Job summary
We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic, dynamic, highly-motivated individual to the role of Band 8c Consultant Psychologist for our Tri-borough Community Perinatal Mental Health and Maternity Trauma & Loss Care services. The post is full-time and will be working across the London boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham. The successful candidate can be from a Clinical or Counselling Psychology background and will need to demonstrate excellent strategic and clinical leadership skills and have relevant knowledge and experience to enable them to further develop and continue to deliver high quality, safe and effective psychological therapies provision as part of the long-term plan objectives (and beyond) for Perinatal and Maternal Mental Health.
These are innovative and award winning services, with the Perinatal Team having achieved RCPsych Perinatal Quality Network accreditation as well as receiving a Guardian Angel award from Basch Helps CIC, a local charity that the service works closely with. MTLC won a Positive Practice in Mental Health Award under the Perinatal and Maternal Mental Health category. The services also have a well-established Experts by Experience Group and a strong ethos of co-production.
Main duties of the job
As a member of the senior management team, the successful candidate will work closely with the Perinatal & Maternity Trauma & Loss Care Clinical Leads and Service Manager to:
- Facilitate the on-going delivery of the NHS long-term plan objectives for expanded psychological therapies provision and implementation of maternal mental health services and provide strategic leadership in the forming a North West London Perinatal Provider Collaborative
- Ensure key performance targets (e.g. access rates and response times for psychological therapies) and other defined psychology outcomes are delivered in line with the North West London Perinatal and MTLC service specifications
- Facilitate the effective management and utilisation of psychology workforce and associated financial resources, including any required efficiencies
- Enable effective governance and respond to identified clinical learning and development needs
- Deliver quality improvement and other time-limited projects
- Be a highly specialist clinical resource to Perinatal and MTLC services and the wider professional community, holding a small caseload of highly complex cases
- Support staff retention through leading on well-being initiatives and enabling high quality training and robust role/career development opportunities in line with staff appraisals.
About us
West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK.
Our 3,982 staff care for people in hospital and in the community, helping them to recover and go on to lead full and productive lives. We aim to be the best organisation of our kind in the country.
We provide care and treatment for more than 800,000 people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow, delivering services in the community (at home, in GP surgeries and care homes), hospital, specialist clinics and forensic (secure) units.
We'rerated good overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Together, we're committed to promoting hope and wellbeing, working with patients, service users, carers, families and partners across the communities we serve.
We are keen to ensure that our workforce reflects the community it serves, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ and experience of mental illness.
Job description
Job responsibilities
For further information with regards to the main responsibilities please see attached Candidate Pack.
Job description
Job responsibilities
For further information with regards to the main responsibilities please see attached Candidate Pack.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Honours Degree in Psychology recognised for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psycholog
- an equivalent training outside of the UK that fully meets the required Professional and HCPC standards
- Registered HCPC practitioner psychologist (
- Training in the supervision of psychological therapies
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS, including recent specialist training in perinatal and/or infant mental health
Desirable
- Post-doctoral training / qualification in one or more specialist area of psychological practice (e.g. systemic psychotherapy, couple's therapy)
- Formal training / qualification in perinatal psychological interventions such as interventions designed to promote the developing parent-infant relationship (e.g. Video Interaction Guidance, Circle of Security
- Management or leadership training / qualification or equivalent
- Quality Improvement qualification
Experience
Essential
- Extensive experience of working as a qualified clinical or counselling psychologist
- Experience of working in a specialist perinatal service to include either in a perinatal mental health inpatient mother and baby service and /or a community perinatal service to be able to practise independently in these settings.
- Experience of professional leadership / management of qualified and pre-qualified psychologists / psychological therapists
- Substantial supervised experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course, (including diverse backgrounds and in a variety of cultural contexts) and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems
- Considerable experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan
- Experience of designing and delivering teaching, training, professional and clinical supervision to a diverse group of clinicians within a number of setting and across various organisations
- Experience of co-production of service developments and innovations
- Experience of devising care pathways for psychological services
Desirable
- Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books
- ERecord of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books
- Experience of engagement with service commissioners
- Experience of multiprofessional management of teams or services within the specialty
- Experience of representing the profession in local, regional or national policy fora
- Experience of working in a parenting assessment service
Knowledge
Essential
- Doctoral level knowledge of clinical or counselling psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies
- Highly developed specialist knowledge and skills in psychological therapies relevant to the perinatal period - including substantial perinatal specific competences as defined in the HEE publication 'The Competency Framework for Professionals Working with Women who have Mental Health Problems in the Perinatal Period' (2018) (
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of leadership and management
- Advanced theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment applicable to the perinatal period, including adult and infant mental health
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical or counselling psychology (
- In depth knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health
Desirable
- Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for complex clinical presentations (e.g. personality disorder, coexisting mental health and substance use, people with additional disabilities and severely challenging behaviours etc.)
SKILLS
Essential
- A high-level written and oral ability to communicate effectively complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS
- Highly advanced leadership and management skills, including an ability to organise, prioritise, plan, further establish and develop the team/services
Desirable
- The ability to deliver psychological care in a language in addition to English spoken in our local communities (
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Honours Degree in Psychology recognised for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psycholog
- an equivalent training outside of the UK that fully meets the required Professional and HCPC standards
- Registered HCPC practitioner psychologist (
- Training in the supervision of psychological therapies
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS, including recent specialist training in perinatal and/or infant mental health
Desirable
- Post-doctoral training / qualification in one or more specialist area of psychological practice (e.g. systemic psychotherapy, couple's therapy)
- Formal training / qualification in perinatal psychological interventions such as interventions designed to promote the developing parent-infant relationship (e.g. Video Interaction Guidance, Circle of Security
- Management or leadership training / qualification or equivalent
- Quality Improvement qualification
Experience
Essential
- Extensive experience of working as a qualified clinical or counselling psychologist
- Experience of working in a specialist perinatal service to include either in a perinatal mental health inpatient mother and baby service and /or a community perinatal service to be able to practise independently in these settings.
- Experience of professional leadership / management of qualified and pre-qualified psychologists / psychological therapists
- Substantial supervised experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course, (including diverse backgrounds and in a variety of cultural contexts) and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems
- Considerable experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan
- Experience of designing and delivering teaching, training, professional and clinical supervision to a diverse group of clinicians within a number of setting and across various organisations
- Experience of co-production of service developments and innovations
- Experience of devising care pathways for psychological services
Desirable
- Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books
- ERecord of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books
- Experience of engagement with service commissioners
- Experience of multiprofessional management of teams or services within the specialty
- Experience of representing the profession in local, regional or national policy fora
- Experience of working in a parenting assessment service
Knowledge
Essential
- Doctoral level knowledge of clinical or counselling psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies
- Highly developed specialist knowledge and skills in psychological therapies relevant to the perinatal period - including substantial perinatal specific competences as defined in the HEE publication 'The Competency Framework for Professionals Working with Women who have Mental Health Problems in the Perinatal Period' (2018) (
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of leadership and management
- Advanced theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment applicable to the perinatal period, including adult and infant mental health
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical or counselling psychology (
- In depth knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health
Desirable
- Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for complex clinical presentations (e.g. personality disorder, coexisting mental health and substance use, people with additional disabilities and severely challenging behaviours etc.)
SKILLS
Essential
- A high-level written and oral ability to communicate effectively complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS
- Highly advanced leadership and management skills, including an ability to organise, prioritise, plan, further establish and develop the team/services
Desirable
- The ability to deliver psychological care in a language in addition to English spoken in our local communities (
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Additional information
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
