Job summary
The Staff Mental Health Service (SMHS) is a multi-disciplinary team providing specialist mental health input to NHS staff with moderate to severe mental health needs. The team includes clinical nurse specialists, psychiatry, clinical psychology, an occupational health nurse and administrators. The service is delivered across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for staff working for Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge Community Services, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, and Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust. In order to be accessible to staff across a large geographical area most of the SMHS input is delivered remotely.
This is an excellent career development opportunity, where the successful candidate(s) will be embedded in a supportive team culture and a psychology team (six psychologists) with expertise in offering trauma-based therapy and other modalities. The Consultant Clinical Psychologist will provide clinical supervision, with additional opportunities to attend reflective practice, peer and EMDR supervision where trained.
Main duties of the job
SMHS forms part of a network of staff support services developed by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Trusts. We are seeking to recruit a clinical psychologist with extensive knowledge and experience of assessment and formulation with post qualification training and expertise in delivering evidence based psychological therapies to patients with moderate to severe mental health presentations including complex trauma. They will have experience of multi-disciplinary adult mental health services and supervision of staff and be passionate about promoting staff wellbeing. They will provide a direct clinical service, managing the requirements of confidentiality, maintaining records, and contributing to data collection, service evaluation and research. The post holder will have excellent interpersonal skills and be able to develop effective working relationships across the wide range of services and Trusts linked to the SMHS.
The SMHS is part of the Adult and Specialist Services Directorate, and is a distinct service within the organisation, linked to the Psychological Medicine Service. The administrative base is in Cambridge. There is limited office and clinical space meaning that the post will involve some degree of home working. We are supportive of flexible working and job-sharing arrangements.
About us
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share out vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disable people & members of our BAME & LGBTQ+ communities.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
- To provide specialist psychological assessments based on appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of highly complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological test, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
- To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence, and which incorporates interpersonal, societal, cultural, and biological factors.
- To assist the SMHS team in communicating difficult, complex, and sensitive information.
- To manage and maintain confidentiality, recognising the specific requirements within the SMHS.
- To be responsible for implementing a range of evidence based psychological interventions adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
- To evaluate and make decisions about psychological treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, or group.
- To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
- To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
- To provide specialist psychological assessments based on appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of highly complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological test, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
- To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence, and which incorporates interpersonal, societal, cultural, and biological factors.
- To assist the SMHS team in communicating difficult, complex, and sensitive information.
- To manage and maintain confidentiality, recognising the specific requirements within the SMHS.
- To be responsible for implementing a range of evidence based psychological interventions adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
- To evaluate and make decisions about psychological treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, or group.
- To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
- To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
Person Specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential
- Doctorate level training in clinical / counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996), including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical, psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan /developmental
- Undertaken training in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists.
- HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist.
Desirable
- Chartered Psychologist
- Undertaken relevant post-doctoral training in one or more relevant areas of psychological practice.
Experience
Essential
- Significant assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course 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 severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse, and the threat of physical abuse.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- Experience working in a multi-disciplinary setting.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
Desirable
- Experience of delivering supervision to non-psychology MDT staff.
- Experience of delivering psychological therapies within an occupational health context.
- Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
- Experience of working within a multi-cultural framework
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- High level of knowledge and skills in psychological therapies.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within clinical health psychology.
- Evidence of Continuing Professional Development.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management, frequently intense concentration requiring the use of highly developed analytic skills.
- Skills in individual and group work and programme planning.
- Excellent communication skills, able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information including contentious and highly distressing information to service users, their families / carers, and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, enabling formation of networks with professionals within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective team working with clients.
- IT skills to fulfil the duties of the job description.
Desirable
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
- Completed EMDR training.
Personal and Other Requirements
Essential
- Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from clients and families.
- Able to contain and work with organisational stress.
- Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult, volatile situations.
- Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information. Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
- Ability to clearly articulate the role of the profession of clinical psychology based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy.
- Demonstrates enthusiasm for service initiatives. Has a commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the service area.
- Ability to exercise appropriate levels of self-care and monitor own state, recognising when it is necessary to take active steps to maintain fitness to practice.
Person Specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential
- Doctorate level training in clinical / counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996), including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical, psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan /developmental
- Undertaken training in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists.
- HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist.
Desirable
- Chartered Psychologist
- Undertaken relevant post-doctoral training in one or more relevant areas of psychological practice.
Experience
Essential
- Significant assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course 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 severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse, and the threat of physical abuse.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- Experience working in a multi-disciplinary setting.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
Desirable
- Experience of delivering supervision to non-psychology MDT staff.
- Experience of delivering psychological therapies within an occupational health context.
- Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
- Experience of working within a multi-cultural framework
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- High level of knowledge and skills in psychological therapies.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within clinical health psychology.
- Evidence of Continuing Professional Development.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management, frequently intense concentration requiring the use of highly developed analytic skills.
- Skills in individual and group work and programme planning.
- Excellent communication skills, able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information including contentious and highly distressing information to service users, their families / carers, and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, enabling formation of networks with professionals within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective team working with clients.
- IT skills to fulfil the duties of the job description.
Desirable
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
- Completed EMDR training.
Personal and Other Requirements
Essential
- Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from clients and families.
- Able to contain and work with organisational stress.
- Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult, volatile situations.
- Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information. Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
- Ability to clearly articulate the role of the profession of clinical psychology based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy.
- Demonstrates enthusiasm for service initiatives. Has a commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the service area.
- Ability to exercise appropriate levels of self-care and monitor own state, recognising when it is necessary to take active steps to maintain fitness to practice.
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).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
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).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
