psychological practitioner

As Specialist Senior Psychological Practitioners for our service, you will:

• Deliver evidence-informed, integrative, and systemic interventions.
• Work closely within a multi-disciplinary/multiagency environment to design and implement innovative service models.
• Champion a compassionate, trauma-aware, relational approach at all levels of the system.
• Help shape the future of our Psychological Services Hub, contributing to its growth and impact.
About us The Attach Service delivers psychological support into our Children We Care For, Care Leavers, Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking and Special Guardianship teams and includes support to our Residential and Fostering services and into our two specialist projects. The Attach team delivers a range of evidence-informed support to children in care and the professionals and carers around them, helping them understand and respond to the impact of developmental trauma, disrupted attachment, and hidden emotional needs. Within West Sussex Fostering, there is a drive and vision to deliver therapeutic parenting within foster care and kinship, underpinned by DDP principles and an attitude of PACE. Please see the West Sussex Fostering Vision Statement document for further details of the PACE culture ambition in the Information Pack. The Attach Projects Team -These Senior Clinical Psychologist roles will specifically be linked to the newly created Projects team within the Attach Service. An experienced Principal Clinical Psychologist dedicated to offering clinical oversight of REACH and the Childrens Collaborative Project, has already been appointed. They will offer clinical supervision to both Senior Clinical Psychologist roles in the Projects team (1x 29.6 hours, and 1x 22.2 hours). Note: Please apply directly through the West Sussex County Council website. Link below in "Supporting Links", Attach is a psychology-led service supporting children in care that has recently launched within West Sussex County Council. We offer direct therapy, support for foster and residential carers and reflective supervision and training for social work colleagues with the aim of improving the lives of young people in care. The Projects team is a specialised branch of the Attach service, working into projects that are a priority for Childrens Services. The main projects we work into at the moment are:
• REACH this is a wraparound service supporting children to step down from residential homes into foster care. REACH also support foster families where there is a risk of placement breakdown and residential care is likely. REACH is a small team of social workers and child and family workers. It is anticipated that the psychologist working into REACH would offer consultation to professional networks, therapeutic parenting support to foster carers and holding a small caseload of direct therapy cases.
• The Childrens Collaborative this is an innovative project aimed at reducing the number of children that are placed in expensive out of area placements with independent providers. The Childrens Collaborative works with commissioners and independent providers to increase the number of residential placements available locally and offers training and therapeutic support through West Sussex County Council. The ATTACH Projects team will be working with the Childrens Collaborative to provide a therapeutic offer for the residential homes within this project. It is anticipated that this will include therapeutic parenting training/ support for residential carers, reflective practice, consultation and team formulation, as well as holding a small caseload of direct therapy cases.
As the Attach Projects team and the projects that we are working into are relatively new, there are real opportunities for innovation here, including the possibility of shaping a service to fit the needs of the children and services we are supporting. We are looking for clinicians who are passionate about improving outcomes for children in care and who have energy and enthusiasm to help grow and shape a new service. As a senior psychological practitioner in the team the role will involve clinically supporting other staff and taking on some supervision and delegated leadership responsibilities. There will also be opportunities to be involved in service development and training delivery. The post holders will receive a comprehensive induction which will include opportunities to shadow and to co-work. The post holders will receive regular clinical supervision from the Principal Clinical Psychologists in the Attach Projects team, in addition to ongoing opportunities for co-working and taking part in regular team case discussions. The team has links to the University of Surrey Clinical Psychology Doctoral programme and the opportunity to provide placements to trainees.


• Are you a trauma-informed practitioner, passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people in care?
• Are you looking for an opportunity to develop in a growing, evidence-informed therapeutic service?
• Do you thrive in providing training, consultation and reflective practice to staff groups within Childrens Services?
• Do you have experience of providing a range of therapeutic interventions including DDP-informed therapeutic interventions with carers and children in care?, Experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist taking full clinical responsibility for your own practice, including post qualification experience working with Children and families with complex needs using complex methods of psychological assessment, psychological formulation, and delivering psychological therapy to children and young people.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience of identifying and addressing barriers to inclusion and of
• challenging oppressive or disrespectful practices., Professional Doctorate level training in Clinical Psychology or equivalent therapeutic training (e.g. Systemic Family Therapist) and HCPC-registered as Practitioner Psychologists (or registration with equivalent professional body e.g. AFT), 1. You will have post qualification experience in undertaking assessments and therapeutic interventions with children and their families. Ideally, you will also have good experience of working with children who are placed in the care of the local authority, and/or those placed with special guardians. This will include a detailed understanding of the needs of children who present with issues arising from developmental trauma and the support needs of those who care for them in foster, special guardianship, and residential placements.
• 2. Specific expertise in delivering Dyadic Developmental Informed
• Psychotherapy, PACE-based interventions and delivering PACE-based
• training, would be an advantage. Opportunities to receive further training in this area will be provided.
• 3. Detailed understanding of the intersections of developmental trauma with neurodiversity and other psychological/emotional needs will be essential.
• 4. Candidates will also have a passion for working with care experienced
• children and young people, and a drive to play a key role in developing
• therapeutic offers for the wider social care workforce, to enhance the lives of these young people.
• 5. Having extensive experience of providing consultations to professionals and working with multi-agency networks is essential.
• 6. Good working knowledge of the population within the service or similar.
• 7. Clinical expertise in delivering psychological assessment and therapy with children and young people presenting with a range of complex psychological problems and who may be mistrustful of services, alongside support to their families and other care providers.
• 8. Skills in clinical supervision.
• 9. Ability to communicate effectively presenting information that is accessible, engaging, and accurate.
• 10. Skills in providing consultation to other professionals.
• 11. Skills in designing and delivering accessible and engaging psychological training to different audiences, to inform and improve the practice across services.
• 12. Ability to provide appropriate support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
• 13. An interest and ability to present a wide range of data and information about the service in accessible formats.
• 14. Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group.
• 15. Skills in self-management including time management.