For full details see the Job Description and Person Specification This role focuses on working both within FTB and across multi-agency settings to consolidate the emotional wellbeing and mental health response for Children in Care and Care Leavers. The Post holder will work with the Consultant Psychologist Service Lead to support and collaborate with multi-agency partners and FTB colleagues to further develop understanding of care experience on mental health presentation and facilitate greater collaboration and to provide psychological support to the professional network. Principal duties will include involvement in service planning and development, participation in Clinical Governance activities and service evaluation. The Principal Applied Psychologist will have direct contact with: - Divisional Director of Psychological Therapies / consultant psychologists - Leads in community hubs and Urgent Care Pathways - Forward Thinking Birmingham Partners including Birmingham Childrens Trust Social Care Teams and Therapeutic and Emotional Support Service, Residential Providers, Children in Care Health Teams.

• Specialist pathway leads PROFESSIONAL - To support the Consultant Clinical Psychologist and lead and manage the development of psychological services for Children in Care and Care Leavers, in order to meet key strategic objectives. - To work with Consultant Clinical Psychologist to promote a psychological service within FTB that meets with overall aims and policies of the MH services within a trauma-informed and recovery-promoting ethos. - To propose changes for improving how BWC - MHS division provides services for Children in Care and Care Leavers with extremely complex needs that may impact on other professions and service areas. - To work with colleagues to establish the MHS division strategy for working within the trauma-informed and recovery-promoting cultural ethos in addressing the clinical needs and implement relevant clinical practices and policy which impacts children and young people and across organisational boundaries.
• Responsible for proposing and supporting the implementation of policy or service changes and developments which impact beyond the post holders own area of activity (impacting for example on the work of other disciplines, departments, professionals and members of the MDT within the division). - Exercise delegated responsibility for co-ordinating, organising and managing the staffing and material resources available in the function for which the post holder has designated professional responsibility. - Exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service, contributing to effective risk assessment and clinical audit. Ensure that effective systems are in place for the clinical and professional supervision and support of all other clinicians from psychological and other disciplines within the area (including systems for recruitment, professional appraisal and the identification of CPD needs).
• To offer staff support, supervision, and consultation in working with those children/young people/adults with difficulties with complex mental health presentations in order to improve care - To offer training to MHS staff members relevant to identification, assessment and interventions for children/young people/adults who have highly complex mental health difficulties, and in organisational change, and improve the skills and knowledge of staff members. - To ensure clinical services are fully inclusive across all provision to the identified clinical population. CLINICAL: - Responsible for high quality and effective psychological work provided within the service. - Accountable for the direct delivery of clinical care as required and oversees clinical casework of teams to ensure treatments are applied according to guidelines and within the trauma-informed and recovery-promoting ethos.
• Undertakes psychological assessments of highly complex cases, assessing personality, beliefs, attitudes, behaviour, emotional function, and other relevant psychological characteristics and dimensions and factors relevant to the development, maintenance and understanding of the clients difficulties as appropriate, using standardised psychometric instruments, protocol based assessment tools, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and structured and semi-structured interviews as required. Utilises assessment techniques directly with clients and collects information from family members and others involved in the clients care as appropriate. - Develops enhanced formulations of highly complex presenting problems, considering a range of hypotheses as required and drawing upon the findings of psychological assessments, relevant aspects of the case history, relevant psychological models, concepts and theory and advanced knowledge, expertise and analytic and interpretational skills acquired through specialist post qualification training and experience. - Provides highly specialist advice via direct clinical services to clients, their families and other carers as appropriate, including specialist and expert level of psychological assessment and neuropsychological diagnostic skill and psychological interventions as appropriate and required.
• Undertakes highly specialist risk assessments from a psychological perspective, provides psychologically based programmes of risk management for individual clients as appropriate, and provides both general and specialist advice to psychologists and other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management. - In completing clinical duties, exercises full professional responsibility and autonomy for the psychological assessment and treatment, and discharge from psychological care, of referred clients and other clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans, communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the clients care on a regular basis. - When completing clinical duties, receives, obtains and communicates highly complicated, extremely sensitive and highly contentious assessment, formulation and treatment related clinical and personal information, sometimes in emotionally charged, hostile or otherwise challenging circumstances, where there may be constraints on the engagement, motivation, cooperation, acceptance, tolerance or understanding of the service users involved or their families. - Where appropriate develops highly specialised project work in respect of a particular clinical need and cultural ethos of relevance to the service area, identifying the scale of local need, collaborating with colleagues in planning relevant psychological interventions and solutions and to assisting in service dissemination and the maintenance of quality standards via the development of protocols, training and networking.
• To support own and team exposure to traumatic circumstances and/or frequent exposure to highly distressing or highly emotional circumstances by undertaking reflective practice within team and to other teams across the relevant staff groups. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT - To provide clinical supervision to all relevant clinical team members providing psychological interventions, including both qualified, pre-qualified and trainee applied psychologists. - To hold delegated professional management for specified qualified staff members and assistants. - To participate in the planning and development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service.

