Job Summary
Flying Start is a Luton early years partnership and strategy for under 5’s. It is also the foundation for the Luton Family Hubs model, following the award of funding from the Department of Education.
Flying Start have focused on early help in the earliest years of a child’s life and have a strong focus on improving outcomes for all children. Historically they have developed early targeted and specialist support for parents, infants and young children, working closely with CAMHS Luton to support staff to undertake infant-parent observations and early years’ interventions.
Within Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, Flying Start and Luton CAMHS are working closely to further develop integrated pathways for families so they can receive the right level of support at the right time. The post holder will be embedded within the Family Hubs and Flying start programme, while being closely supervised by a clinical psychologist and other appropriate CAMHS practitioners and part of the specialist CAMHS offer for Family Hubs. The post holder will have a degree of autonomy while receiving regular professional supervision to carry out their role effectively and safely.
Main duties of the job
We are looking for an experienced and innovative assistant psychologist to join the CAMHS early years team and work in partnership with Flying Start to form part of the exciting Family Hub initiative.
We have developed parent-infant and parent-child interventions working closely with CAMHS Luton to support staff to develop infant mental health skills in working with the early years and to undertake infant-parent observations and early years interventions. The post holder will support the continued development of an effective parent-infant relationship service working across all sectors and levels of care. Delivering support through a range of activities and programmes which encourage the development of healthy relationships and attachments and interventions which directly address parent-infant relationship difiiculties.
You will help further develop and implement the Family Hub model of parent-infant relationships and early support for families with infants and young children in Luton, using a programme logic approach to design, deliver and evaluate the complex community interventions. You will help analyse outcomes and evaluate data to measure impact and write reports to disseminate evidence thereof. You will need to advise other staff on the use of outcomes and stakeholders on their data analysis and emerging themes and report back to Luton Family Hub programme and Department of Education to show how we are making a difference to children and families in Luton.
About us
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people’s lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Person Specification
Education/ Qualification/Knowledge
Essential
- A good undergraduate degree in psychology meeting British Psychological Society (BPS) with (eligibility for) graduate membership of the BPS.
- An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems and /or other disabilities.
- Ability to use computers for database analysis, such as SPSS, for windows and qualitative analysis packages.
- An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context.
- Able to design and deliver teaching/training programmes to a range of staff groups.
Desirable
- Relevant specialist training or qualifications in therapeutic approaches in order to: -facilitate clinical interventions -understand challenges clinicians have in collating outcomes.
- An understanding of organizational issues, which may affect day-to-day work.
- Local knowledge and understanding of Luton.
Skills /Experience
Essential
- Information resources: Experience of inputting data and using Microsoft Office; Experience with using computers for database analysis.
- Previous Experience: Previous experience as an Assistant Psychologist or similar roles, working with people with mental health needs.
- Experience of service-based evaluation and research.
- Communication & Relationship skills: High level of communication skills (written and verbal); Ability to communicate sensitively with clients, staff and external agencies, using accessible language; Able to provide & receive highly sensitive or contentious information in a highly emotive and sometimes hostile atmosphere, in a range of relationships and settings.
- Ability to work with a degree of independence in the community Family Hub and other community settings outside of the CAMHS base.
- Cultural awareness: Aware of the potential impact of discrimination & disadvantage on mental health.
Desirable
- Previous Experience: Experience working in a multi-cultural setting; Experience working in a clinical team; Experience of developing and delivering training to staff groups; Experience of contributing to service development.
- Information resources: Competent use of other IT packages e.g. PowerPoint, Excel, RiO.
Personal
Essential
- Physical effort: Able to sit in constrained positions for a substantial proportion of working time.
- Mental effort: Able to concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact, teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc; Self- management skills to manage competing demands.
- Emotional effort: Able to manage effectively frequent exposure to highly distressing/highly emotional circumstances and exposure to traumatic circumstances.
- Values: Respectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals. Willing to negotiate and can handle confrontation effectively and professionally.
- Flexibility: Able to be flexible and adapt approach according to need.
- Team Working Capacity to work effectively and reflectively as a member of a multi-disciplinary team.
- Planning and organisational skills: Able to plan, organise and prioritise own workload.
Other
Essential
- Able to work to professional guidelines.
Desirable
- Physical skills: Driving. Access to a car.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to 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 dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Closing Date: 22 September 2024
