Clinical Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

To provide a highly specialist psychology service to adults with complex and enduring mental health problems in the community, including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.

To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.

To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate.

To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.

To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.

To agree outcomes with clinical lead and to decide how they are best achieved.

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the Community Mental Health Hub presenting with psychosis, bipolar affective disorder, complex emotional needs, recurrent depression, complex PTSD and neurodiversity.

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

To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

To complete DIALOG+ care plans.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.

To contribute to the team or services delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.

To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.

To advise other members of the service 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.

KR 3 Policy and service development

To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.

To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.

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

KR 4 Care or management of resources

To take care of, and use carefully, the Trusts equipment and physical resources.

To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Management and supervision

To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists with support from a more senior psychologist.

To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.

To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

To provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and adult mental health, and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.

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

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

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

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

KR 8 Research and development

To initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits.

To initiate and carry out appropriate

To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.

To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC Standards for Continuing Professional Development.

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 HCPC Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and Standards of Proficiency, and ensure professional development in line with these.

To adhere to the BPSs Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

KR 10 General

To travel to other locations in the Borough 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 and to support others involved in such situations.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology or its equivalent (for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS
• Additional training in a specialised area of psychological practice through formal postqualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses, or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma.
• Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC

Desirable

• Completed training course in clinical supervision

Experience

Essential

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in a Community Mental Health Hub, CMHT or similar complex care service working with patients with complexity and co-morbidity.
• Post-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities
• Experience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in Adult Mental Health
• Experience of carrying out post-doctoral research, audit or service evaluation projects

Desirable

• Experience of supervising other mental health staff.

Skills

Essential

• To deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences
• To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information. (
• To plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, and for meetings such as CPAs and case reviews
• To plan allocation of tasks to assistant psychologists
• To be skilled in the administration of psychometric and neuropsychological tests, including those that require complex manipulation of test materials
• Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data

Knowledge

Essential

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for Adult Mental Health
• Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.
• Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
• Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care

Abilities

Essential

• Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings
• Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these.
• Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour.
• Ability to manage verbal aggression and hostility directed at self.

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

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

South Kensington and Chelsea Mental Health Centre

1 Nightingale Place

London

SW10 9NG

Employer's website

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