Detailed job description and main responsibilities

As a team we place a strong emphasis on self-care and on supporting one another. This  means that there are clear job plans and people are encouraged to maintain a good work/life balance. The positive working atmosphere and the opportunities for development mean we have a long track record of retaining staff with the team.

This is a 0.8 wte job at band 8a as a clinical psychologist in our team. The main duties will involve therapeutic clinical work with children, young people and their families living with complex and often chronic health conditions, including gastroenterological conditions. 

You will be required to provide specialist psychological assessments of children and young people (inpatients and outpatients) referred from paediatric specialities such as gastroenterology, diabetes, neurology and general paediatrics, based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources, including psychological tests, neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with children, family members and others involved in the child’s care.

The role will involve using advanced theoretical and practical knowledge to provide Clinical Psychology input as appropriate.  This will require skills such as undertaking neuropsychological assessment of children of all ages, providing psychological support to the staff who work with children and young people, providing evidence-based therapies to children, therapeutic input to the family and wider system around the child, and devising psychological strategies to assist children in adapting to diagnoses and in adhering to medical treatment regimes. 

You will work closely with other clinical psychologists in providing specialist psychological support to the families of children diagnosed with a chronic illness, providing psychological support to the staff who support these children and young people, providing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and other evidence-based therapies to children, and devising psychological strategies to assist children in adhering to medical treatment regimes.

You will need to liaise with members of the paediatric teams supporting these families to establish ways in which clinical psychology can be of most use to their services.  This is likely to include having therapeutic input with children who show unexplained or inconsistent symptoms, supporting children and families in managing treatment plans, working with families adjusting to new diagnoses in their children and assisting families with the psychological implications of diagnoses.

You will need experience of assessing and working with children and young people with a whole range of emotional and behavioural difficulties and their families/carers, presenting with the full range of clinical severity across a range of settings including outpatient, community, educational and residential. You will need experience of working in an acute paediatric setting and/or experience of working with children and families experiencing issues related to loss, bereavement, long term medical needs, severe illness or injury. Many children and young people we support find it difficult to comply with medical procedures or regimens and you will be instrumental in helping navigate and overcome these obstacles. You will also need experience of carrying out neuropsychological assessments with children and young people. And the role requires of you a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems. You will need to be able to represent clinical psychology in the context of multidisciplinary care and in a continually changing environment.