Specialist [Applied] Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

To provide a specialist psychology service to children, young people, and their families in Harrow, 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 the policies and procedures of the service, taking responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions with support of clinical supervisor

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To provide specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the Emotional Disorders Team at Harrow CAMHS.

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 act as care co-ordinator, taking responsibility for initiating, planning, and reviewing care plans, co-ordination and attending professionals meetings as appropriate.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

To contribute to the effective working of the 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 liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

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

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

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 an assistant psychologist if required, under supervision from a more senior psychologist.

To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism after completion of the relevant Training Courses Supervision Training.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

To provide occasional specialist training in psychological approaches to care to other professions as appropriate.

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 undertake regular complex service evaluation, audits or research relevant to service needs.

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 home visits, community placements, psychology 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 and to support others involved in such situations.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuro-psychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies development psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• OR A registered qualification in health care at graduate level in nursing, social work or allied health profession PLUS post- graduate qualification (diploma equivalent) i.e., cognitive behaviour therapy
• To be registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) or equivalent i.e., BACP

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology

Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and formulation of complex mental health presentations including Trauma presentations.
• Experience of working psychologically with people who have complex mental health problems, including trauma and personality disorder
• Experience of teaching, training and supervision of staff
• Experience of skills in group work.
• Experience of work with care - givers/families
• To be able to conduct routine assessments of IQ and memory screening.
• 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 working in MDT settings in particular the demonstrated ability to work jointly in assessment interventions with multidisciplinary team members .
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Experience in the use of risk assessment and the management of risk and crisis

Desirable

• Experience of working in an NHS community mental health settings in secondary and tertiary care.

Knowledge

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessment and intervention for people with mental health presentations
• Well developed skills in the ability to work and communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and to other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Knowledge of current developments and policies relevant to mental health services.
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Sound time management skills
• Sound IT skills to manage an electronic case record.

Desirable

• Knowledge of legislation and NICE guidance in relation to this client group
• Knowledge of clinical caseload management within a team setting
• Skills in providing consultation and supervision to other professional and non - professional groups and assistants.

Key Skills/Abilities

Essential

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi -media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Valid drivers licence and the ability to drive to different bases.

Desirable

• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.

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

Harrow CAMHS, Ash Tree Clinic

322 Northolt Road

Harrow

HA2 8EQ

Employer's website

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