Specialist Psychological Therapist (preceptorship)

Job description

Job responsibilities

Management responsibilities

To provide line management to designated assistant psychologists.

Provide supervision to students and trainees and to multi-disciplinary colleagues delivering psychological interventions.

To support recruitment of assistant psychologists to the service.

For those line managing, to ensure local standards are implemented for the allocation and review of work, job planning, review of performance, sickness management and initial stages of grievance or disciplinary action.

To oversee quality line management and supervision within the team structure, ensuring that staff and trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to health care, and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.

To provide highly specialist advice, consultation and training of staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate. This may include work with the Criminal Justice System and Childrens Services.

To provide and support specialist clinical placements for students and trainees in applied psychological practice.

To contribute to the delivery of teaching and training to junior psychological practitioners and specialist training to other professions.

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and risk assessment / management and to implement knowledge gained in practice.

To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

To continue to gain wider post-qualification experience of psychological therapies and risk assessment / management, over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post-holder is employed.

To provide direct psychological care (assessment and intervention) and support the delivery of psychologically informed care by all disciplines within the service.

To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of community clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans, including taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans with input from clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

To provide culturally appropriate psychological therapy interventions with service suers, carers or families of referred clients when required.

To communicate, in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care.

To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.

To undertake psychometric and neuropsychological testing as appropriate, including selecting the appropriate tests, administering and scoring the tests in accordance with the manual, and interpreting the findings in the context of all relevant information.

To undertake risk assessment, risk monitoring and risk management for individual clients in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures, and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

To work in partnership with other disciplines and to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory agencies as appropriate.

Attend and contribute to directorate level meetings and forums, as directed.

Contribute to the delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse communities.

To be proactive in challenging discrimination.

To advise other colleagues on specialist psychological care of clients.

To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To liaise with the service/s MDT and other professionals.

Implement relevant policies and procedures for the safe running of the service.

To engage in service improvements through audits and quality improvement initiatives.

To ensure the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

Advise professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To participate in Trust and Directorate strategic development and implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines), including through membership of committees and/or working parties.

Apply clinical governance standards within the service and ensure that these are maintained and improved.

Provide high quality services that are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards.

Participate in service outcome monitoring.

To undertake the planning, initiation and completion of research, service evaluation and audits, and quality improvement projects relevant to the service and the directorate research agenda.

To oversee the planning, initiation and completion of research, service evaluation and audits by students and trainees.

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.

To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post-holder has management or leadership responsibility.

Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a senior psychological practitioner according to professional and Trust guidelines and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.

To attend Reflective Practice reliably.

To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with registered body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements.

To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.

To comply with the registered body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.

To ensure that all psychological practitioners for whom the post-holder has leadership or management responsibility maintain professional standards, adhere to all organisational HR policies and procedures.

To ensure that all psychological practitioners for whom the post-holder has management responsibility continue professional development, assessing and evaluating to ensure they acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to health care.

Maintaining registration and standards of practice according to the employer and any regulating bodies eg the UKCP, BABCP & HCPC etc.

Ensuring all aspects of confidentiality relating to both the service and individuals are maintained at all times.

General

To travel to clinical venues, training activities and meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.

To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow Trust policies relating to its management.

To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations of people in distress or in crisis and who may be abusive and to support others involved in such situations.

To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or weekend working, within the overall Job Plan.

To be proficient in the use of IT for purposes such as email, electronic calendar, intranet, video calls and electronic clinical records.

To be familiar with word processing, database and statistical packages, and to use such packages appropriately as necessary.

To maintain high standards of clinical record keeping, including electronic clinical records and report writing, in accordance with professional codes of practice and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues pertaining to the client group.

Person Specification

Education & Qualifications

Essential

• Entry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession or equivalent and demonstrable practice in this field (ie professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training)
• Additional training beyond entry-level qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice (through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses and/an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical psychological therapy practice, assessed by a registered body and/or an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher
• Registered with professional body or regulatory body as appropriate to psychological therapy discipline ie HCPC/UKCP/BACP/BABCP.

Desirable

• Completed training course in clinical supervision
• Training or qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adult clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature under supervision
• Experience working with and addressing issues of diversity, including experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.

Desirable

• Experience in forensic / secure settings
• Experience of providing teaching and training

Skills

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Ability to administer, score and interpret psychometric and neuropsychological tests with appropriate training and supervision
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).

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

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

Address

HMP Portland

104 Grove Rd, Grove

Portland

DT5 1DL

Employer's website

http://oxleas.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)