Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist / Team Lead

Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist / Team lead to join a highly-regarded Mental Health Support Team in Ealing.

Ealing MHST is a well-established schools-based early intervention mental health offer for mainstream schools, mainly offering interventions for mild-to-moderate low mood, anxiety and behaviours that challenge. We are seeking an enthusiastic and experienced clinical professional to bring a breadth of clinical psychologist skills into a leadership role, and to contribute to service development initiatives within the team.

You will be joining a welcoming psychology team in Ealing and West London who are committed to service improvement, staff well-being, and who value diversity in our workforce. We have strong links with the North London Clinical Psychology training courses and offer placements to trainees within our service. As part of our commitment to supporting the development of our staff and creating an environment that people want to work in, we offer good CPD opportunities, for example our staff have recently accessed the CYP-IAPT supervisor course, CYP-IAPT leadership, trauma-focused CBT, and other trauma-informed trainings. The post provides excellent opportunities for professional development and you will receive regular supervision from a Principal Clinical Psychologist.

Main duties of the job
This role is a chance to make a difference in young lives, and as such includes both operational management and clinical duties.
The main focus is to:

• Provide day to day senior operational management and leadership for the clinical functioning of the MHST's whilst working alongside service leaders to develop and implement a wide range of interventions and projects with local schools.
• Lead on and directly providing comprehensive assessment, risk management and interventions for young people experiencing emotional and mental health difficulties.
• Work with school staff and cultures in developing school environments that are more conducive to supporting sustainably better emotional health and wellbeing.
• Contribute to creative thinking and service development initiatives, and take a lead in particular areas for the team.

This is a challenging and rewarding role that will provide a talented and ambitious manager with real scope to develop and influence practice. If you are interested in working with schools and want to help shape the new models of evidence-based support for CYP, this job could be for you!

About us
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 and Fulham). We employ over 5,000 staff, of whom 59% are BME. Our turnover for 2024-25 is over £500m.

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.

Details
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £63,665 to £70,887 a year per annum inclusive
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 222-LS-CAMHS-828-B
Closing date: 28 October 2026

Person Specification
Qualifications

• Essential: Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society, or equivalent if trained overseas.
• Essential: Eligible to work as a Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical / Counselling) as approved by the Health Care Professions Council.
• Essential: Training in supervision
• Desirable: Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
• Desirable: Post-doctoral/graduate training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice with children and young people.
• Desirable: Clinical training as part of a CYP IAPT collaborative in a recognised evidenced based approach i.e. CBT, Parenting Skills or other.

Experience

• Essential: Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and their families across a range of care settings, (e.g. outpatient, community, primary care, in patient settings).
• Essential: Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Essential: Experience of working with children, adolescents and their families as a qualified Clinical Psychologist in CAMHS.
• Essential: Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision/reflective practice.
• Essential: Experience of working with evidence-based approaches to low mood, anxiety and behaviour problems
• Desirable: Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) with learning disability and/or neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. ASD, ADHD, etc) in a CAMH setting.
• Desirable: Experience working with CYP who are experiencing considerable behaviours that challenge.
• Desirable: Experience working with children, adolescents (and their families) who present in crisis and have provided therapeutic input to prevent inpatient admission.
• Desirable: Experience of working with other agencies and providing consultation.
• Desirable: Experience of working with children/young people with special educational needs and challenging behaviour or mental health difficulties and their families.

Knowledge and skills

• Essential: Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Essential: 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.
• Essential: Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Essential: Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practised within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Essential: Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Essential: Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the HCPC.
• Desirable: Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups (e.g. looked after children, learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders, adolescent mental health, trauma, anxiety and mood disorders).
• Desirable: High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Desirable: Knowledge of application of therapeutic models to children who have special educational needs and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details
Employer name: West London NHS Trust
Address: Ealing CAMHS, 1 Armstrong Way, London, UB2 4SD, United Kingdom
Employer's website:

Contact
For questions about the job, contact: Roya Afsharzadegan, MH Support Team Manager, View email address on meeveem.com

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