Due to organisational change, we have several opportunities to recruit full-time Assistant Psychologist to the Service for Complex Autism & Associated Neurodevelopmental Disorders (SCAAND) based on-site at Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People (PMCYP), Maudsley Hospital. The SCAAND service is part of the National Specialist CAMHS outpatient teams at SLaM.
We welcome applications from aspiring psychologists who would like to develop their clinical experience and skills in assessment, formulation and intervention, and contribute to areas of service development relevant to the role.
The SCAAND service offers both specialist multi-disciplinary assessment and interventions for children and young people with different Neurodevelopmental conditions and syndromes, of all ability levels, especially those with complex mental health issues and other comorbid conditions and issues relating to behaviours that challenge. As a specialist service, the team aims to work closely with the local services and agencies already involved and supporting the mental health needs of the young person.
The SCAAND service is a supportive multi-disciplinary team including Consultant Psychiatrists, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Principal and Senior Clinical Psychologists and Band 7 Clinical Psychologists, Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Therapist, a National Autistic Society (NAS) Senior Educational Psychologist and Team Administrators.
The postholders will work closely with clinical psychologists and the multi-disciplinary team to support the delivery of assessment and interventions with young people with neurodevelopmental disorders, of all ability levels, and complex comorbid mental health presentations and behaviours that challenge.
The key roles of the post-holders include:
- To assist practitioner psychologists in the delivery of a specialist applied psychology service within SCAAND.
- To provide clinical work as required by the service, under the direct guidance, close clinical and professional supervision of a practitioner psychologist.
- To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
- To work following clinical guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, while closely supervised and regularly seeking help from clinical/professional supervisor or manager.
About Us:
The Service for Complex Autism and Associated Neurodevelopmental Disorders (SCAAND) provide specialist assessments and evidence-based treatments children and young people up to the age of 18 years old, with different Neurodevelopmental conditions and syndromes, of all ability levels, with co-morbid mental health issues and other comorbid conditions and issues relating to behaviours that challenge. The successful applicant will work closely with other psychologists and disciplines within SCAAND and may hold roles in other pathways.
About our location:
Pears Maudsley Centre
The post is based at the Pears Maudsley Centre (located at Denmark Hill less than 5 minutes from the train station) which facilitates close working and support for the postholder with other staff across National and Specialist CAMHS. The role will also at times include outreach work to young people’s homes and other sites across the London region as required for client care.
The Assistant Psychologist will work within the SCAAND service to support the delivery of specialist multi-disciplinary assessment, intervention, and professional consultations with wider networks involved in the care of children and young people with different Neurodevelopmental conditions and syndromes, of all ability levels, especially those with complex mental health issues and other comorbid conditions and issues relating to behaviours that challenge. There will also be opportunities to deliver discrete pieces of direct assessment or psychological intervention under the supervision of qualified clinical psychologists. The postholders will also be responsible for leading on the collection of routine outcome measures and service user feedback to contribute to service evaluation, audit and research to support opportunities for service development.
Clinical and Client Care
- To provide psychological assessments for clients in SCAAND under the close supervision of a practitioner psychologist, including cognitive and neuropsychological assessments, self-report measures with young people, family members and others involved in the individual’s care and behavioural observations in the clinic, home and school settings.
- To provide protocol based individual psychological interventions for clients in SCAAND (for example including psychoeducation on neurodevelopmental conditions, positive behavioural support approaches, emotional literacy intervention)
- To assist psychologists in the development of individual or group clinical materials or training materials.
Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
- To contribute to the effective working in SCAAND by registering new referrals; creating databases to track processes or progress through pathways and keeping them up to date; contributing to the training and support of other staff in developing and providing psychological care of clients.
- To act in a manner that supports a psychologically informed framework for the service.
- To participate in the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
Policy and service development
- To follow policies and procedures in own area of work
- To participate in the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
Care or management of resources
- To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
- To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting supplies as needed.
- To be responsible for safe-keeping of equipment or stock provided to the post holder and informing the supervising psychologist or manager when stock requires replenishing; for example psychometric tests and measures.
Teaching and Training
- To participate in demonstrating work methods to newly recruited Assistant Psychologists or other trainee/junior team members and to support their development of necessary skills.
- To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations or published articles.
- To arrange, co-facilitate training to employees of the Trust or employees of partner agencies in order to support service improvement.
Record-keeping and Information Governance
- To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
- Under the supervision of the practitioner psychologist to maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
- To maintain data bases and enter data and perform analyses and produce reports.
Research and development
- To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects to inform the service Psychologist within SCAAND and others in the development of Trust psychology and other services, training provision and research activities.
- To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes
- To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist in the development in the Trust of evidence-based practice.
- Under guidance to conduct surveys with service users and carers to gather views on service provision
Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development
- To receive regular clinical and professional supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines
- To gain wider experience of professional psychology within the NHS over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post-holder is employed.
- To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.
- To undertake personal training relevant to the post in agreement with the supervising psychologist and the manager.
General
- To travel to the client and their family as appropriate and across the Trust when required (e.g. home visits, school observations, community or inpatient service meetings)
- To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management
- To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations (e.g. challenging behaviour) and to support others involved in such situations.
