This is an exciting and unusual developmental psychology clinical academic post, focused on eating disorder research in children and adolescents. This is a joint position across King’s College London and the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders (MCCAED) at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), offering a rare opportunity to combine clinical and research activity within a leading specialist service.

 

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:

 

• Educating the next generation of change-makers

• Challenging ideas and driving change through research

• Giving back to society through meaningful service

• Working with our local communities in London

• Fostering global citizens with an international perspective

 

The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a Faculty of King’s College London and the largest academic community in Europe devoted to the study and prevention of mental illness and brain disease. This post will be based at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre, an interdisciplinary research centre investigating the interplay between genetics (‘nature’) and the environment (‘nurture’) in the developmental of psychiatric disorders, neurodevelopmental conditions and individual differences across the lifespan. SGDP scientists lead some of the UK’s foremost longitudinal cohorts and twin studies, including two of the UK’s largest eating disorder research projects, EDGI UK – the UK Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative and the Eating Disorders Clinical Research Network (EDCRN), as well as TEDS, eRISK, Dunedin, and GLAD. Our collaborative research and training spans behavioural, molecular, and statistical genetics, experimental psychology and psychiatry, and neuroimaging.

 

South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) has the most comprehensive range of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in the United Kingdom. The services are renowned nationally and internationally, with evidence based clinical practice that thrives on our close links with the IoPPN. This role will be based clinically within The Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders (MCCAED). This is an internationally recognised specialist child and adolescent eating disorder service that includes 4 clinical teams. These work across the whole range of ages and eating disorder presentations in outpatient, intensive outreach and day-patient programmes. The service is already involved in a range of clinical research programmes; we expect this role to further strengthen collaborative and mutually beneficial links between IoPPN researchers and MCCAED. The MCCAED team will be based in the new Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People which opens shortly. Sitting at the heart of the King’s/SLaM Denmark Hill campus, the Centre is a £90M state-of-the-art hub for mental health research and treatment, focused on children, adolescents, and their families.

This is an exciting opportunity for a clinical academic psychologist (Lecturer level) with both research and clinical experience to join the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London. This full-time position will be shared by IoPPN/King’s (0.6 FTE) with the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders (MCCAED) within the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM; 0.4 FTE). This position allows for considerable synergy between academic research and education, and clinical service delivery. The overarching goal of this post is to facilitate greater collaboration between academic researchers and clinical colleagues working in child and adolescent eating disorders.

 

The successful candidate will build a research programme in an area of child and adolescent eating disorders, developing studies and applying methodologies that complement the vibrant interdisciplinary research in the SGDP Centre. If successful, you will collaborate with other research groups and attract external funding as principal investigator. Support and training will be provided as appropriate. Current SGDP research on eating disorders, anxiety, depression, ADHD and autism in young people offer particularly strong opportunities for collaboration, with wider opportunities across the IoPPN.

 

Education and training of the next generation of scientists is a priority at the SGDP. You will support the MSc in Developmental Psychology and Psychopathology and other courses, leading the “Psychological Approaches to Treatment” module, developing new clinical placements and supervising student projects.

 

The successful candidate will offer assessment, evidence-based therapy and some care co-ordination to children and young people within MCCAED. The specific clinical team within MCCAED can be negotiated according to research and clinical interests and to support mutually beneficial collaborations between clinical services and research activity. Depending on experience, you may also provide consultation and supervision to qualified clinicians and trainees. The post is closely linked to the new Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People which plans to transform the mental health of children and young people.  Depending on clinical team, the post will either be based within this centre, or within another local service hub.

 

This is a full time post (35 hours per week) and you will be offered an indefinite contract.