Job summary
- Main area
- Children & Adolescent Services
- Grade
- Band 8A
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time - 22.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 222-LS-CAMHS-760
- Employer
- West London NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Ealing CAMHS
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £61,631 - £68,623 per annum inclusive
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 03/02/2026 17:00
Employer heading
Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist
Band 8A
West London NHS Trust provides a full range of mental health, community and physical healthcare services for children, adults and older people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow.
We also provide some specialist services that are commissioned regionally, such as our medium secure services; and nationally, such as the Cassel Hospital for people with complex and severe personality disorder and our high secure services at Broadmoor Hospital.
Job overview
We are looking for a Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist to join us within the local authority Children in Care service, specialising in Leaving Care Service (young people aged 16-25yrs). We would welcome applicants who may be working at a Band 7 level on a preceptorship basis.
Co-located with social care colleagues and be part of the Brighter Futures Psychology Service which sees a ‘team’ of psychologists embedded across other Ealing’s children social care teams including children looked after, adoption and safeguarding teams. Given the age range of the young people accessing leaving care services (16-25yrs) we would welcome applicants with experience and interest in working with adults as well.
We are looking for someone who is passionate about developing a psychology offer for care leavers and the network around them, with a strong focus on co-production with care experienced young people and providing an accessible and flexible service. This role requires a high level of autonomy. Hybrid working is in place for the teams and flexible working is supported and common in the team.
Supervision and CPD are important when considering a new role, the post holder will have regular supervision with the Principal Clinical Psychologist for Brighter Futures and there are a range of CPD opportunities both within West London and the Local Authority CPD programme, including Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP).
Main duties of the job
The team values are a committed, empathic, and trauma-informed approach to the work with care experienced young people, their families and the professional network. The psychologist in this role would offer consultation to social work colleagues in the Leaving Care Team and support them to embed and embody a trauma-informed and relational approach to their work.
The post holder would support the team to sustain skills in key values/ approaches that underpin Ealing’s Brighter Futures model (e.g. attachment and trauma models, mentalization-based approaches) and support reflective group practice/ supervision sessions. Training and supervision is provided to the post holder to support this aim including Dyadic Developmental Practice (DDP).
In addition, the post holder would offer accessible psychological/ emotional health and wellbeing screening and assessment for young people, 1:1 psychological interventions and group work/ workshops as needed. The post holder will have opportunities to be innovative in designing and offering a mental health service to care leavers which meets their needs and works to build links/ pathways with adult mental health services.
Working for our organisation
West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services. The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.
Our high secure services care for patients from South of England and we provide low and medium secure services across eight London boroughs. The Trust also provides mental and physical healthcare in three London boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham). We employ 4,500 staff, of whom 56% are BME. Our turnover for 2023-24 is £426m.
The Trust is rated as ‘Good’ overall by the Care Quality Commission. Forensic services are rated as ‘Outstanding’.
The Trust is an established partner and contributor in the development of the evolving North West London Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Board. The Trust leads the NW London Children and Adolescent Mental Health provider collaborative.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. Please view as attached.
The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Eligible to work as a Practitioner Psychologist as approved by the Health Care Professions Council.
Desirable criteria
- Training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Child Clinical Psychology Lead
- Experience working with children and young people in a CAMH setting.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
- Experience of working with other agencies.
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Experience of working with Children looked after, care experienced or adopted children
- Experience of working in Social Services settings
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS (dependent on grade).
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups (e.g. looked after children, trauma, neurodevelopmental disorders, anxiety and mood disorders, adolescent mental health).
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and families and mental health.
- Knowledge of application of therapeutic models to care experienced children and young people who have a history of trauma, loss and/or attachment difficulties.
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
- Alicia Fairhurst
- Job title
- ISS Clinical Team Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
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