing to training to the wider CAMHS MDT.
  • Supervision of Assistant Psychologists / Mental Health Navigators as required.
  • Ability to lead projects or other clinical based initiatives as part of delivering innovative & high-quality services to children & young people.
  • Demonstrating a commitment to ensuring routine outcome measures are embedded within clinical practice to demonstrate clinical based improvements for children, young people & parents/carers

This is a community based post and therefore a valid UK driving licence plus the use of own transport for business purposes is essential.

Working for our organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us.  In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views.  It was great to hear that:

  • 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
  • 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
  • 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

 This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement.  However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

·       Provide a range of specialist CAMHS assessment and treatment interventions for children and young people (0-18yrs) as well as their families/carers who present with emotional and mental health difficulties as well as those children and young people who have learning disabilities. Provision will be in accordance to the application of a range of profession specific models of clinical practice.

·       Provide clinical leadership within the team alongside undertaking clinical responsibility for a caseload involving complex and high-risk clinical formulation and decision making, adhering to risk management and care planning processes in line with Care Programme Approach (CPA) and liaising with Trust and multi-agency partners across Gloucestershire as required.  There will be a specific focus upon providing specialist clinical assessment, formulation and treatment for those highly vulnerable children and young people who have high clinical risk and other complex/multi agency needs. For Clinical Psychology or equivalent level health-relevant Applied Psychology: to provide a direct service for complex psychological issues

·       Provide CAMHS specialist clinical risk assessments and complex risk management plans as part of routine clinical work ensuring that all aspects of clinical caseload work adheres to current Trust safeguarding as well as risk assessment and management best practice procedures. This will include undertaking specialist Self Harm risk assessments of children and young people.

·       Demonstrate enhanced competency regarding complex clinical decision making and clinical formulation.  For Clinical Psychology or equivalent level health-relevant Applied Psychology: Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for assessment and case management through psychologically based care plans. 

·       Ensure high quality, accurate and contemporaneous clinical record keeping is maintained in line with current Trust policies

·       Ensure regular attendance at service wide and other CAMHS CPD/core competency training

·       Provide specialist CAMHS clinical interventions within a multidisciplinary team where expected roles, responsibilities and activity/performance expectations are outlined within a personal (team based) job plan.  This job plan will be reviewed on a quarterly basis and may be adjusted to meet team or service led requirements.

·       As agreed within personal job plan, to provide specialist, profession-based interventions within specific CAMHS care pathways or clinics. 

·       Provide high quality and specialist clinical reasoning, consultation, signposting and support to children young people and their families as well as professionals/workers within universal and targeted settings (e.g. Primary Care, GCC, voluntary sector).

·       Provide high quality and specialist profession based clinical reasoning, knowledge, skills and competencies regarding a range of CAMHS therapeutic interventions.

·       Provide specialist professional consultancy regarding service delivery of evidence based generic and professional practice to CAMHS colleagues and those workers in universal settings in line with the annual CAMHS Service Plan.

·       Provide specialist clinical reasoning as well as CAMHS specific consultation, training and advice to professionals working within a range of children’s services within Gloucestershire on a routine basis.

·       Participate in the recruitment and selection of new staff, including overseeing local induction when required.

·       Work flexibly to provide CAMHS interventions within a range of clinical and community settings dependent on client and service need. Situations may demand an unpredictable work pattern and difficult situations as well as the need to balance a range of complex and high risk clinical needs and presentations.

·       Ensure local lone working arrangements are considered and adhered to when delivering interventions within a community setting. 

·       Demonstrate clinical leadership and commitment to working with team colleagues to develop a strong multidisciplinary ethos and focus to delivering high quality clinical services.  This includes commitment to the CAMHS Children and Young People’s Charter by ensuring routine clinical work reflects proactive involvement and collaborative working with children, young people and their parents/carers. 

·       Demonstrate clinical leadership and commitment to ensuring the “voice” of the child is central to developing personalised care planning for all children and young people.

·       Demonstrate commitment to working effectively with team colleagues to develop a strong multidisciplinary ethos and focus to delivering high quality clinical services.

·       Contribute to service wide clinical rotas as requested (i.e referral management, responding to same day urgent referrals, CAMHS Practitioner Advice Line), including leading rotas where requested.

·       Provide high quality and specialist written clinical/professional reports and other means of effective communication as part of routine clinical responsibilities. 

·       Implement and evaluate routine outcome measures (i.e. ROMS/HEF) as part of CAMHS Care Coordinator responsibilities.

·       Be accountable for maintaining own professional actions guided by the profession specific standards and Code of Conduct.  This includes carrying out continuous professional development (CPD) activity to maintain knowledge of legislation, national, local policies and issues in relation to both specific client group and wider clinical practice.  This includes maintaining a professional Continuing Professional Development (CPD) log to meet professional expectations and requirements. 

·       Demonstrate clinical leadership and actively contribute to delivery of the current CAMHS Service Plan as well as considering new/innovative ways of delivering clinical care to the CAMHS population

·       Contribute to providing out of hours CAMHS services if requested by CAMHS Management

·       Change work base as requested by the CAMHS Service Director    

·       As part of a clinical leadership role, to deputise for the Team Manager as requested by CAMHS Management.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Post Graduate Doctoral level training in Clinical Psychology, as accredited by the BPS (or equivalent level health-relevant Applied Psychology training, as accredited by the professional body)
  • Eligible for Chartered Status, HCPC Registered
Desirable criteria
  • Profession specific additional qualifications (i.e LD, nurse prescriber, DBT, CBT, AMHP, family therapy or systemic practice)

Length and/or Nature of Experience

Essential criteria
  • Demonstrate extensive experience and expertise regarding delivering evidence based/best practice clinical interventions within CAMHS or related services and/or adult mental health settings.
  • Demonstrate psychological assessment, formulation and intervention using appropriate psychological theory and knowledge.
Desirable criteria
  • Demonstrate expertise and extensive experience of multi-agency collaborative working and joint care planning

Professional / Managerial / Specialist Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Demonstrate extensive and expert knowledge of therapeutic use and application of CAMHS specific interventions, i.e CBT, DBT
Desirable criteria
  • Demonstrate specialist knowledge and expertise regarding working with highly vulnerable and traumatised (i.e. moderate/severe learning disabilities, children in care, those within the criminal justice system, refugees etc)

Personal Skills and Attributes

Essential criteria
  • Demonstrate clinical leadership skills and commitment and take an active role within CAMHS continuous improvement cycles and implementing learning across the service

Other Requirements

Essential criteria
  • This is a community based post and therefore a valid UK driving licence plus the use of own transport for business purposes is essential

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Veteran AwareApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveDisability confident leaderImproving working livesCare quality commission - GoodArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.NHS Pastoral CareStep into healthNational Preceptorship for Nursing Quality Mark

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.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Suzy Barker
Job title
Core CAMHS Team Manager
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
01242 634050
Apply online nowAlert me to similar vacancies