Senior Clinical Psychologist (XR08)

Senior Clinical Psychologist (Paediatric Neuropsychology) Leeds Children's Hospital (LCH) is seeking to recruit a substantive Senior Clinical Psychologist to work within Paediatric Neuropsychology, although the post is open to Early Career Clinical Psychologists as a Band 7 preceptorship. LCH is one of the largest paediatric centres in the country, providing a range of high profile and specialty clinical services. The postholder will work with other qualified neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists in the Neuropsychology Team, which is one of four clinical teams in the Department of Paediatric Psychology (DPP).

Expected Shortlisting Date 05/01/2026

Planned Interview Date 12/01/2026

Main duties of the job Paediatric Psychology has a well established relationship with the Paediatric Neurology Team and works closely with the Medical Consultants, Specialist Nurses and therapists. The post holder will offer predominantly out patient neuropsychological assessment and intervention as well as consultation and MDT liaison and teaching and training. There will also be the opportunity to see patients who require psychological therapy. As such, the post holder will be required to predominantly be on site. A job plan will help organise the delivery of the duties and there are regular meetings with line managers and supervisors.

About us This post is hosted in the DPP which currently has over 35 clinicians working in specialty teams, who have been at the forefront of digital developments (digital clinics, short courses and record keeping). The DPP is academically ambitious with links to the regional DClinPsych Programmes and Schools of Psychology and Medicine at the University of Leeds. Many staff have some ring fenced academic time in their job plan, as scholarly activity is an important part of what we do.

We are a friendly bunch who value the balance between work and home life. Where we can, we support flexible, agile working which can include, for example, some home working, compressed hours and varied start/finish times. The Trust offers child care voucher and cycle to work schemes, a salary sacrifice, lease car arrangement and a healthcare fund programme, as well as on site facilities (such as day care nurseries and gyms).

Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.

Job responsibilities Toprovide a qualified Clinical Psychology service to children and young people and their families in Leeds and across all sites and sectors of care by:

• Providing highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy;
• Offering advice and consultation on patients psychological and neuropsychological care to non psychologist colleagues and to other non professional carers;
• Using research skills for audit, policy and service development and leading on research projects within the area served by the team/service;
• Working autonomously in the execution of these duties and within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Psychology Teams, Department and Trust policies and procedures.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Clinical

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of patients based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi structured interviews with patients, family members and others involved in the patients care.
• To formulate, develop and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patient's psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patients problems.
• To be responsible for 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.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to patients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of people under the medical services, across settings and agencies serving the patient group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual patients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management, with particular reference to deliberate self harm.
• To act as care co ordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA (or its equivalent in the acute physical health care setting) including patients, their carers referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of patients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni and multi disciplinary care.

Teaching, training, and supervision

• To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a more senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues;
• To gain additional highly specialist experience and skills relevant to clinical psychology and the service (as agreed with the Lead Psychologist and Head of Department) up to two sessions per week (pro rata);
• To develop skills in the area of professional post graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staff's psychological work as appropriate;
• To provide professional and clinical supervision of doctoral trainee and graduate/assistant psychologists;
• To contribute to the pre and post qualification teaching of clinical, health and/or counselling psychology, as appropriate;
• To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the patient group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team, specialty and department operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit;
• To advise both the Service and the Lead Psychologist on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing;
• To provide a quarterly report giving feedback regarding service delivery and development to charity, Fight Against Blindness;
• To manage the workloads of assistant graduate psychologists and doctoral trainee clinical psychologists, within the framework of the team/specialty and Department policies and procedures;
• To be involved, as appropriate, in the short listing and interviewing of assistant / graduate psychologists.

Research and service evaluation

• To utilise theory, evidence based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members;
• To undertake, as a major component of the post, appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research, and to disseminate appropriate material via presentation and publication;
• To lead on research projects within the area served by the team/service;
• To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision;
• To provide appropriate research supervision of doctoral trainees and graduate assistant psychologists.

Person Specification Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of patients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings;
• Experience of working with a wide variety of patient 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;
• Experience of working in medical multi disciplinary teams and offering systemic interpretations to have impact on the team functioning in patient care;
• Experience of working with CYP who have a chronic illness and their families;
• Experience of teaching, training and supervision;
• Experience of working with medical MDTs and supervising healthcare staff.

Skills & behaviours

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