Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job Introduction

About Us

How about joining The Clinical Team at Oxfordshire County Council in our new Community Family Clinic initiative?

You will be joining our highly regarded multi-disciplinary Clinical Team led by a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Together we strive towards a creative, dynamic, and evidence-based approach that strongly draws on trauma-informed, developmental, and systemic models. As a team we support each other in working in what is an often-complex area through regular team meetings, supervision spaces, and monthly reflective practice facilitated by the highly regarded Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist Arlene Vetere. Team members are supported in their development, and we have allocated funding for CPD. As a team we will also work closely with the clinical psychology doctoral training at Oxford University developing opportunities for research and service innovation, and supervising trainee placements.

We are expanding the offer to children, young people and families in Oxfordshire with an innovative Community Family Clinic initiative where you will be working with other Clinical Psychologists, Family Therapists and Psychological Family Practioners. The Clinical Team is a highly regarded therapeutic team placed within Oxfordshire County Council. This is a team with a strong value base who will fully support you. We want people in our team to thrive in what they do, so they can be the best professionals supporting the children and families we work with. 

Over the past eight years we have more than quadrupled in numbers, developed very interesting tools, published papers and worked closely with colleagues in the UK and Europe. Our outdoor therapeutic centre with mountain bikes, canoes, camping equipment and Land rovers located by the river at a central Oxford location offers an opportunity for truly innovative work.  In addition, Oxfordshire County Council is an outstanding employer and offers very generous work conditions (agenda for change salary and a generous pension and relocation package amongst others). 

About the Role

In this specific role, you will be working as part of our Clinical Team working with, and alongside, the Family Solutions Service. The FSS consists of the Family Help and Statutory Teams who provide support to vulnerable children and their birth families to reduce safeguarding concerns and improve life chances for children aged between 0 and 19. As A Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist, you will be leading the Clinical Team input in one of the three localities, leading a team composed by a family therapist and a psychological practioner. You will be supported by 2 other 8b Clinical Psychologists who lead the other localities as well as by the whole if the Clinical Team which operates united, independent of the areas people are allocated to work. The Clinical Team has a strong team culture and team members are very supportive of each other. Our primary aim is to support children, parents and families to address issues which might contribute to family breakdown and whenever possible support families to remain together.

This role offers you extensive opportunity to develop your clinical skills by working with a varied range of needs and experiences, including working with families, children, and young people across a broad age range, and supporting staff teams. You will be able to draw upon and develop a wide range of skills in offering innovative interventions to help meet the diverse and often complex needs of this population, including providing specialist psychological assessments and interventions that draw on multiple models (such as systemic thinking, Video Interaction Guidance, MBT, trauma-informed approaches, and cognitive behavioral therapy). As part of the wider Clinical team, you will continue to explore how to meet the needs of this population in a flexible way that combines creativity and innovation with drawing upon, and extending, the existing evidence base. This therefore offers a great opportunity for not only supporting the young people and families that we work with, but also taking a leadership role in extending and innovating practice in this area. This includes the opportunity to build on the team’s research and publication in this area of work. We have published two papers related to what we have learnt from consultations with teams and residential children’s homes. Most recently we have contributed with a chapter on a upcoming book on the issue of safety and protection from danger within residential children’s homes.

We would also be keen to meet with you to explore any specific skills and experience that you might bring and wish to further develop in your role. 

About you

We are looking forward to welcoming a Clinical Psychologist who is committed to enable and promote positive change in people's lives. Someone  enthusiastic and compassionate who works well with others and that will enhance our team. Your interest in learning from ongoing experience will be demonstrated on how you use evidence base to correlate to new learning. We use formulation as our entry point to all interventions, so your ability to remain curious and open to what a presentation might represent as well as what could be the most effective intervention with someone is very important to us. 

We believe that families can be helped and that we can play a role is supporting parents to achieve their best potential so family breakdown can be prevented.  

Rewards and benefits

Clinicians employed by the Clinical team are employed on the agenda for change pay scale and NHS continuous time in service is honoured by the council. Oxfordshire pensions scheme is very generous and Clinical Psychologists moving from the NHS to work in the council have not experienced any loss with the transition.

Our commitment to:
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

At Oxfordshire County Council we are proud of our diverse workforce. Everyone is accepted for who they are, regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marital status, race, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, or on maternity or family leave. We have a number of staff network groups which provide peer support, education and safe spaces for all.

Our commitment to:
Guaranteed Interview Schemes

As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job. We also guarantee interviews to care leavers who have completed further education and who meet the essential criteria for the job. For those leaving care without any further education, we guarantee an interview for our apprenticeships. We are also committed to helping and supporting those transitioning from HM Armed Forces to civilian life and guarantee an interview for those demonstrating the essential criteria for the role, within three years of leaving the service.

Our commitment to:
Safeguarding

Oxfordshire County Council are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. We expect all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect these commitments.

Our commitment to:
Flexible Working

We are open to discussions about flexible working, which can include flexi-time, part time working, job sharing, nine-day fortnights and annualised hours, depending on the requirements of the role and the service.

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