Clinical or Counselling Psychologist or Psychotherapist

Job responsibilities

Clinical and Client Care

To provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention for patients with cancer across all sectors of cancer care at ICHT

To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred patients when required and as appropriate.

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

To act as liaison on the patient pathway, between the acute hospital, primary care and community services as necessary for the psychological well-being of the patient

Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

To contribute to the effective working of the Psycho-oncology service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.

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

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

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.

Care or management of resources

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

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.

To offer supervision and consultation to non-psychological staff working in cancer services in ICHT

Teaching and Training

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

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

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.

Research and development

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

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.

General

To travel to meetings at ICHT and CNWL as appropriate and when required.

To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour 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.

Where relevant and by agreement with line manager to work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or Saturday working, within the overall Job Plan.

Qualifications and Training

Essential

• Doctorate or equivalent in Clinical or Counselling Psychology or equivalent Psychotherapy qualification
• Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist or UKCP as a Psychotherapist.

Desirable

• Training in 3rd wave therapies
• Knowledge and experience of time-limited NHS psychology services
• Specialist training or experience in the field of clinical health psychology
• Specialist training in trauma-informed therapeutic approaches

Experience

Essential

• Experience of psychological assessment and support of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature
• Experience of work in health psychology or other relevant area
• Experience of NHS (or other public health / third sector) multidisciplinary teamwork
• Experience of supervised psychological practice in NHS (or other public health / third sector) settings
• Experience of using and communicating advanced psychological formulations
• Experience of working in different cultural contexts and / or working with diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and / or lived experience.
• Experience of receiving clinical supervision across a range of client needs
• Experience of developing and carrying out research projects and / or audit
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC / BABCP/ UKCP

Desirable

• Experience of supporting patients with trauma, especially in relation to physical health conditions or experiences that might affect the treatment and management of a physical health condition
• Experience of using routine outcome monitoring for the purposes of service evaluation
• Experience of working within cancer, oncology and/or haematology psychology services
• Experience of working with interpreters
• Experience of providing psychological support for people who are socially disadvantaged
• Experience of facilitating groups
• Experience of teaching, training, supervision and consultation

Knowledge

Essential

• Theoretical knowledge of psychological processes that are relevant to physical health conditions
• Knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics.
• Understanding of staff responsibilities and an ongoing commitment to promoting Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion within the NHS informed by the Equality Act 2010
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to mental health, child and adult safeguarding, including knowledge of information governance.
• Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the literature concerning common psychological issues in oncology, cancer and haematology patient groups
• Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups working in acute care
• An ability to work effectively, efficiently and independently to manage high clinical caseloads in a safe and effective manner
• 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 work
• Ability to undertake audit and evaluation
• Good communication skills, psychological insight and a warm empathic manner
• Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory difficulties, language barriers and emotional distress.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate through written means complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information
• Able to suitably adapt and sensitively deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data.

Desirable

• Ability to work creatively, cooperatively, reliably and consistently both independently and in multidisciplinary settings
• Able to select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources.

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).