Clinical Psychologist

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required.

The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.

Person specification

Qualifications and Training

Essential criteria

• Good honors degree (2:1 minimum) in Psychology. Eligibility for graduate membership of BPS.
• Post-graduate doctorate in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or those in lateral transfer) as accredited by the BPS.
• Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council.

Desirable criteria

• Other related academic qualifications.
• Evidence of additional training in psychological therapy techniques.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of working with older people.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of having facilitated/co-facilitated psychological therapy groups.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

• Able to adapt to rapidly changing service demands.
• Able to maintain intense concentration frequently and for prolonged periods with unpredictable patients (e.g., in the assessment and treatment of patients with complex difficulties).
• Able to function in potentially traumatic circumstances and in highly emotionally distressing circumstances on a frequent basis (e.g., in dealing with patients with serious mental illness, violence, self-harm, sexual abuse).

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Specialist knowledge, both theoretical and practical, of psychology applied to clinical practice.
• Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of the assessment and treatment of a range of mental health conditions.
• Able to provide and receive complex, sensitive or contentious information, where there are significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills.
• Able to plan, prioritise and organise own service user caseload, treatment programmes (individual or group) involving other staff and other aspects of the work such as research activity.
• 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.
• Able to use database, word processing and test administration/scoring software.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.

Desirable criteria

• Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of assessment and intervention with families.
• Able to speak other languages present in local communities such as Hindi, Punjabi or Polish.

As an employee of West London NHS Trust, you have a responsibility to maintain a sound understanding of, and a commitment to uphold the National Health Service values and principles set out in the NHS Constitution.

We reserve the right to close adverts prior to the closing date stated should we receive a high volume of applications.

By applying for this post you are agreeing to West London NHS Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, you will be required to undergo a pre-employment checks which can take between 4-8 weeks.

Please ensure you include email addresses for your referees which MUST be at supervisory or managerial capacity covering the last 3 years of employment to date to avoid delay in the recruitment process.

West London NHS Trust is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We encourage the thoughtful use of technology as a demonstration of strong time management and a commitment to innovation. However, we encourage applicants to personalise their recruitment application to showcase their unique skills and experiences.

While AI-generated content can be a helpful tool, relying solely on generic responses instead of highlighting your own strengths and achievements may impact the success of your application. The success of an application will always be assessed against the essential and desirable criteria for the role, so it is important to ensure that your application and any supporting information clearly demonstrate how you meet these requirements.

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

• JD and PS (PDF, 413.6KB)