Clinical/Neuro Psychologist

NHS; England; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job description

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic clinical psychologist to work in neuropsychological assessment, rehabilitation and psychological therapy with the Warwickshire Integrated Community Stroke Service (WICSS) alongside a role within the Clinical Health Psychology team.

WICSS consists of Allied Health Professionals, Rehabilitation Assistants, Neuropsychologists and a Psychology assistant. This innovative pathway offers stroke patients across Warwickshire comprehensive rehabilitation to support their discharge from hospital and maximise their stroke recovery. The work will predominantly take place within patients' homes across Warwickshire and the post-holder will be required to drive. This will be 0.7wte.

The Clinical Health Psychology department works with adults with complex physical health difficulties, using ACT, CFT and team support approaches. There is scope to specialise in staff support, palliative care, general health and with neurodegenerative conditions. This will be 0.3wte.

The role is well supported by qualified neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists working across settings. There are strong links to regional clinical psychology training courses and opportunities for teaching, supervision and the development of specialist skills. A bespoke preceptorship structure for a newly qualified psychologist would be developed and applications are welcomed from those qualifying in 2025.

Main duties of the job

To work as a highly specialist Clinical Psychologist/Neuropsychologist within Early Supported Discharge and Community Stroke as a member of an interdisciplinary team, providing services to adults referred into the Warwickshire Early Supported Discharge Team for Stroke.

To be responsible for managing a caseload and working with the integrated team to support the rehabilitation of patients referred into the service.

To provide highly specialist evidenced-based psychological assessment and treatment of complex cases, requiring detailed analysis, formulation and interventions to reduce the adverse consequences of stroke, cognitive impairment and disorders of mood, so as to maximise rehabilitation potential and quality of life.

To offer psychological expertise to those across the adult age span presenting with complex physical health needs, high levels of distress and to work with the teams supporting their care.

To provide specialist advice and consultation to a range of multi-agency professionals and non-professional carers, and utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development.

To work autonomously within the professional guidelines and overall framework of the Trust and teams' policies and procedures.

To follow defined stroke pathways and other relevant rehabilitation pathways as required.

To work flexibly.

To assist in the quality and activity monitoring systems.

To adhere to the lone worker policy.

About us

Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further.

We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.

Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are 'Trusted to provide safe, effective and compassionate care'. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn't matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.

Job responsibilities

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Provide highly specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention to patients referred to the Warwickshire Early Supported Discharge and Community Team for Stroke (ESD).

Provide highly specialist psychological care for individuals referred to the Clinical Health Psychology team, including formal psychological therapies.

Provide highly specialist psychological advice, guidance, training and consultation to members of the ESD and Community Stroke team, and across a wide range of agencies and settings where appropriate.

Work as an effective member within the interdisciplinary team.

Establish and maintain effective communication with various individuals and groups on complex and potentially stressful topics in a range of situations.

Supervise and manage Trainee Clinical Psychologists/Assistant Psychologists, within the framework of teams policies and procedures.

Utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and with other team members.

Contribute to team meetings and effective operation of the ESD and Community Stroke Team. To be an integral part of the clinical leadership for the ESD and Community Stroke Team. This will include working collaboratively with other therapy clinical specialists to support staff, service delivery and service development.

Demonstrate familiarity with the principles of the safeguarding of vulnerable adult procedures and legislation in relation to the patient group.

Communication

To liaise with the Service Lead, Clinical Team Leader, Multidisciplinary teams, Consultants and GPs and members of other agencies responsible for a patients care.

Work closely and collaboratively within the interdisciplinary team, consulting with colleagues and other professionals across health and social settings.

Communicate effectively and persuasively in a range of professional settings to ensure that other care providers have a clear understanding of the patients psychological needs and the most evidence-based approach to treatment and/or management approach.

Produce high quality verbal and written specialist psychological formulations and reports that aid evidence based clinical interventions for patients, carers and other professionals.

To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner to patients, families and carers, complex information concerning the assessments and treatment plans and provide specialist guidance as to optimal ways of managing, particularly in cases of cognitive impairment.

Use creative and flexible communication methods to engage patients with cognitive impairment or behavioural problems and their carer in the assessment and treatment process.

Analytical and Judgemental Skills/Freedom to Act

Work as an autonomous practitioner to the standards within professional guidelines and relevant clinical standards such as the HCPC Code of Conduct.

Adhere to the Trusts policies and procedures and report any difficulties in their application to line management.

Participate in the appropriate supervision systems including carrying out clinical supervision of Trainee Clinical Psychologists, Assistant Psychologists and professionals from other disciplines as appropriate.

Be responsible for own practice by seeking advice as required from the Principle Clinical Psychologist / Neuropsychologist.

To interpret and apply advanced evidence-based theoretical and clinical information from the highly specialist fields of Clinical Psychology, Neuropsychology, Health Psychology, Behavioural Therapy etc. to the highly complex assessment, formulation and management of the patient group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual patients and to provide specialist advice for other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.

To contribute to the reduction of risk in areas of responsibility.

Planning and Organisational Skills

Effectively plan and prioritise the competing demands of caseload, assessments, report writing and interdisciplinary working, on a daily basis.

Carry out advanced planning of specialist assessments, interventions and reviews of the psychological needs of the patients referred into the service.

Be responsible for implementing timely intervention for patients on caseload, following assessment and liaison with the interdisciplinary team.

Ensure that existing and newly developed quality standards are supported, and that wherever possible promote the completion of Service User/Patient/Client feedback forms as part of the service evaluation.

Have the flexibility required to respond effectively to unplanned service and caseload priorities.

To organise and promote evidence-based practice within the service.

Plan and organise specialist training covering a range of psychological approaches and issues relating to the management of adults with cognitive impairment as a result of a stroke event for delivery to multi agency professionals and non-professional carers.

Plan and organise learning experiences for Trainee Clinical Psychologists on placement, making sure opportunities are relevant and delivered at and appropriate level.

Physical Skills

Travel across Warwickshire to access patients in a range of locations such as their home, work environments or other community settings.

To be able to access a keyboard on a daily basis for the use of emails, data inputting, virtual clinical sessions where appropriate and for gathering information about current caseload.

Responsibility for Patients/Clients

Provide specialist psychological and neuropsychological assessments of patients with stroke. These assessments utilise specialist neuropsychological instruments, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, family members (as appropriate) and others involved in the patients care and involve interpretation and integration of highly complex information from all these sources.

Formulate, implement and recommend plans to the interdisciplinary team, professionals in other agencies and families/carers as appropriate; for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patients emotional, cognitive and behavioural problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patients psychological difficulties, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

Provide expert specialist advice and guidance for interventions based on these formulations to the interdisciplinary team regarding the management and rehabilitation of these patients and contributing directly to their treatment/rehabilitation plan.

Responsible for implementing a range of specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups by demonstrating the ability to synthesise different explanatory models and adjust/refine psychological formulations to guide specialist interventions.

Evaluate and make decisions about appropriate and evidenced based treatment options, taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group, in the context of stroke.

Exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients regarding psychological interventions, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the referrer and others involved with the care.

Provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to patients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

Undertake risk assessment and risk management of individual patients and carers/families; as appropriate and to provide advice to other professionals on the psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

Act as care keyworker when appropriate, coordinating the work of others involved with care and communicating effectively with the patient, his/her family and all others involved in the network of care; and to monitor progress during the course of interdisciplinary interventions.

Responsible with others for facilitating effective interdisciplinary team working by providing psychological expertise and perspectives to optimise the effectiveness of assessment and treatment for individual patients.

Policy and Service Responsibilities

To contribute to the development of effective interagency structures to enable joint planning and collaborative working in relation to complex care decisions.

Responsible for ensuring the professional network have access to expert psychological frameworks to enable effective decision making and promote the most appropriate delivery of care.

Contribute to the development, implementation and review of psychological therapies applied within the rehabilitation setting within the Trust.

Comply with Trust policies and systems of information, including standards of record keeping and confidentiality, with particular reference to sharing of information protocols.

Monitor, analyse and interpret statistical data as specified by the ESD and Community Stroke Team.

Responsibility for Financial and Physical Resources

The post holder will have a personal duty of care of equipment and resources.

The post holder will be responsible for maintaining adequate physical resources.

The post holder will be responsible for security of goods and equipment.

The post holder does not administer, monitor or set budgets or have a responsibility for handling cash; e.g. clients or petty cash.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
• Registered as an Applied Clinical Psychologist with HCPC
• Pre and post qualification training in specialist assessment and treatment of adults with cognitive and stroke impairments, neuropsychological assessment, research methodology, staff training and /or other fields of applied psychology
• Qualifications or equivalent experience for teaching, training and supervising of doctoral level trainees
• Post-doctoral training or equivalent experience in one or more specialised areas of psychological practice

Experience

• Experience of representing psychology within the context of inter-disciplinary care
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for patients' psychological care assessment and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of an interdisciplinary care plan
• Experience of working in a neuro rehabilitation setting
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adults with a stroke and cognitive impairment across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Supervision of other interdisciplinary professionals
• Experience of engaging patients who are hard to reach because of their social circumstances and /or communication difficulties
• Record of having published in professional journals and /or books

Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies
• Awareness of working within a multicultural framework
• Familiar with processes to support Safeguarding policy and procedures
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least 2 specialised psychological practices
• Ability to communicate highly complex condition related information to patients with stroke and cognitive impairment; often in emotive and/or hostile environment
• Ability to teach/train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within the public, professional and academic settings
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional group

Personal Qualities

• Ability to work independently and using own initiative, yet willing and able to develop from consulting the Principle Clinical Neuro Psychologist when appropriate
• Ability to communicate effectively and empathically
• Ability to communicate effectively with other HCP's
• Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and to 'hold' the stress of others
• A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multiprofessional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the area
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours
• Ability to independently articulate and interpret the role the role of the profession of clinical psychology based upon a good understanding of the framework of national professional policies
• Experience of psychological aspects of health problems

Other

• Hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car to use for business purposes
• Willing to undertake DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) enhanced clearance
• Flexibility of hours
• Medical clearance with good general health to participate in therapeutic moving and handling
• Willingness to uphold the Trust's values
• Eligible to live and work in the UK

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.

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Warwickshire Integrated Community Stroke Service

Leamington Rehabilitation Hospital/Wayside House and Stratford Healthcare

Warwickshire Integrated Community Stroke Service

Leamington Rehabilitation Hospital/Wayside House and Stratford Healthcare