Location: Hampshire & West Berkshire
Hours: Full-time
Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience
About Essential
Essential Therapeutic Care & Education provides therapeutic residential care for children and young people with complex emotional, behavioural and psychological needs.
Our approach is built around the belief that high-quality residential care should be psychologically informed, relational and clinically robust.
We are continuing to develop our in-house clinical service and are looking for an experienced Clinical Psychologist to take a leading role in shaping, overseeing and embedding our clinical model across the organisation.
This is a significant opportunity for someone who wants to move beyond a traditional clinic-based role and have genuine influence over how psychology is understood and applied within children's residential care.
The Role
As Clinical Lead / Clinical Psychologist, you will provide clinical leadership across Essential's residential services and work closely with our Care Director, operational leadership, Registered Managers and wider clinical team.
You will help ensure that psychological thinking is translated into the everyday care young people receive.
The role will include direct clinical work alongside strategic leadership, supervision, consultation and service development.
Key responsibilities will include:
- Providing clinical leadership across Essential's children's residential services.
- Leading the continued development of our psychologically informed and trauma-responsive model of care.
- Undertaking and overseeing psychological assessment and formulation.
- Developing clear, accessible formulations that residential teams can meaningfully use in everyday practice.
- Providing individual psychological intervention where clinically appropriate.
- Providing consultation to Registered Managers and residential teams around complex presentations, behaviour, trauma and risk.
- Supporting the development of therapeutic care plans and risk management strategies.
- Chairing or contributing to clinical reviews and multidisciplinary discussions.
- Providing clinical oversight where there are significant concerns regarding a young person's mental health or emotional wellbeing.
- Supporting decision-making around referrals, placements and clinical suitability.
- Providing advice following significant incidents or periods of increased risk.
- Working collaboratively with CAMHS, social workers, education professionals, psychiatrists, GPs and other external services.
- Providing clinical supervision to Assistant Psychologists and other members of the clinical team.
- Supporting and developing our Mental Health Nursing and therapeutic practitioner functions.
- Contributing to reflective practice across the organisation.
- Designing and delivering psychologically informed training for residential teams and managers.
- Developing clinical standards, pathways, frameworks and governance processes.
- Monitoring the quality and effectiveness of clinical interventions.
- Developing meaningful clinical outcome measures and using data to inform service improvement.
- Contributing to safeguarding and organisational risk management.
- Supporting quality assurance and regulatory preparation where clinical practice is relevant.
- Contributing to the recruitment and development of the wider clinical team.
Clinical Leadership
A central part of this role will be helping Essential continue to build a strong and sustainable internal clinical service.
You will have the opportunity to influence:
- The structure and development of the clinical team.
- Clinical supervision arrangements.
- Psychological assessment and formulation standards.
- Therapeutic pathways for young people.
- Clinical governance.
- Outcome measurement.
- Training and development for residential teams.
- Reflective practice.
- Clinical input into placement matching and referrals.
- How psychology is integrated into everyday residential practice.
We want our clinical service to be an active part of the organisation rather than a separate department working at a distance from the homes.
About You
You will need:
- A recognised postgraduate/doctoral qualification in Clinical Psychology.
- Current HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist – Clinical Psychologist.
- Experience working with children and young people with complex psychological or emotional needs.
- Strong skills in psychological assessment and formulation.
- Experience of working with trauma, attachment difficulties and complex presentations.
- Strong understanding of safeguarding and clinical risk.
- Experience of multidisciplinary and multi-agency working.
- The ability to communicate complex psychological concepts clearly to non-clinical colleagues.
- Confidence providing consultation to senior operational and care professionals.
- Strong professional judgement and appropriate clinical boundaries.
- A reflective and relational approach to leadership.
- The ability to work autonomously while maintaining strong clinical governance.
Experience within CAMHS, looked-after children's services, children's residential care, complex trauma, neurodevelopmental services or specialist children's services would be particularly valuable.
Leadership Experience
We would particularly welcome applications from psychologists who have experience of:
- Supervising Assistant Psychologists or other clinical professionals.
- Leading clinical meetings or MDT discussions.
- Developing clinical pathways or services.
- Providing organisational consultation.
- Training and developing multidisciplinary teams.
- Supporting services through periods of change or clinical development.
You do not necessarily need to already hold a formal "Clinical Lead" title.
We are equally interested in an experienced Clinical Psychologist who is ready to take the next step into a broader leadership position and wants the opportunity to help shape a developing clinical service.
What We Offer
This is an opportunity to have meaningful influence over both individual clinical work and the wider organisation.
You can expect:
- Significant autonomy within the clinical function.
- The opportunity to shape and develop an expanding in-house clinical team.
- A role combining clinical practice, leadership, consultation and service development.
- Close working relationships with senior organisational leaders.
- Regular professional supervision.
- Dedicated CPD and professional development.
- The opportunity to develop innovative approaches to psychologically informed residential care.
- A relatively small service where clinical recommendations can translate quickly into practice.
- The opportunity to work closely with young people and the adults supporting them rather than operating solely from a clinic or office.
Why Essential?
Children living in residential care often have multiple professionals involved in their lives.
Our aim is not to add another professional around the young person.
We want psychology to help create a shared understanding of the young person that influences how every adult around them responds.
The Clinical Lead will be central to that.
You will have the opportunity to work alongside residential teams, understand young people within the environments in which they actually live and help shape an organisation where psychological thinking becomes part of everyday practice.
For the right person, this is an opportunity not simply to join a clinical service, but to help build one.
Apply via Indeed with your CV and supporting statement outlining your clinical experience, leadership experience and your interest in developing psychologically informed residential care.
Essential Therapeutic Care & Education is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. Successful applicants will be subject to appropriate safer recruitment checks, including an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory references.
Pay: £65,000.00-£80,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
- Private dental insurance
- Private medical insurance
- Referral programme
- Sick pay
Work Location: In person
