CBT Therapist/Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Job overview

We are looking for enthusiastic CBT therapists /Psychologists/Psychotherapist to provide therapy for clients within the Kent and Medway All Age Eating Disorder Service.

The post-holder will be a post-graduate qualified psychological practitioner (e.g. clinical psychologist, family therapist, CBT therapist) or graduate qualified health care professional (e.g. nurse, social worker, occupational therapist), fully registered with the appropriate professional or regulatory body (e.g. HCPC, NMC) and with an additional post-graduate qualification in Psychological Therapies (e.g. cyp-iapt post graduate diploma in systemic family practice/cognitive behavioural therapy).

The post holder will be a member of the Kent and Medway all age eating disorder service.

The post holder will be required to assess and treat all age patients who present with an eating disorder. The post holder will have support of other team members in the management of these cases. As the service is exclusively an outpatient service, the post holder will not hold an inpatient case load, but the post holder will work with adolescent units where young people are admitted from the geographical areas in order to maintain joint working and smooth transition into and out of inpatient beds.

Main duties of the job

1. To provide evidence-based interventions including family and individual cognitive behavioural interventions to service users and their families seen within the Kent and Medway eating disorders team using specialist knowledge and breadth of understanding of child and adolescent mental health theories, evidence-based assessments and interventions and to manage complex cases.
2. To take an active role in developing the research activities of the team and audit and interpret complex data to develop own and others understanding of mental disorders.
3. To provide specialist assessments and evidence-based interventions for service users with an eating disorder.
4. To provide consultation and advice to members of own team and other teams on psychological issues, primarily Family Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural models of understanding eating disorders in young people.
5. To provide consultation and advice on risk assessment and risk management of service users with an eating disorder to members of own team and other teams.
6. To provide supervision to staff on Family therapy based or cognitive-behavioural interventions as appropriate with service users with an eating disorder.
7. To undertake research into eating disorders.

Working for our organisation

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focussing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification for further details on this vacancy.

We encourage personal and professional development within the team and support ongoing BABCP accreditation by providing the necessary CPD required for this. Additionally, clinicians are provided with the opportunity to undertake different responsibilities alongside clinical work, deliver training and/or consultation to the team and other services, or attend training where this may be required, such as, Trauma focussed CBT for complex traumas, Complex Grief, Supervisor training; thus, further strengthening their repertoire of skills. We also offer monthly in-house training, high intensity peer supervision and external training in other IAPT modalities when the opportunity arises.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Professional postgraduate training in Clinical/Counselling Psychology, Doctoral level or equivalent (2) HCPC registration for psychologists (or working towards) (2) CBT Therapist qualification (2) BABCP accreditation for CBT therapists, or working towards accreditation (2)

Desirable criteria

• Additional advanced training in CBT, EMDR, IPT or other IAPT specific discipline

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of working all age patients and their families with eating disorders

Knowledge and skills

Essential criteria

• An awareness of NHS priorities
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for eating disorders
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by professional body
• Awareness of racial and diversity issues through attendance of relevant training
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues and child protection

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans, reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Kent and Medway AAEDS therapist (PDF, 536.6KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)