Clinical Psychologist
Posted 5 hours 9 minutes ago by NHS
The closing date is 15 December 2025
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Sunflower house at Alder Hey Children's Hospital are looking to recruit a Band 8a Clinical Psychologist to work into the Sunflower house Tier 4 mental health unit. The post holder will be welcomed into the experienced, supportive, and innovative Mental Health facility with opportunities to engage in further training, CPD, and research.
Applicants should hold the relevant professional qualifications and demonstrate a range of skills and expertise. Experience of working in a health setting (in patient and out patient) with individuals with complex mental health conditions is required. The successful candidate will be enthusiastic, motivated and demonstrate a commitment to ongoing personal and professional development.
Main duties of the jobThe Sunflower House is a national children's tier 4 service that is currently based at Alder hey In West derby, Liverpool. It is a part of Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust. The service provides a tier 4 service to children 5 13 years of age and their families. This includes an inpatient service, consultation to CAMHS teams and other professionals and second opinions.
The post holder will be expected to provide a highly specialist Psychology service to children and young people, their families and carers. The post holder will work as a part of an interdisciplinary team to provide specialist psychological assessments and therapeutic intervention for children and young people referred to the service and psychological consultation to other professionals involved in their care.
The post holder will link with other professionals and agencies in the wider system to ensure integrated care provision across health, social care, education services to optimise the outcomes for young people and their families.
The post holder will be expected to offer Trainee Psychologist placements.
The post holder would also be expected to undertake service development projects as agreed with the service manage other clinical and management leads.
The post is open to applied psychologists registered with the HCPC as a Clinical Psychologist.
About usAlder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest and busiest children's hospitals in Europe. The Trust has a world class reputation for providing general and specialist health care for children and a proud history of achievement and clinical innovation. As part of the Community Division, Clinical Health Psychology is a hospital based mental health service providing psychological support to patients and their families experiencing emotional difficulties in relation to acute trauma, chronic health conditions and/or its treatment. We work closely with our multi disciplinary colleagues and in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local authorities, other agencies, voluntary organisations, carers and users of our services. We have strong links with the Clinical Psychology doctoral training courses in the North West.
Job responsibilities- To provide a highly specialist psychological assessment of children, including cognitive
- To provide biopsychosocial formulations, with both children and their families/carers and with the team and network around the child.
- To exercise responsibility for implementing a range of psychological interventions with children and their families/carers, both through direct work and indirect work, adjusting, interpreting and reformulating the psychological models based upon the feedback and monitoring of the intervention.
- To undertake risk assessments and support the development of risk management plans for individuals who present with a range of risks that include risk to self / to others / from others.
- To communicate highly complex and confidential information obtained through assessment, formulation and interventions to children, their families/carers and the professionals involved in their care.
- To join multi disciplinary term members and provide a psychological perspective in consultations provided to CAMHS colleagues and professionals involved in the care of referred children.
- To provide clinical supervision to team members and other professionals within the unit and beyond.
- To provide placements as appropriate for Trainee Clinical Psychologists
- To contribute to the development of team members through reflective practice and teaching and training.
- Diploma, masters, doctoral degree or equivalent accepted by the Health Care Professions Council as qualifying the person to work as an applied psychologist and registered as a Clinical Psychologist. E.g. Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
- Eligibility for BPS Chartered status
- Current HCPC Registration as Clinical Psychologist
- Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity. This must include maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Demonstrable post qualification experience of working as a clinical psychologist.
- Experience of multidisciplinary teamwork.
- Working knowledge of legislation and national guidance in relation to the needs of young people.
- Experience of consulting with health care and other professionals.
- Experience of exercising full responsibility for a child's psychological care and treatment independently and within a multi disciplinary team.
- Experience of supervision of assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists.
- Knowledge of relevant mental health, education and welfare legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and their mental health.
- Knowledge of Safeguarding requirements for children.
- Hold skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management in work with young people and families.
- A high level of ability to communicate effectively at both a written and oral level complex highly technical and clinically sensitive information to children and young people and families/carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS.
- Ability to work with people from different backgrounds, cultures and of different ages.
- Ability to cope with stressful interpersonal situations including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems including challenging behaviour, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to "hold" the stress of others.
- Ability to work within an inpatient setting with knowledge of the impact on children such as detention under various legislation, MHA, Children's Act, DOLS and least restrictive practices.
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.
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust