Clinical Psychologist

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust; London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job description

Job summary

We now have Band 8A new posts to cover the 4 wards. We are looking for enthusiastic Clinical Psychologists with an interest in working with patients, families and acute care teams. The post-holders will be committed to applying their expertise in supporting the teams in order to help develop the therapeutic activity of the service.

The post holders will be based within the acute service located at Park Royal Centre for Mental Health and will provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention for patients in the acute/crisis phase of their problems. The post holders will also provide supervision, consultation and training in order to support MDT colleagues in developing their competencies in the application of psychological ways of working with service users, their carers and families. A key feature of the roles will be the implementation of trauma-informed care within the service.

Interview date: TBC

Main duties of the job

The roles require the post holders to have significant experience in delivering evidence-based assessments and interventions across a broad range of complex presenting problems including psychosis, bipolar disorder and personality disorder. The post holders will need to be flexible and be able to work independently as well as part of a team.

JOB SUMMARY

1. To provide a qualified clinical psychology service to clients attached to the Acute wards and the home treatment team across all sectors of care;
2. Provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers;
3. Work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Service's policies and procedures;
4. Utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the appropriate catchment area.

About us

CNWL has agreed a new multi-disciplinary structure for our acute wards and we have created roles within our Brent Psychology Service to support the delivery of this model. We recently appointed an acute pathway lead to lead on implementing a trauma-informed approach. We have assistant psychologists in post and are in the process of appointing clinical associate psychologists to our acute service. We have a vibrant group programme across the wards and the home treatment team and are keen to develop our psychosocial interventions in these services.

We have 4 wards (3 acute and 1 male PICU). Two of our wards are AIMS accredited and the other 2 are working towards accreditation. We are actively engaging with our local community and with voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations. We embrace the cultural diversity of the borough and work closely with our award-winning Health Inequalities Team.

The post holders will be part of the wider Brent Integrated Psychology and Psychotherapy Service and will have the ability to link in with a network of community psychologists and psychotherapists. The service has opportunities for professional development and the post holders will receive regular supervision from one of the Consultant Psychologists. We also have good links with, and have trainees from, all the Regional training courses. The post holders will have supervision responsibilities for pre-qualified Psychologists.

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the Acute services based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of inpatient and outpatient care settings as appropriate.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. To evaluate and make decisions about 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.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
6. To provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
7. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
9. To act as lead professional, where appropriate (in cases where psychological issues form the principal aspect of the presenting problem(s)), taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under the CPA process including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care.
10. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

Person Specification

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology or its equivalent (for those trained prior to 1996 OR A nationally recognized Psychotherapy training (UKCP -PP section or BPC) with supervision training for psychotherapy trainees on placement.

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
• Experience of group theory interventions.

EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users across the full range of care settings, including, community, primary care and in service user settings.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity.
• Experience of working with clients in crisis.
• Experience of working in acute mental health settings.

Desirable

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Some experience in neurological assessment would be desirable.

SKILLS

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialized psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc). High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialized psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of trauma informed care.

OTHER

Essential

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multimedia materials suitable for presentations within 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.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Car driver and access to use of a car.

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.
Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.