Clinical Psychologist - Mid Essex MHST

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

Mental Health Support Teams are a government initiative following the NHS long-term plans for transformation of Children and Young People's Mental Health Services. NELFT is the largest provider of Mental Health Support Teams in England. Our Southend, Essex, and Thurrock services cover 144 schools. The service is developing and expanding with an aim to cover all secondary schools in locality by September 2025. The MHSTs deliver evidence-based individual and group interventions in educational settings for children experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties aged 5 to 18 years old. The teams also have a strong focus on whole school approaches to improve mental health outcomes for children and young people.

The Mid Essex Mental Health Support Team (MHST) covers a large geographical area incorporating the districts of Braintree, Chelmsford, and Maldon. We are an early intervention and prevention evidence-based service and as a team we are supportive and passionate in what we deliver. We are a friendly team of professionals who come from multidisciplinary backgrounds. We recognise the need for a healthy work-life balance, and we will consider flexible working applications in line with the trust policies and process. We encourage Continual Professional Development and are keen to support our staff to grow and progress.

Our locality covers a large area so you will need access to a vehicle and have the ability to travel efficiently across the county.

Main duties of the job

The role requires a post-graduate qualified psychological practitioner (e.g. clinical psychologist, counselling psychologist) fully registered with HCPC.

The post holder will be an effective team member using their own initiative, supporting their peers and team lead. They will ensure that a high-quality, timely, accessible, and evidence-based service is available to all service users who need it throughout the MHST.

The post-holder will be directly involved in delivering and supervising a range of therapeutic interventions, which may include parent work, group work, school observations of children, and short-term psychological treatments.

Working under the direction of the Locality Clinical Lead, the post-holder will also be responsible for liaising directly with schools, conducting annual needs assessments with education setting management and planning the needs-led programme for working with the setting on their whole-school and -college approach (WSCA) to mental health and wellbeing.

The Clinical/Counselling Psychologist in MHST may also be required to complete a postgraduate certificate supervisor training. This training is funded as part of the MHST programme.

This role is suited to a candidate who is keen on service development as well as managing a clinical caseload.

We welcome applications from recently qualified candidates.

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 places 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 focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing, and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job responsibilities

• To provide an efficient, effective, and comprehensive psychological service for children and adolescents with emotional and mental health problems, their carers/parents, and families.
• Where appropriate to supervise SMHPs and Assistant Psychologists as well as group supervision for a mixture of practitioners within their locality in MHSTs.
• To contribute to multi-disciplinary assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with emotional and mental health problems, their carers/parents, and families.
• Working in partnership with schools, to support children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties and their families in the self-management of presenting difficulties.
• To contribute to audit and research.
• To actively engage in treatment and outcome monitoring, including the use of normed measures associated with CYP-IAPT.
• To work in clinical practice, making use of supervision, within the overall framework MHSTs and the Trust's policies and procedures.
• To oversee the formulation and treatment and management plans for schools, parents, children, and young people being supported by the MHSTs using a range of specialist psychological interventions appropriate to the service; individual and group.
• To support and empower children, young people, and families to make informed choices about the intervention.
• To always operate from an inclusive values base which recognises and respects diversity.
• Assess and integrate issues relating to transitions, education, and training/employment into the overall therapeutic process.
• Work in collaboration with children, young people, and communities to enhance and widen access to support health promotion.
• To be able to travel across the county for supervision, clinical work, and training - all travel to be in line with trust policies and procedures relating to expenses and Vehicle registration and insurance.
• Through close case management and supervision, escalate cases where the level of need becomes beyond scope, or more severe ensuring adherence to other relevant elements of service delivery.

Clinical Skills

• To act as an autonomous, registered practitioner who is legally and professionally accountable for own unsupervised actions guided by their professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols.
• To use appropriate clinical understanding in assessing, jointly with colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team, children, adolescents, and their families, working collaboratively to formulate their strengths and difficulties and to determine the most appropriate treatment plan.
• To provide therapeutic interventions with due regard to issues of cultural, racial, and religious difference and sexual orientation.
• To undertake observations of children in school settings as part of wider assessments.
• To undertake work with parents/carers/networks of referred children and young people.
• To provide specialist mental health assessments and interventions for schools, parents, children, and young people if required. The interventions and supports offered will be based on the low intensity evidence-based interventions for the treatment of low mood, anxiety, and behaviour problems.
• To utilise theory, literature, and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other members of MHST.

