Psychologists – why you should join the Community Children’s Learning Disability Team.

With Dr Helen Peckett

The Community Children’s Learning Disability Team (CCLDT) has an exciting opportunity for a clinical psychologist to join the team. We caught up with Dr Helen Peckett, Principal Clinical Psychologist, to find out more about the role and what it’s like to work in this passionate team supporting children with learning disabilities and their families. ?

What would a typical day look like in this role?

A day in the life of a clinical psychologist in the CCLDT can be busy but is always varied and interesting. We work across settings, in family homes, schools and clinic settings, and work with children and young people with a wide range of needs. A lot of our work is about building relationships with parents, to be able to better help the children referred into our team – so our therapeutic focus can be on both children’s needs but also parental needs.

Our team is friendly and supportive, so there is always someone to ask for help, and we work in creative and integrative ways – particularly informed by attachment theory, systemic approaches, and positive behaviour support. We are also leaders in the team when considering service development, with recent initiatives including setting up a systemic family clinic, team formulation sessions and an audit examining effectiveness of the team triage process.

Is there a particular memory working in the CCLDT that stands out for you or the team? ?

As a team, we are particularly strong when we need to work together quickly, often when there is a high level of need. I can think of many times when we have pulled together quickly when urgent referrals come into the team, to develop a strong understanding of a child/family’s needs, using positive behaviour support as a starting framework for this.

Within psychology specifically, some of my most memorable moments have been when parents say “finally someone gets it” or “at last someone is listening and believes me” and how the power of hearing a family’s struggles can be liberating for parents, allowing them to build greater connection with their child in the midst of significant difficulties, and make their next steps towards change for their child and family.

How will psychologists be supported?

Psychologists are supported by a regular clinical supervision, opportunities for formal and informal CPD, including attending relevant special interest groups and the annual Trust wide psychology conference. We also have links with other psychologists within both the Learning Disability and Autism Directorate and the Children’s Directorate, and of course strong multi-disciplinary working day to day. This range of support allows for high quality clinical work, as well as opportunities for continued career development over time.

What does the future look like for the CCLDT?

The CCLDT has recently moved into the Children’s Directorate in the Trust, which has been formed to deliver more integrated services across learning disability, mental health, and community physical health services. This brings exciting opportunities to build links with mainstream mental health services, children’s neurodevelopmental services and children’s physical health services, alongside maintaining the existing links we have with colleagues working in our adult learning disability services. We are continuing to develop and build our systemic family clinic in the team, as well as building on our team formulation sessions. We are continuously striving for improvement in the team, and so there are also regular opportunities for involvement in or leading on service development projects too.

Would you like to work with the CCLDT? The team currently have an opportunity for a clinical psychologist (band 8a) to join them in a 12-month fixed term post or secondment.

Applications close 6 March. Find out more and apply: https://www.nhsjobs.com/job/UK/Warwickshire/Coventry/Coventry_Warwickshire_Partnership_NHS_Trust/Learning_disability/Learning_disability-v6992189