Job summary
South Tees NHS has an exciting opportunity for a Director of Medical Psychology.
To act as the Chief Psychological Professions Officer (CPPO) for the Trust, liaising with the National Clinical Lead for the Psychological Professions at NHSE as required to keep up to date with developments in the profession and to support the Trust to implement national policies and programmes of work.
Please note that this vacancy will close when we receive sufficient completed applications.
Main duties of the job
To provide operational, clinical and professional leadership for Medical Psychology and the clinicians working within the service.
To provide assurance to the Trust that all professions working within Medical Psychology are registered with the relevant statutory / regulatory body and are compliant with the required standards of practice.
To provide assurance to the Trust that clinical interventions are delivered in line with national clinical guidelines and practice standards as defined by relevant professional bodies.
To assist the Trust in understanding the psychological needs of medical patients, to lead in the development of strategies and policies that meet those needs, and to develop business cases to provide psychological services to support those needs.
About us
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust offers leadership and improvement training to all new staff to the Trust; this training programme has been designed to support our leaders in developing their understanding of leadership and management skills. You will be expected to attend the leadership development programme, and the Quality Improvement Programme that the Trust delivers. This programme aims to:
- Explore leadership within the NHS
- Promote Trust Values and Behaviours
- Develop your Leadership effectiveness and skills
- Practitioner level in quality improvement, equipping you with the skills to champion, lead and complete quality improvement within your role
After you complete this four and a half days of training you will be able to explore further leadership and improvement training opportunities, we offer further in-house courses dependent upon your role and bitesize programmes and leadership apprenticeships at level 3,5 and 7.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the full job description and person specification document(s) for main responsibilities of the role.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the full job description and person specification document(s) for main responsibilities of the role.
Person Specification
Knowledge & Skills
Essential
- Ability to demonstrate authentic, compassionate and effective leadership skills.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Advanced skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and management, frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Understanding of how psychological factors affect health and delivery of health care services.
- Knowledge of relevant legislation relevant to client groups and the healthcare system.
- Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the safe delivery of clinical services.
- Skills in developing and critically evaluating services and implementing proposals to improve them both in terms of efficacy and cost effectiveness.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Knowledge of NHS financial processes and budget management.
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies working with medical patients
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the BPS and HCPC (including accessing clinical supervision and maintaining knowledge and skills relevant to the role).
Qualifications & training
Essential
- Minimum psychology degree 2:1
- 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 psychology.
- Registration with the HCPC as a clinical or counselling psychologist.
- Post-doctoral training and experience in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists, counselling psychologists or health psychologists
- Further training in a specialised area of psychological practice relevant to working with medical patients, through formal post-doctoral training or a combination of specialist short courses (e.g. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).
- Doctorate level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the fields of applied psychology
Experience
Essential
- Experience of participating at a senior level in an NHS or health care organisation
- Understanding of NHS management processes/systems and substantial experience in taking a lead on projects/services within the NHS.
- Experience of service and quality improvement.
- Experience of operationally managing and delivering a psychological service within fixed resources (e.g. capacity and demand) that is compliant with relevant performance indicators (e.g. waiting times).
- Experience of line managing staff.
- Experience of managing budgets.
- Experience of clinically leading a team of psychological professionals.
- Experience of professional oversight and professional supervision of the psychological professions.
- Experience of working as a consultant psychologist in an MDT (including consultation).
- 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, inpatient and residential care settings.
- Experience of working with a variety of health conditions presenting with the full range of clinical severity.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as an individual practitioner and also within the context of multidisciplinary care.
- Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
- Experience of multi-agency working.
- Experience of clinical teaching and training.
Desirable
- Experience of work with commissioners and stakeholders including preparation of bids/business cases.
- Relevant national role/links (e.g. BPS; PPN; BPS/ACP national assessors; CQC; etc)
Personal Attributes
Essential
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills (verbal, non-verbal and written) when communicating highly technical and sensitive information to patients, carers, members of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) and other professional colleagues, both within and outside the NHS, including situations where there are barriers to communication.
- Ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal and physical abuse.
Desirable
- Enthusiasm for the application of psychology within medical settings, and the ability to articulate the value added by psychology to patients and staff in these services and to outside agencies.
Person Specification
Knowledge & Skills
Essential
- Ability to demonstrate authentic, compassionate and effective leadership skills.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Advanced skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and management, frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Understanding of how psychological factors affect health and delivery of health care services.
- Knowledge of relevant legislation relevant to client groups and the healthcare system.
- Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the safe delivery of clinical services.
- Skills in developing and critically evaluating services and implementing proposals to improve them both in terms of efficacy and cost effectiveness.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Knowledge of NHS financial processes and budget management.
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies working with medical patients
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the BPS and HCPC (including accessing clinical supervision and maintaining knowledge and skills relevant to the role).
Qualifications & training
Essential
- Minimum psychology degree 2:1
- 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 psychology.
- Registration with the HCPC as a clinical or counselling psychologist.
- Post-doctoral training and experience in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists, counselling psychologists or health psychologists
- Further training in a specialised area of psychological practice relevant to working with medical patients, through formal post-doctoral training or a combination of specialist short courses (e.g. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).
- Doctorate level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the fields of applied psychology
Experience
Essential
- Experience of participating at a senior level in an NHS or health care organisation
- Understanding of NHS management processes/systems and substantial experience in taking a lead on projects/services within the NHS.
- Experience of service and quality improvement.
- Experience of operationally managing and delivering a psychological service within fixed resources (e.g. capacity and demand) that is compliant with relevant performance indicators (e.g. waiting times).
- Experience of line managing staff.
- Experience of managing budgets.
- Experience of clinically leading a team of psychological professionals.
- Experience of professional oversight and professional supervision of the psychological professions.
- Experience of working as a consultant psychologist in an MDT (including consultation).
- 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, inpatient and residential care settings.
- Experience of working with a variety of health conditions presenting with the full range of clinical severity.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as an individual practitioner and also within the context of multidisciplinary care.
- Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
- Experience of multi-agency working.
- Experience of clinical teaching and training.
Desirable
- Experience of work with commissioners and stakeholders including preparation of bids/business cases.
- Relevant national role/links (e.g. BPS; PPN; BPS/ACP national assessors; CQC; etc)
Personal Attributes
Essential
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills (verbal, non-verbal and written) when communicating highly technical and sensitive information to patients, carers, members of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) and other professional colleagues, both within and outside the NHS, including situations where there are barriers to communication.
- Ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal and physical abuse.
Desirable
- Enthusiasm for the application of psychology within medical settings, and the ability to articulate the value added by psychology to patients and staff in these services and to outside agencies.
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).