Includes making proposals for or contributing to policy implementation and service development for the service. Includes advising both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and / or wider organisational matters need addressing

• Specialist pathway leads PROFESSIONAL - To support the Consultant Clinical Psychologist and lead and manage the development of psychological services for Children in Care and Care Leavers, in order to meet key strategic objectives. - To work with Consultant Clinical Psychologist to promote a psychological service within FTB that meets with overall aims and policies of the MH services within a trauma-informed and recovery-promoting ethos. - To propose changes for improving how BWC - MHS division provides services for Children in Care and Care Leavers with extremely complex needs that may impact on other professions and service areas. - To work with colleagues to establish the MHS division strategy for working within the trauma-informed and recovery-promoting cultural ethos in addressing the clinical needs and implement relevant clinical practices and policy which impacts children and young people and across organisational boundaries.
• Responsible for proposing and supporting the implementation of policy or service changes and developments which impact beyond the post holders own area of activity (impacting for example on the work of other disciplines, departments, professionals and members of the MDT within the division). - Exercise delegated responsibility for co-ordinating, organising and managing the staffing and material resources available in the function for which the post holder has designated professional responsibility. - Exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service, contributing to effective risk assessment and clinical audit. Ensure that effective systems are in place for the clinical and professional supervision and support of all other clinicians from psychological and other disciplines within the area (including systems for recruitment, professional appraisal and the identification of CPD needs).
• To offer staff support, supervision, and consultation in working with those children/young people/adults with difficulties with complex mental health presentations in order to improve care - To offer training to MHS staff members relevant to identification, assessment and interventions for children/young people/adults who have highly complex mental health difficulties, and in organisational change, and improve the skills and knowledge of staff members. - To ensure clinical services are fully inclusive across all provision to the identified clinical population. CLINICAL: - Responsible for high quality and effective psychological work provided within the service. - Accountable for the direct delivery of clinical care as required and oversees clinical casework of teams to ensure treatments are applied according to guidelines and within the trauma-informed and recovery-promoting ethos.
• Undertakes psychological assessments of highly complex cases, assessing personality, beliefs, attitudes, behaviour, emotional function, and other relevant psychological characteristics and dimensions and factors relevant to the development, maintenance and understanding of the clients difficulties as appropriate, using standardised psychometric instruments, protocol based assessment tools, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and structured and semi-structured interviews as required. Utilises assessment techniques directly with clients and collects information from family members and others involved in the clients care as appropriate. - Develops enhanced formulations of highly complex presenting problems, considering a range of hypotheses as required and drawing upon the findings of psychological assessments, relevant aspects of the case history, relevant psychological models, concepts and theory and advanced knowledge, expertise and analytic and interpretational skills acquired through specialist post qualification training and experience. - Provides highly specialist advice via direct clinical services to clients, their families and other carers as appropriate, including specialist and expert level of psychological assessment and neuropsychological diagnostic skill and psychological interventions as appropriate and required.
• Undertakes highly specialist risk assessments from a psychological perspective, provides psychologically based programmes of risk management for individual clients as appropriate, and provides both general and specialist advice to psychologists and other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management. - In completing clinical duties, exercises full professional responsibility and autonomy for the psychological assessment and treatment, and discharge from psychological care, of referred clients and other clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans, communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the clients care on a regular basis. - When completing clinical duties, receives, obtains and communicates highly complicated, extremely sensitive and highly contentious assessment, formulation and treatment related clinical and personal information, sometimes in emotionally charged, hostile or otherwise challenging circumstances, where there may be constraints on the engagement, motivation, cooperation, acceptance, tolerance or understanding of the service users involved or their families. - Where appropriate develops highly specialised project work in respect of a particular clinical need and cultural ethos of relevance to the service area, identifying the scale of local need, collaborating with colleagues in planning relevant psychological interventions and solutions and to assisting in service dissemination and the maintenance of quality standards via the development of protocols, training and networking.
• To support own and team exposure to traumatic circumstances and/or frequent exposure to highly distressing or highly emotional circumstances by undertaking reflective practice within team and to other teams across the relevant staff groups. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT - To provide clinical supervision to all relevant clinical team members providing psychological interventions, including both qualified, pre-qualified and trainee applied psychologists. - To hold delegated professional management for specified qualified staff members and assistants. - To participate in the planning and development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service