Leadership

• To actively promote integrated healthcare professional working internally and externally.
• To facilitate the development of a positive and 'supportive' team culture by taking responsibility for dealing effectively with potential conflict.
• To take an active interest in working parties and groups within the Trust to develop and improve on service delivery, protocols, and guidelines.
• To participate in the audit, quality improvement, research, and service evaluation, linking in with the clinical governance agenda.
• To advise, encourage, and share knowledge utilising the latest research and practice development, through literature and peer reviews.
• To ensure that a high-quality, timely, accessible, and evidence-based service is available to all service users who need it.
• Under the direction of the Locality Clinical Lead, to support the practical development of the MHST initiative within the service.
• To assist in the integration and development of co-production, outcomes measures, and evidence-based treatment approaches to support for service improvement.

Administration

• To be computer literate and implement the Trust's IM&T Strategy.
• To ensure accurate recording and updating of patients' records, including risk information, always maintaining confidentiality.
• To ensure electronic outcome monitoring is completed for patients' treatment.
• To complete mandatory online training associated with the post.
• To take part, and assist, in the planning and administration relating to day-to-day running of the caseload.

Communication

• To have a wide range of knowledge in relevant clinical approaches to communicating and managing patient care.
• To provide reports and communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner concerning the assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of clients.
• To be able to effectively communicate with colleagues, peers, senior managers, and clinical leads within the Trust.
• To be able to communicate complex patient-related information facilitating positive outcomes and ensuring collaborative working.
• To participate in the review of clinical policies and identify improvements to service provision.
• To provide reports on children and young people for parents, referrers, and for other outside agencies, including Social Services and Education Services which describe assessment outcomes in accessible terms and formulate care plans.
• To participate in regular clinical discussions and reviews of cases in treatment with members of the multi-disciplinary team.
• To present cases to network meetings with professional members of other agencies.
• To provide psychological and clinical advice to other professionals working within the CYPMHS team.
• To be responsible for continually monitoring and evaluating risk to/from children and young people in one's own caseload and during supervision/consultation discussions.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

• To contribute to the training experience of trainee therapists, as appropriate.
• To provide extensive and expert clinical supervision as required.
• To support new staff and their integration within the team.
• To ensure own continued professional development to maintain the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holder's professional and service managers.
• To maintain up-to-date knowledge of legislation, national and local NHS, Social Care and Education policies and issues of relevance to the patient group, particularly safeguarding policies and procedures and NICE guidelines.
• To receive regular clinical and service-related supervision from an appropriate professional within NELFT.
• To undertake a regular appraisal, developing a personal development plan that includes clinical competencies reflecting the mental health needs of the local population and related to Trust strategy.
• Support MHST staff in the co-delivery of training sessions. This may include attendance at practice skills sessions, involvement in formative feedback sessions with teaching staff, and co-production of elements of the curriculum.
• To judge, with support of senior colleagues, when the EMHPs are able to work independently with specific clients and interventions.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Successful completion of a post-graduate Clinical Psychology training.
• To be registered or eligible for registration as a practitioner psychologist with HCPC.

Desirable criteria

• Experience in CAMHS/CYPMHS.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of specialist assessment carried out autonomously in order to determine the most appropriate treatment plan from a range of options for the child/young person.
• Experience in managing safeguarding concerns and risk to self/others.

Desirable criteria

• Experience in working with children and adolescents with co-morbid difficulties and special needs. (i.e. combination of organic and emotional deficits, such as autistic spectrum disorders and trauma).
• To be registered or eligible for registration as a practitioner psychologist with HCPC.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• An awareness of NHS priorities, NSF and clinical governance priorities.
• Knowledge of CYP-IAPT principles and their application in practice.
• Knowledge of NHS, Social Care and Education structures, national policies and frameworks, evidence-based practice including NICE guidelines.

Skills

Essential criteria

• High level skills in working with professional networks and the ability to advocate for and advance the mental health needs of parents and their children.
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively highly complex and sensitive matters to patients, which give rise to psychological distress.

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.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part-time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community makes 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.

In the event of a high number of responses to any advert, NELFT reserves the right to close the vacancy early. If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date then please assume you have not been successful on this occasion.

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

• MHST Clinical/Counselling Psychologist (PDF, 462.8KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)