Clinical Psychologist

Job Description

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY & THERAPIES TEAM

CORNWALL COUNCIL

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST Band 8A

(Band 7-8a Preceptorship programme available)

THERAPEUTIC PARENTING STREAM

The Service & Team

We are seeking an innovative and enthusiastic Clinical Psychologist to join our team who work with children in care known to the Local Authority.

You will be employed by Cornwall Council on Agenda for Change terms and conditions which will acknowledge your NHS continuous service and allow you to continue an NHS pension. We have close links with Clinical Psychologists in CPFT who support our clinical governance and CPD.

The post is Band 8a, but we encourage applications from newly/early qualified psychologists to be appointed at Band 7 under a preceptorship to work towards requirements for Band 8a, subject to satisfactory completion of preceptorship process. Full details available on request.

We work with children, young people and their families who are known to the Local Authority. The children we support have experienced neglect, abuse, trauma, loss and many have had a number of adverse childhood experiences. We use a range of attachment and trauma/recovery approaches in assessment, formulation and to guide our interventions. Our aim is to improve outcomes (including stability, attachment security, trauma recovery and permanence) for children from vulnerable groups. We are trauma-informed and are curious to understand what has happened to children (and their families) from a psychological perspective. The social care teams we support, value psychology highly and welcome our input.

The Role

We have a 0.5FTE (2.5 days) post within our Therapeutic Parenting Stream, which provides Clinical Psychology input to the Children in Care and Fostering Teams in the Local Authority. We are embedded in the Children in Care social work teams, and the role is focused on supporting carers (kinship and foster carers), Social Workers and other professionals involved (through consultation, training and group supervision) to think psychologically about the children they support. We also support carers (kinship and foster carers) in adopting a therapeutic parenting approach to meet children’s needs and supporting recovery by offering regular therapeutic parenting groups (PACE informed), Circle of Security Reflective Parenting groups and training workshops. We also supervise our Attachment Mentor’s, who are experienced foster carers in adopting therapeutic parenting themselves, and who offer mentoring to other carers.

The post offers exciting opportunities to join a highly experienced and supportive multi-disciplinary team of Clinical Psychologists and Post Abuse Counsellors. Our team are happy in their work and are supported with relational-based, trauma-informed leadership. The team is part of Education & Community Health within the Together for Families Directorate of Cornwall Council with close links to Specialist CAMHS and the voluntary sector.

The role is subject to an enhanced criminal record disclosure check.

This is a public/customer-facing role, where the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers applies

Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and is an equal opportunities employer

What You’ll Need To Succeed

You will need to have a post graduate qualification in Clinical Psychology and be registered with the HCPC. You will be experienced in working with children and young people with social / emotional and mental health needs and have a passion for improving outcomes for vulnerable groups. You will need a good understanding of attachment theory and complex developmental trauma and experience of working psychologically through consultation and training. You will be resilient and have well developed self-care skills as well as experience in supporting other professionals in working successfully with emotionally challenging and emotive subjects including trauma and abuse. We welcome enquiries and discussions about flexible working.

What You’ll Get In Return

Cornwall Council’s ambition is to be an employer of choice, a high performing Council and a learning organisation. We commit to providing a reward and benefits package to attract, motivate and reward our employees. We offer a range of flexible working options to our staff. This helps provide our employees with a greater work/life balance. Whilst still ensuring that service needs are met.

Our Core Employee Rewards And Benefits Include

• a competitive salary.
• a defined benefit pension scheme, based on your career average earnings. This includes the option for extra voluntary contributions
• a generous annual leave entitlement with the potential to purchase additional leave.
• A national award-winning employee health and wellbeing programme
• Employee benefits scheme giving employees access to a wide range of discounts to local and national goods and services.

Additional Information

For further information please contact Dr Lucy Wilson, Consultant Clinical Psychologist on [email protected]

About Us

Cornwall Council deliver services to more than half a million local people and over five million visitors a year. Working here - Cornwall Council

We are happy to talk about flexible working options such as part-time or compressed hours. More examples of our flexible working opportunities can be found here - flexible working options .

Fairness and inclusion are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall. In order to best serve our communities, we are striving to achieve a diverse workforce that is inclusive of all backgrounds, cultures and identities; e.g., race, disability, sex, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. We are an equal opportunities and Disability Confident employer, and we will assess applicants on their merits.

Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and following safer recruitment principles to help make sure our staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children, young people and adults at risk. It’s a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keeping all service users safe from harm.