CAMHS LIST Clinical Psychologist

Job Overview

CAMHS LIST Clinical / Counselling Psychologist – Band 8a – 0.8WTE. A compelling opportunity to lead and shape crisis mental health care for children and young people. This role combines advanced psychological practice with clinical leadership, supervision and service development within the Liaison and Intensive Support Team (LIST).

Step into a senior psychological role where your expertise will shape the delivery of crisis and intensive community mental health care. As a CAMHS LIST Psychologist, you will support children and young people experiencing significant emotional distress and complex mental health needs, while influencing service development and clinical practice.

Join a forward‑thinking, multidisciplinary team committed to delivering compassionate, evidence‑based and responsive care at times of crisis.

Main Duties of the Job

You will work with children and young people presenting with moderate to severe and complex mental health needs, providing specialist psychological input within crisis and intensive support pathways. In this role you will:

• Deliver specialist psychological assessments and formulations for children and young people presenting in crisis.
• Provide evidence‑based psychological interventions (CBT, DBT‑informed, systemic or trauma‑informed approaches), tailored to individual need.
• Offer psychological consultation and formulation to the multidisciplinary team to support complex decision‑making.
• Provide clinical leadership within LIST, supporting psychologically informed care across the service.
• Work flexibly across community, home and acute settings, including liaison with acute hospitals.
• Contribute to risk formulation and management of high‑risk presentations.
• Supervise, mentor and support junior psychology staff, trainees and MDT colleagues.
• Contribute to the operational and clinical development of the service, including pathway design and improvement initiatives.
• Lead or support audit, service evaluation and research activities.
• Work collaboratively with partner agencies to support young people and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions.

Working for Our Organisation

At CNWL, our teams are united by a shared commitment to delivering outstanding, patient‑centred care. You will be joining an organisation that:

• Invests in your professional and leadership development.
• Supports progression into senior clinical, academic or strategic roles.
• Encourages innovation, service transformation and continuous learning.
• Values diversity and promotes an inclusive working culture.

About Milton Keynes CAMHS

You will be part of Milton Keynes CAMHS, a growing and innovative service delivering responsive and evidence‑based mental health care for children and young people.

• A well‑established crisis pathway through the LIST service, with ongoing transformation opportunities.
• Strong partnership working with acute hospitals, GPs, schools, children’s services and voluntary sector organisations.
• A collaborative, supportive multidisciplinary team culture.
• A commitment to staff wellbeing, supervision and professional development.

Detailed Job Description and Main Responsibilities

What We’re Looking For

• Doctoral level qualification in Clinical or Counselling Psychology and HCPC registration.
• Extensive CAMHS experience, including work with complex and high‑risk presentations.
• Advanced skills in psychological assessment, formulation and intervention.
• Experience of working within crisis, intensive support or acute care pathways (desirable).
• Strong leadership capability, with experience influencing multidisciplinary clinical practice.
• Experience in supervision, teaching or mentoring of junior staff and trainees.
• An excellent team player who actively contributes to a supportive, collaborative multidisciplinary culture and role‑models psychologically informed practice.
• Strong communication and consultation skills, including multi‑agency working.
• A commitment to service development, quality improvement and clinical governance.
• High levels of resilience, professionalism and a passion for improving outcomes for young people.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC.
• Entry‑level qualification in Applied Clinical or Counselling Psychology (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level additional training) accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration.
• Additional training in a specialised area of psychological practice or model of therapy through formal post‑qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), or a combination of specialist short courses, or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice‑based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma.
• Completed training course in clinical supervision.

Experience

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in CAMHS, or crisis and home treatment teams.
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children and young people with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
• Experience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training.
• Post‑qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities.
• Experience of carrying out post‑doctoral research, audit or service evaluation projects.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for children and young people with mental health problems.
• Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatments.
• Advanced knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.
• Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
• Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care.

Skills

• Skilled in the administration of psychometric and neuropsychological tests, including those that require complex manipulation of test materials.
• Well‑developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data.
• Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups.

Abilities

• Ability to work effectively within a multi‑disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi‑media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings.
• Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these.
• Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self‑harm or aggressive behaviour.
• Ability to manage verbal aggression and hostility directed at self.

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