Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time - 30 hours per week
- Job ref
- 363-SSLB7366448
- Employer
- East London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- North Beds CAMHS
- Town
- Bedford
- Salary
- £64,455 - £74,896 Pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 14/09/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Principal Clinical Psychologist
NHS AfC: Band 8b
ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Job overview
Job Advertisement
Title: Principal Clinical Psychologist
Band: 8b or developmental from 8a to 8b
Team: Emotional Behavioural Teal 3
Permanent – 0.8 wte
We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced Principal Clinical Psychologist with a keen interest in service development and delivery to join our thriving and innovative multi-disciplinary Emotional & Behavioural Team (EB3). We are also open for Band 8a's to apply as a development role into the Band 8b post. This is an opportunity to bring a psychological perspective in clinical thinking to the team and to shape and develop the service which offers a range of therapeutic interventions to young people aged 5-18 and their families. This is a leadership role that will also oversee clinical supervision and consultation within the team and participate in leadership meetings and decision making.
We are a team that prides itself on creative, innovative and evidenced based approaches to our work with service users and carers and value a supportive and reflective culture in the work environment. Our team is inclusive and we consciously think about varying contexts we work within (i.e. ethnic, neurodiversity, cultural and socio-economic factors). Our work is underpinned by strong values to treat each other, service users and agency partners with respect and care.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will provide guidance on evidence-based therapies that can help address the demand on service, and in particular the growing complex challenges that young people and their families face, and how we as a service can most effectively respond. They will lead on service audits, quality improvement projects and clinical outcomes, ensuring that the findings of the audits inform service development. The successful candidate will also have responsibilities that include direct clinical work and case management of complex and high-risk cases, line management and clinical supervision.
The post holder will work with the Clinical Team Lead to ensure operational services are effective and will provide frontline leadership to the staff within the Multidisciplinary Team. The successful post-holder will directly contribute to service development and to the positive working environment within the multi-disciplinary team. The post holder will lead by example to maintain high standards of care and practice and to empower the team to take on a greater range of clinical tasks to improve client care in the specialist CAMH service. The post holder will be a highly visible presence in clinical practice and be accessible to clients and their families.
Working for our organisation
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For a more detailed information please see attached job description and person specification document
Person specification
Education/ Qualification/ Training
Essential criteria
- Postgraduate Training in Clinical Psychology leading to Practitioner Psychologist Registration with the HCPC, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
- Post qualification training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
- Post qualification training in Eating Disorders; Complex Mental health presentations in adolescence and / or CBT with children and adolescents.
Desirable criteria
- Management or leadership training
Experience
Essential criteria
- Substantial post-qualification experience of working within an NHS CAMHS service as a clinical psychologist.
- Experience of liaison and joint work with other statutory, including Social Services and Education, and voluntary agencies, including crisis management.
- Experience of the application of psychology and delivering services in different cultural contexts
- Experience of teaching, training and professional and clinical supervision.
- Experience of assessing adolescents for psychotherapy including risk assessment and management. Crisis management and skills for promoting helpful reflection amongst the clinical team.
- Experience of providing Evidence based interventions to patients with complex problems.
- Experience of developing and implementing care pathways.
- Experience of using clinical outcome measures.
- Service development experience.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings.
- Experience of representing the profession in policy and academic forums.
- Experience of leadership, operational, and/ or line management responsibilities.
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Doctorate level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies.
- Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the health and welfare of children and adolescents and mental health.
- Specialist knowledge - Complex Cases. Highly developed knowledge of severe child and adolescent mental health problems, including comprehensive multi- disciplinary assessment, systems of psychiatric classification and intervention.
- Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies for complex presentations in adolescence e.g., psychosis, OCD, eating disorders, severe depression, neuro-developmental disorders and their assessment, dual diagnosis.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Teresa Pacchiega
- Job title
- Clinical Team Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01234 893300
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