Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical:

1. To work as a member of the multi-disciplinary CAMH service for children and young people, within the clinical governance structures and protocols of the service.
2. To undertake generic and specialist psychological and neuropsychological assessments of children and families referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests (including WISC-V, ADOS-2, 3Di, ABAS etc.), self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, including frontline workers in health, education, Social Services and the voluntary sector.
3. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of emotional and behavioural disorders in children young people and families, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
4. To be responsible for developing and implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses and taking account of changing needs during the course of delivering the intervention. To act as case manager to coordinate care for individuals for an agreed caseload.
5. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, environmental and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group
6. In providing care to clients to liaise and work with family members and others involved in the client’s care, including CAMHS colleagues, frontline workers in health, education, Social Services, inpatients services and the voluntary sector.
7. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
8. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals, contributing to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
9. 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.
10. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
11. To contribute to and implement policy changes and developments within the area served by the team/service, including the 0-25 SEND code of practice (2016).
12. To participate in the clinical Duty rota and initial CAMHS assessment clinics / specialist assessments as required.
13. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary care.
14. To contribute knowledge, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team.
15. The post holder will undertake all work sensitive to the needs of families from a wide range of ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds and with sensitivity to issues of power, gender, educational attainment, sexuality, disability, class and age.

Teaching, training, and supervision

1.       To receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with Trust guidelines for clinical/counselling psychology.

2. To pursue continuing professional development by relevant study and attendance at training events, courses and conferences to gain experience and skills relevant to the service.
3. To develop skills in the area of training and supervision and to provide consultation and supervision to other worker including providing clinical supervision to assistant and/or trainee psychologists as needed.
4. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client groups across a range of agencies and settings.
5. To contribute to psychology input into teaching and training programmes in CAMHS as appropriate depending on service needs.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development         

1. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the service as required through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
2. To take personal responsibility for attending and contributing to clinical and care quality meetings within the service.
3. To manage the workloads of supervisees within the framework of the Team’s policies and procedures and as directed by the line manager / clinical lead.
4. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service.

Research and service evaluation

1. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members, including the use of outcome measures.
2. To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research within the context of the needs of the service as directed by the Professional Lead/Team Manager.
3. To undertake audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service, to help develop service provision.

IT responsibilities (other than those used for research)

1. The post holder will input and maintain appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data and provide this to the Service Manager/Clinical Lead when necessary.
2. The post holder will engage in relevant computer and IT training as required.

General

1. To remain current with all mandatory / statutory training for the service.
2. To adhere to local and Trust policies and procedures including Health & Safety, Lone Working, Sickness and Absence, and Annual Leave.
3. To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, as agreed by the post holder’s service manager(s) and professional lead.
4. To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in Psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology, child and adolescent mental health and related disciplines.
5. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the HCPC, British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.
6. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.
7. All CAMHS staff are expected to actively involve service users in decisions about the service and support they receive, to be aware of and inform service users about participation initiatives, and actively support the development of such initiatives to ensure the voice of service users is at the heart of service design, development and delivery.

To be noted:

• This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the post holder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with the Team Manager / Service Manager.
• This job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.
• The post holder is expected to comply with all relevant Trust policies, procedures and guidelines, including those relating to Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety and Confidentiality of Information, Safeguarding and SEND.