Clinical Psychologist/Counselling Psychologist with interest in rehab

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 - the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone.

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as "good" or "outstanding" in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King's College London's GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

HCPC Registered Clinical/Counselling/ Health Psychologist with an interest in neurological conditions and rehabilitation

We are looking for a highly motivated, enthusiastic, caring and skilled psychologist to fill a new full time position within the Lewisham Community Therapy Team.

This is part of a new development in the provision of care for patients with neurological conditions in the Lewisham and Greenwich Trust and you will have the chance to work alongside other psychological colleagues in the same specialty. This post will be linked in with the Neuropsychology Services across South East London including the neuropsychology department at Kings College Hospital and there will be the opportunity to pursue further professional training in neuropsychology.

Interview date: 18th March 2025

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be based in a multi-professional team consisting of Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist, Speech and Language Therapist, Therapy Assistant Practitioners, Therapy Assistants and Business Support. The team has multiple pathways treating patients of all conditions within their home environment and is highly supportive and values psychological input. The role involves mainly working with the adult neuro population including patients with acquired brain injury, long-term neurological and functional neurological conditions. The role would focus on directly and indirectly supporting the rehabilitation and/or management of patients within the community who have psychological and cognitive needs and/or behavioural challenges.

This is a new post in the team and so is an exciting opportunity to organise and develop the provision of psychological input to the service.

A strong emphasis is placed on staff development and learning with good access to internal and external support for ongoing development.

We consider a wide range of flexible working patterns and would be happy to discuss these with candidates.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job Summary:

To provide a Highly Specialised Psychological service for clients with neurological conditions within the Adult Community Therapy Team in the borough of Lewisham. Lewisham Community Stroke and Neuro Therapy Teams support adults with acquired brain injury, long-term neurological and Functional Neurological Conditions with a focus on rehabilitation, condition management and end of life support. The post holder will be part of a Specialist Neuro MDT including Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Rehab Assistant and Stroke Consultants.

To be responsible for providing psychological assessment and rehabilitation for patients with neurological disorders as well as providing support for their families and carers, and offer advice and consultant to other members of the MDT. This includes cognitive rehabilitation, psychological therapy to help with emotional adjustment and engagement in rehabilitation, behavioural interventions, teaching and consultation. The role will include opportunities to support and develop links with the existing IAPT service in Lewisham, and lead on the implementation of basic psychology training for all MDT members within Community Therapies. The postholder will be expected to visit patients in their own homes and community settings as appropriate.

To utilise research skills for audit, policy, service development, and research within the area of neuro rehab. The post will be linked in with London wide Neuro Psychology network and will received Clinical Supervision from the Psychology team in Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust or SEL.

Person specification

Qualifications and Training

Essential criteria

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology
• Completion of models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS.
• HCPC registration

Desirable criteria

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient, and assessment and intervention with patients with a wide variety of neurological deficits.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical 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.
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Head of Psychology.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts

Other

Essential criteria

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media 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 criteria

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• 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, 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 non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Knowledge of the evidence base, management and treatment models for early intervention psychosis
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the HPC and BPS.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised 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 specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women's staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

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

• Job Description & Person Spec (PDF, 530.6KB)
• Working at LGT (PDF, 4.2MB)