North London NHS Foundation Trust
Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced and motivated Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join Barnet Children and Young People’s Mental Health Service (CYMHS), within the Service for Children and Adolescents with Neurodisability (SCAN).
Barnet SCAN is a specialist multidisciplinary service supporting children and young people with learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD and associated mental health difficulties. The service works closely with families, schools and partner agencies to deliver evidence-based, person-centred care.
This permanent post is based at Holly Oak Clinic, Barnet, and is offered on a part-time basis (0.6 WTE, 22.5 hours per week over three days). The successful candidate will provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention, including neurodevelopmental and neuropsychological assessments, across clinic, community and educational settings.
The post holder will manage a specialist caseload and contribute to consultation, supervision, training, service development, quality improvement and research. Working within a supportive multidisciplinary team and the i-THRIVE framework, this role offers excellent opportunities for professional development, supervision and collaborative working.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will provide highly specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention for children and young people with learning disabilities, ASD, ADHD and complex mental health needs. They will undertake neurodevelopmental and neuropsychological assessments, deliver therapeutic interventions, and provide consultation to families, schools and partner agencies.
The successful candidate will manage a specialist caseload and contribute to multidisciplinary assessment, risk management and care planning, ensuring children, young people and families receive coordinated, person-centred care. Strong partnership working with families, schools and external agencies is essential.
Alongside direct clinical work, the post holder will contribute to clinical supervision, teaching, consultation, service development, quality improvement, audit and research activities. They will support the continued development of the Barnet CYMHS SCAN service and wider neurodevelopmental pathways while promoting evidence-based practice across the multidisciplinary team.
The successful applicant will join a supportive multidisciplinary team committed to collaboration, reflective practice, innovation and continuous professional development. Regular clinical and managerial supervision, peer support and excellent CPD opportunities will be provided to support ongoing clinical, professional and leadership development.
Person Specification
Qualifications/ Registrations
Essential
- Practitioner Psychologist: oRegistration with the Health Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist; or Psychologist: oDoctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS
Desirable
- Supervision / mentorship qualification
- Evidence of ongoing education / courses relevant to CYP Psychiatry
Skills/ Abilities
Essential
- Confident in working with adolescents and their families.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of bio-psycho- social assessment
- Well-developed oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professionals.
- Ability to undertake risk assessment and to work within safeguarding procedures
- Ability to positively engage and offer intervention to young people and their families in community settings.
- Ability to contain, explore and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision of other staff, including those in partner agencies
- Capacity to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing situations, seeking support when required
- Ability to meet agreed/specified service targets
- Ability to manage own caseload and time
- IT skills, using Microsoft Office; Adobe Acrobat; and Electronic clinical records systems / applications
- Ability to use clinical supervision and personal development positively and effectively
- Ability to offer supervision to trainees and junior staff
- Ability to carry out consultations to other professionals and design/ deliver training around mental health topics to professionals.
- Ability to carry out audit, Q.I projects and support adjusting service based on the outcomes of Q.I
Experience/ Knowledge
Essential
- Experience of providing evidence-based interventions for CYP mental health
- Experience of work in multidisciplinary team and multi- agency working
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
- Experience of the application of Trauma Informed Care.
- Experience of working with diverse communities and within a multi-cultural setting
- Experience of working with children and young people in mental health services, including the application of risk assessment and safeguarding procedures in this area
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
- Understanding and experience of using evidence-based practice
Desirable
- Experience in enabling service user participation
- Experience of specialist assessment and treatment of children, young people and their families within the criminal justice system.
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Ability to be self-reflective whilst working with service users, in own personal and professional development, and in supervision
- Ability to work within a team and foster good working relationships
- Ability to work autonomously in a pressured environment, be pro-active and resilient to offer timely support and intervention to young people under Youth Justice System
Other Requirements
Essential
- To be able to travel between the Trust and social care sites
- To be able to sustain high levels of concentration for periods of time
- To have and build emotional resilience, seeking support where necessary
- To be able to ” think outside the box” and offer creative ways to engage young people and families
Closing Date: 25 October 2026
To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.