Cheshire West & Chester Council - Child and Educational Psychologists

Cheshire West and Chester Child & Educational Psychology Service are excited to announce that we are expanding due to increased demand for our services. Our well-regarded service looks forward to welcoming you.

Cheshire West and Chester is an exciting place to live and work.  It covers a wide and varied geographical area, with excellent transport links.  The Council is proud of its well-respected trauma informed approach which is embedded across the Borough.  Cheshire West and Chester is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment - including you.

We are committed to developing a forward thinking, evidenced based service that applies psychology creatively to promote positive change, mindful of social justice. We are keen to welcome similarly focused practitioners into the service help achieve this. We believe we can support your professional development, no matter what stage of your career. We welcome applications from TEPs currently in Year 3, qualified CEPs and CEPs returning to the profession.

Cheshire West and Chester Child & Psychology Service is made up of friendly, supportive, talented psychologists.  We offer a partially traded service with a Consultation model of service delivery.  We are committed to innovation and trading for the benefit of our residents. We have well-established ELSA and EBSN programmes and are currently developing our EY ELSA offer and Critical Incident support along with colleagues across the wider Children’s Service.  Following requests from Headteachers we have expanded our offer to support Children and Young People’s (CYP) learning with regard to executive functioning. Recent traded work with our Virtual School has stimulated demand in this area. We are always keen to further extend our traded offer to support children and young people’s learning, mental health and emotional wellbeing and we would welcome your ideas. 

We are a well-regarded service, our evaluations year on year demonstrate that school staff, parents and CYP value our work. The CEPS has contributed to a range of strategic developments and initiatives within the wider council including ‘Our Ways of Working’.  This year we are focussing our own practice following a recent social justice audit. 

The benefits of working for CW&C extend beyond making a difference to people’s lives, as well as working within a supportive, creative environment with people who share your values, you will have access to a wide range of benefits including discounted  gym memberships, holidays and childcare vouchers through our Working Rewards Scheme. We pay HCPC fees and offer:

• A thorough induction programme, with ongoing training and support from Day 1
• Monthly individual and peer supervision sessions
• Hybrid working so that you can work at home or in the office, around visiting schools and settings.
• Cash back scheme on any medical treatment that you may require via Medicash
• Car lease scheme - Brand new fully maintained and insured car for 3 years in return for a fixed monthly payment via salary sacrifice.
• A generous holiday allowance starting at 25 days pro rata (plus bank holidays) increasing with length of service to 30 days. Additionally, the opportunity to purchase up to 10 days additional annual leave and access to Time off In Lieu as appropriate
• An excellent career average pension scheme. 

We look forward to receiving your application if you are an excellent communicator who is passionate about psychology and empowering service users.  All applicants must be registered with the HCPC or eligible to be so once qualified. Successful candidates will:

• Support CYP to participate fully in decisions that affect them
• Work in partnership with parents/ carers and families
• Promote inclusion
• Place value on their personal wellbeing and the wellbeing of the Service
• Seek CPD opportunities with the intention of supporting evidence based practice within our broader Children and Young People Plan
• Support our successful programme working with Trainee Educational Psychologists

For further discussion about the post, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Kate Hughes, Principal Child & Educational Psychologist:  Kate.hughes@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

The Borough is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Any offer of employment to this post will be subject to an enhanced Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Online applications are invited- please follow the link. 
Alternatively please email jobenquiries@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk or telephone 01244 972503.