Clinical Psychologist

Devon Partnership NHS Trust; Exeter; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 53,000

Job description

Location: Exeter, EX1 1QA
Salary: £46148.00 to £52809.00
Date posted: 14th March 2025
Closing date: 8th April 2025

Our professional responsibility is to reduce the risk of infection to others as far as possible. Getting vaccinated against diseases that can be passed person-to-person in healthcare settings is part of this responsibility. The Trust will provide advice, guidance and support on vaccinations and access to vaccinations where requested.

Job Description:

Are you someone who is interested in improving the psychological well-being of gender diverse individuals?

This is an exciting time to join the team with opportunities for training including enrolment on the Professional Certificate in Core Capabilities in Clinical Practice for Adult Gender Identity Healthcare (Certificate 1).

The WESGIC is nationally commissioned by NHS England and is the only service of its kind based in the South West. The service receives referrals from the geographical area covered by NHS England. Patients in receipt of a service from the SGIC experience a sense of gender diversity or incongruence between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity resulting in significant level of distress and discomfort and some impairment in psychological wellbeing and social functioning.

This is an exciting time to begin working in Transgender Health Care. An increased prevalence of diversity of gender identity and expression has been observed here in the UK and elsewhere in recent times. In addition, there is greater awareness and some improvement in understanding, increased tolerance and acceptance with regard to this diversity in our society.

There has also been a dramatic increase in referrals to gender identity clinics in the UK over the last decade resulting in long waiting times for referred patients.

Main duties of the job

Patients accessing the West of England Gender Identity Clinic experience a sense of gender diversity or incongruence between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity, an associated significant level of distress and discomfort and some impairment in psychological wellbeing and social functioning.

The post holder will work with a senior clinical psychologist and as part of a multi-disciplinary team that provides physiological, psychological and social interventions in the service and where appropriate, will liaise and work together with professionals and significant others outside of the service, to relieve patients' distress, help them achieve a greater sense of gender comfort and improve psychological wellbeing and social functioning.

The post holder will contribute to the development and provision of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and evidence-based interventions to patients of the service. The post holder will also offer consultation to patients, to non-professional carers, significant others and to non-psychologist colleagues in the service.

The post holder will also be required to contribute to the supervision and training of staff, service evaluation and development and to clinical research.

About us

We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery.

We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications & experience - we recruit individuals who possess & demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trust's core values. These include such attributes as showing a commitment to quality of care, improving lives of others, giving respect, dignity & compassion. We can bring those values to life in our everyday tasks by giving a smile; making time for people; challenging ourselves & others, & being open to new ideas.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer & applications are encouraged & welcomed from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. Part-time & flexible working applications will be considered & supported, where possible. We particularly encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions, neurodiversity or learning disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Leader.

Job responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationships

• Patients, family and carers: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with patients who may have specific difficulties in understanding and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed.
• Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely with colleagues in the multi-professional gender identity service on a day to day basis. To contribute to the team's engagement including liaising with a wide range of professionals and agencies.
• Health & social care staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & social care staff in a range of settings in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of patients under the service's care. To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice.
• Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers across the gender identity service and in DPT to foster a positive approach to gender service provision and to enable effective negotiation.

Planning and Organisation

• The service: To plan and prioritise own workload, balancing the demands of patient care, support and guidance of carers and professionals and service research and development activities.
• To contribute to the planning and organising of the psychological service within the gender identity service and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services to best meet the organisation's strategy and priorities.
• The multidisciplinary service: To provide psychological knowledge to the multi-professional planning, development and marketing of the gender identity service.

Responsibility for Judgement and Analysis

• To provide specialist psychological expertise and advice.
• To provide psychological therapies/other therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups.
• To support the Senior Psychologist and Clinical Team Leader by undertaking service development and redesign projects and coordinating the resulting work within the team.

Responsibility for Patient Care, Treatment and Therapy

• Assessment, formulation & intervention: To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about assessment, treatment and discharge, including the management of risk. To contribute to assessments to aid care pathway planning and to inform decisions about eligibility for gender service interventions. To formulate plans for psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues. To maintain accurate and up to date client records.
• Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families.

Policy, Service, Research, Innovation and Improvement

• The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.
• Policy & service: To support proposed changes for policy and for service development.

Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources

• Careful use of equipment.

Information Resources and Administrative Duties

• To maintain accurate records, compliant with Trust Practice Standards.
• To be responsible for using an email account to generate, monitor, and respond to the e-mail traffic by which the Trust conducts much of its internal communication.

Responsibility for Research and Development

• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in clinical work within the gender identity service.
• To support project work including specific areas of audit, research or service evaluation.
• As a clinician to be responsible for collecting clinical practice and outcome data that contributes to building practice-based evidence and service evaluation.

Freedom to Act

• The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.
• To work autonomously within clinical professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the governance of psychological practice within the locality/specialty. Interpretation of professional and Trust guidelines, and implementing policies in conjunction with peers, Senior Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Team Leader.
• To provide specialist psychological expertise and advice guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families.

Any Other Specific Tasks Required

• To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychologists is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership.
• To ensure that all relevant staff groups continuously update the skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work.

Person Specification

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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.