Job overview

Working Part time - 30 Hours per week

Are you an enthusiastic, highly motivated and dynamic Clinical Psychologist seeking progression or an exciting new challenge? If so, we would love for you to come and join us in our Paediatric service at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

We have an exciting new post that the successful applicant can shape and develop, and would suit someone with a vision of what the care of our children, young people and their families should look like.

Taking on a specialist role within our Community Paediatric Neuro-developmental Team. The main duties of the post holder will be required to undertake Autism assessments for primary school aged children. The Community Paediatric Team works within the multi-agency preschool and school aged Autism pathway in West Cheshire. The successful candidate will work 30 hours per week over 4 days (negotiable).

As this is a new post we are looking at how we can also support and develop candidates in any areas of specialist interest within our paediatric service alongside the work with the community team. If you have a specialist interest and would like to explore this further, please let us know in your application so we can discuss this with you.

We believe that education and learning should be a life long venture, so we would assist you financially to embark on any relevant post qualification training course you wish to complete.

Main duties of the job

• To attend, contribute and chair monthly ASD multidisciplinary team meetings and weekly triage meetings.
• To contribute to the development of appropriate diagnostic assessment protocols for the ASD service.
• To provide a qualified specialist clinical psychology ASD assessment and diagnostic service to children, young people and their families. This includes multiagency ASD assessments, formulating a profile of the child’s needs and strengths and report writing.
• To provide specialist psychological assessments of children referred to the team 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, developmental history and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the child’s care.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients.
• To make appropriate and evidence-based recommendations for children.

Working for our organisation

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust provides services to West Cheshire and to Welsh patients covered by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership. Its services are provided from three locations:

• The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 438 general and acute beds
• Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 56 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility
• Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.                                                             

The Trust employs over 6258 staff (headcount) which includes temporary bank staff and provides acute emergency and elective services, primary care direct access services and obstetric services to a population of approximately 407,000. This includes 357,000 residents in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire which has a population of approximately 50,000.

The Trust is a busy district general hospital and in 2022/2023, there were more than 503,342 patient attendances (inpatient, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery. This is an increase of nearly 10,000 compared to the previous year when there were 494,387 patient attendances.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

See Job Description for further details.

Recruitment selection processes are based on competence (see Person specification) and values.

Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment. The cost of the DBS application is £23 (standard) or £43 (enhanced), this cost will be deducted from your salary over the first three months of employment.

You are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.

Good luck with your application.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Doctoral Clinical Psychology qualification ClinPsychD
• Eligible for Chartered Psychologist status.
• Registration with the HPC as a Clinical Psychologist (or other relevant domain as agreed by the Director of Psychological Services)
• Training in Autism Diagnostic Assessments
• Post qualification and further specialist training in specified specialist intervention, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuro-psychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS.
• Further specialist supervision in specific psychological approaches and or client groups supported by case presentations, group supervision and short courses. as part of an agreed personal development plan

Desirable criteria

• Training in Autism Diagnostic tools e.g. ADOS, ADI, 3Di training
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of conducting autism assessments and working within this area of speciality
• Ability to network and seek out best practice pathways
• Ability to lead, motivate and develop staff
• Excellent written and verbal
• Effective communication skills including the ability to deliver clear and professional presentations to all levels of staff
• Influencing skills
• Experience of change management
• Understanding of the political and strategic health agendas including the impact of such at operational level The ability to deal with and respond effectively to change within a fast moving environment, adopting a flexible approach

Desirable criteria

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If the role is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020  it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Enhanced DBS check applications that are submitted with omitted or incorrect information will be withdrawn. In the event errors are identified on your original application, a new application will need to be submitted and you will be required to pay the DBS application fee again.

The cost of the DBS application is £23 (standard) or £43 (enhanced), this cost will be deducted from your salary over the first three months of employment.

Overseas Candidates

The Department of Health and Social Care has released a new publication to support overseas candidates looking to work in health and care in the UK.

The new guidance provides information on the recruitment process that candidates should expect when applying for work in the UK. Please follow the below link:

Applying for health and social care jobs in the UK from abroad - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Overseas candidates wishing to apply who would require sponsorship can determine the likelihood of obtaining a CoS for the post by assessing their circumstances against criteria specified on the Visas and immigration - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Overseas candidates are responsible for their travel expenses.

From 6 April 2017, Tier 2 / skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, must 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 dependent's (over 18 years old) will also be subject to this requirement.