Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

To provide a highly specialist psychology service to children and families at the BAU 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, functioning as a lead specialist in psychological assessment and treatment including particular therapeutic models such as CBT and behavioural interventions.

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/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments (including neuropsychological assessments), formulations and interventions for young people in the BAU including psychosis, eating disorders, personality disorders, learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders etc., at levels expected of a psychologist who has achieved the equivalent of a post graduate diploma-worth of post-qualification specialist development.

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 when required taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing care plans, CPA co-ordination and meetings.

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 BAU and the wider inpatient CAMHS service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology 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 research

To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to inpatient CAMHS.

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.

KR10 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 such as challenging behaviour, abuse etc and to support others involved in such situations.

There may be some requirement to work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or Saturday working, within the overall Job Plan.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• oDoctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration
• oAdditional training in a specialised area of psychological practice e.g. CBT or DBT or in child neuropsychology through formal post-qualification 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

Experience

Essential

• oEvidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in CAMHS and/or within an inpatient setting.
• oExperience of supervising assistant and/or trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training

Skills

Essential

• oTo 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.
• oAbility 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.
• oTo be skilled in the administration of psychometric and neuropsychological tests, including those that require complex manipulation of test materials.

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

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Bethlem Adolescent Unit, Bethlem Royal Hospital

Monk Orchard Road

Beckenham

BR3 3BX

Employer's website

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