Psychological Therapies Lead

Job description

Job responsibilities

Communication and Key Working Relationships

To be line managed by the Service Lead and to bring all areas of concern or development to line management discussion. To advise the Service Lead on all Talking Therapies PT developments and jointly consider their implementation in the Service.

To advise and guide PT Supervisors in their work with therapists and trainees. To plan and chair regular meetings of such supervisors. To be a resource for them in any conflicts or ruptures in supervisory relationships.

To communicate proactively with and be a resource for the Team Leaders and Deputy Team Leaders.

To work with the CBT Lead to build a constructive, collaborative relationship in order to work on joint initiatives that refer to all Step 3 work and to contribute to the development and training of counsellors as appropriate.

To build a constructive working relationship with the PWP Lead to ensure smooth communication between the two arms of the Service.

To liaise with PT practitioners elsewhere in the Trust in regard to review and clinical audit of relevant NICE and other guidelines, and general best practice in PT.

To seek opportunities for service user participation in the planning and implementation of the work of the post, for example in liaison with Recovery Partners.

To liaise with colleagues in Open Mental Health (OMH), the Community Mental Health Service (CMHS), the Specialist Psychological Intervention service (SPI) and the voluntary and community sector (VCSE), promoting the ethos of the transformation of mental health services initiative at all times.

Planning and Organisation

To have oversight of Step 3 PT waiting times across the Service, promoting equity of access and striving to find ways to offer a prompt start to treatment to all patients. To balance this with a consideration of both NICE guidelines and local commissioning requirements.

To plan, implement and review Step 3, PT groupwork in the Service for better patient outcomes and to improve performance against the Access target, minimizing waiting times for treatment.

To plan the intake of PT trainees. To organize their recruitment in liaison with the Recruitment service. To manage all aspects of their training year, addressing areas of clinical concern as they arise. To be the main link person with the training institute, attending relevant meetings.

To identify learning and development needs (CPD) of the PT workforce and to have oversight of such development and further training of all PT clinicians and supervisors. To plan and deliver internal trainings as appropriate and in collaboration with the CBT Lead and PWP Lead.

To plan, manage and improve PT supervision arrangements throughout the Service. To consider most appropriate and constructive pairings.

Analytics

To oversee clinical audit of PT treatments and related activity in the Service, particularly in regard to NICE guidelines, but also for more local service evaluation and improvement.

To ensure all clinical activity is correctly recorded in the Service clinical database to meet the requirements of Talking Therapies data submission. To compile relevant guidelines, prompt sheets and templates.

To make use of the reporting functions in the clinical database to produce statistics and other data to review and improve patient outcomes and clinical capacity.

Responsibility for Patient / Client Care, Treatment & Therapy

To hold a small, clinical caseload of more complex patients, which is at least large enough to maintain accreditation at all times.

To maintain links with and contribute to national and local Talking Therapies PT forums in order to improve outcomes and experience for patients.

To develop methods to increase and improve the clinical capacity of the Service at Step 3, finding ways to work more 'smartly' with existing resources.

To keep inclusion and diversity at the heart of the Service's work with patients and proactively to promote the clinical and personal development of therapists from professionally disadvantaged backgrounds.

Policy, Service, Research & Development Responsibility

To lead on the creation of useful Service policies and guidelines on PT and to contribute to the development of other such documents in other clinical areas.

To review and promote the use of Anxiety Disorder-Specific Measures (ADSMs) in clinical work. To organise the addition of such new measures into the clinical database.

To have oversight of PT activity in the Service To research and champion best practice. To lead on the selection and support of PT therapists to complete such add-on trainings.

To show commitment to continuing professional development relevant to the role and the Talking Therapies environment

Responsibility for Supervision, Leadership & Management

To hold a suitable clinical supervision caseload of particularly more senior PT therapists and supervisors in the Service, which may include Team Leaders. To cover formal supervision of PT clinicians throughout the Service when any temporary or abrupt absences occur. To be a resource for all PT supervisors.

To line manage clinicians occasionally when needed by the Service.

To attend the Service Managers' Meeting regularly to champion the PT activity of the Service. To bring relevant, related matters to the agenda for discussion. To advise decision-making on all clinical aspects of the Service.

To participate actively in the Duty system and Interface meetings across the Service, when appropriate and helpful, to assist clinical teams.

To mentor and coach colleagues in Talking Therapies and beyond, as appropriate and agreed.

Information Resources & Administrative Duties

To collate useful materials of interest to PT clinicians in their work.

To research and make use of the Trust Library and Information Service resources.

To complete own clinical and other admin, including letter and report-writing and data entry in Service clinical database, and to manage a communicative diary of work commitments in Outlook.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Qualification in a Talking Therapies Compliant PT modality appropriate to the NHS Somerset Talking Therapies Service.
• Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) or Person-Centred Existential Counselling for Depression (PCE-CfD
• Accreditation with appropriate accrediting body
• Supervision qualification in given modality

Experience

Essential

• See full personal specification for details
• Offering PT treatments to complex patients presenting with issues around Risk, co-morbidity, LTCs, Safeguarding
• Supervising PT clinicians in a Talking Therapies service
• Able to communicate complex mental health information to patients, their families and carers, and professional colleagues
• Competence in making informed referral, Screening, Duty and treatment decisions

Desirable

• Leading on development projects in PT and/or Talking Therapies
• Balancing a clinical caseload alongside other professional commitments in a fast-paced environment
• Line managing people, particularly other clinicians

Additional Criteria

Essential

• Knowledge of the following:
• Talking Therapies Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and their impact on service delivery
• Wider NHS mental health services and their intersection with Talking Therapies activity
• Stepped Care model and its implementation
• Trust Safeguarding and risk management procedures
• Other modalities in Talking Therapies, namely Guided Self Help (Step 2), CBT and Talking Therapies-compliant counselling modalities such as Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) and Person-Centred Existential Counselling for Depression (PCE-CfD)

Desirable

• Able to offer professional presentations both online and in person on PT and Talking Therapies issues and delivery

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Trustwide

The Crescent

Taunton

Somerset

TA1 4DY

Employer's website

https://www.somersetft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)