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Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Employer
Essex County Council
Location
England, Essex
Salary
Negotiable
Closing date
10 Mar 2021

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Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Permanent, Full Time

£51,510 to £55,000 per annum

Location: Colchester

Closing date: 22nd February 2021

We are currently recruiting countywide for 5 x Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologists.

Essex Children and Families Service were rated as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted. We are recognised as a service who have: an exceptional leadership team; a culture of collaboration, integrity, and compassion; and who effectively promotes the development and wellbeing of children, young people and their families, protecting them from neglect and abuse.

The Role

To improve our services to children, to develop and embed a culture of trauma-informed, therapeutic practice, Essex County Council have invested in clinical / counselling psychologist posts, based alongside Fostering, Adoption, Special Guardianship Order (SGO) and Divisional Based Intervention Service (D-BIT) teams, throughout the County.

All post holders will work creatively with social work colleagues and partner agencies to promote an understanding of attachment and trauma and deliver a range of support and interventions for birth families, foster families, adoptive families, and Special Guardianship families.

Specific individual and shared targets and objectives will be defined within the performance management framework, but in essence the post holder will:

  • Provide highly specialist psychological assessments
  • Provide therapeutic input through group work, specialist advice and training to professionals and carers
  • Work alongside a team of social workers, child and family support workers and mental health coordinators
  • Provide regular clinical supervision to mental health coordinators
  • Actively contribute to the strategic development of the trauma-informed, therapeutic approach to care
  • Deliver training and consultation to carers and professionals
  • The post holder will work with considerable autonomy, within professional guidelines and the overall framework of Children and Families Services' policies and procedures. The role will be fully clinically supervised and supported by a Consultant Clinical Psychologist alongside management from Social Care service managers.

What you will need

  • Educated to doctoral level training in Clinical/Counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996), including specific models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, as accredited by the HCPC and ideally BPS.
  • Registration with the Health and Care Professionals Council as a Practitioner Psychologist.
  • Post-doctoral training and recorded CPD experience and /or further qualifications in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
  • Substantial assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical or counselling psychologist at a highly specialist level.
  • Two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, including knowledge and experience in working with attachment and trauma.
  • Interest in adoption/fostering/trauma/attachment/social care cases and evidence of psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, with particular emphasis on fostering, adoption or Special Guardianship Orders would be desirable.
  • Experience of delivering teaching, training and/or supervision.
  • 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 of the Local Authority and NHS.
  • The ability and drive to be proactive in developing effective working relationships with social care and other professional colleagues is essential to the success of this role.
  • Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
  • Evidence of continuing professional development, as recommended by the HCPC.
  • Knowledge of the theory and practice of main mental health disorders and presentations and, ideally, of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups. e.g. disorders of attachment and developmental trauma, personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities, ADHD, Autism Spectrum, Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, etc)

We strongly recommend that if you are interested in applying or hearing more about this role with Essex County Council's Children and Families Social Care Service , to contact our Consultant Clinical Psychologist

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

Essex County Council is proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all its employees. For more information please use the following link https://www.workingforessex.com/benefits/

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success.

If you have any queries regarding the recruitment process for this role, please email or call us on 0333 013 5888. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:30 - 16.30.

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