Highly Specialised Practitioner Psychologist 8b (Children with LD)

Highly Specialised Practitioner Psychologist 8b (Children with LD)

The closing date is 25 February 2026

We are looking to recruit a Highly Specialised practitioner psychologist to lead our tertiary response for highly complex Children and Young People with a Learning Disability.

The Child and Adolescent Learning Disability Service (CALDS) in Cardiff & Vale has recently undergone considerable expansion, growth and change, developing new multi-disciplinary models of working whilst creating new opportunities for staff to come and join us in this venture. Our work force has recently greatly expanded and there is a wealth of support (both formal and informal), supervision, CPD opportunities and expertise available within our specialty. It is a very exciting time to join our passionate team.

You will be joining a well established and highly motivated wider Child Psychology service, working closely with other practitioner psychologists, assistant psychologists and trainee clinical psychologists. We encourage and support Continued Professional Development and offer excellent opportunities for professional development, consultation and supervision. We actively encourage post qualification training in highly specialist psychological therapeutic interventions.

Full clinical and management professional support and supervision will be available from within the specialty and we support and encourage research and audit opportunities.

Main duties of the job

You will lead on combining multiple agencies to provide a timely response to children who presenting with highly risky behaviour or in risky and complex situations. You will have skills and experience in containing system anxiety, developing highly complex formulations and identifying and managing clinical risk. The role will involve liaison with health colleagues, multi agency teams and services and legal and safeguarding, including the Court of Protection.

You will have line management and supervision responsibilities for psychology staff in Learning Disability. You will work closely with the consultant lead psychologist to promote service initiatives, take a major role in enhancing multi disciplinary team work and work with the wider network to further the knowledge and skill base as related to Learning Disability.

The role will provide you with wide ranging experiences, supporting and enabling your professional development. The role includes providing psychological assessments and interventions, staff and multi disciplinary consultation and supervision, innovation, service/systems improvement work, staff skills training, research and audit, team formulations.

The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this role; Welsh and/or English speakers are equally welcome to apply.

About us

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is one of the largest Integrated Health Boards in the UK, employing over 17,000 staff, providing over 100 specialist services. Working across 6 hospital sites, we have a diverse range of career opportunities to offer. Serving over 500,000 people living in Cardiff and the Vale, we are focussed on the health and care needs of our local population whilst working with our partners to develop regional services. Together we are committed to improving health outcomes for everyone, delivering excellent care and support.

Our mission is "Living Well, Caring Well, Working Together", and our vision is that every person's chance of leading a healthy life should be equal. Our 10 year transformation and improvement strategy, Shaping Our Future Wellbeing, is our chance to work collaboratively with the public and our workforce to make our health board more sustainable for the future.

Job responsibilities

You will be able to find a full Job description and Person Specification attached within the supporting documents or please click Apply now to view in Trac.

Candidates wishing to work part-time are encouraged to apply with a minimum expectation of 22.5 hours a week (maximum 37.5 hours) and expectation to include working a Wednesday.

Person Specification Qualifications

• D. Clin psych and further relevant qualifications e.g. PBS, systemic
• Further qualifications in therapies e.g. Systemic therapy and leadership

Skills

• Demonstrable skills in working with cyp and families, working with cyp with LD and working systems
• Relevant skills in working with cyp with LD and complex needs, in multi agency settings

Experience

• Significant experience of working with cyp with LD
• Experience of supervising others and line management
• Demonstrable leadership experience e.g. team lead
• Experience of working with systems, cyp with LD and complex needs,
• Team leadership experience for cyp with LD team

Knowledge

• Good knowledge of psychological theory and models relevant to working with cyp with LD
• Well developed knowledge of leadership models, team working,

Other

• Ability to speak Welsh and willing to use in a work context.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

£65,424 to £76,021 a year pro rata