Senior Clinical Psychologist / Psychological Therapist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical

To provide highly specialist psychotherapy assessments to service users referred to the Team, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in the persons care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment/ psychotherapy implementation and/or management of a service users problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the persons problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across a full range of care settings.

To work on a daily basis in face-to-face individual, family and/or in group therapy settings with service users presenting with highly complex and distressing psychological problems.

To be responsible for implementing a range of specialist psychotherapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of different provisional hypotheses.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of service users whose problems are managed by psychotherapy based standard care plans.

To provide highly specialist psychological/psychotherapeutic advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals (both psychologists/psychotherapists and non-psychologists) contributing directly to service users formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all users of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the service user group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual service users and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

To coordinate, where appropriate, complex intervention plans, taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviews of plans, and including service users, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of service users under their care and to monitor progress during both the course of uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision in accordance with professional practice HCPC, BPS/BABCP/RCN, UKCP or other accrediting organisation as required e.g. ACAT and Trust guidelines.

To provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work, as appropriate.

To provide supervision for trainee psychological therapists/clinical psychologists (as appropriate)

To provide clinical supervision to less experienced qualified clinical psychologists/psychotherapists, counsellors, assistant(s), or other professionals

To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of psychotherapy/clinical psychology.

To provide highly specialised advice, consultation and training to staff (including psychotherapists, clinical psychologists and non-psychologists) working with the service user group across a range of agencies and settings.

Management, Recruitment, Policy, Organisational and Service Development

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of aspects of the teams clinical practice through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

To contribute to the governance of psychotherapy practice within their own team by developing and collecting relevant measures of outcome and audit and to provide consultation to other health and social care professionals to enable them to develop their own effective systems of governance.

To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant psychologists and other more junior staff and other recruitment where appropriate.

To manage the work of assistant psychologists and other psychological therapists where appropriate within the framework of the team/services policies and procedures.

To manage any waiting lists within the team and participate as a senior clinician in the allocation of cases taking into account skill mix and caseload. To respond to referrals, making autonomous professional and clinical judgements based upon complex information, prioritising accordingly and contributing to multidisciplinary decision making.

To implement the policies and propose changes to working practices/procedures concerning professional good practice for the provision of psychotherapy services as applicable to the Team in order to ensure the highest standards of service to the service user group.

To propose policy or service changes which impact beyond own area of activity by participation in Trust working parties and other local development groups.

Research and Service Evaluation

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

To supervise DClinPsy/Psychotherapists research projects as appropriate.

To supervise the research activities of assistant psychologists where appropriate

To initiate, undertake and supervise project management, service evaluations and complex audits with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.

To disseminate research findings through publications and conference presentations.

Working Environment

To provide psychotherapeutic care to service users and their carers in the least restrictive and least stigmatising environment.

The job role will involve working alone in situations where there may be some risk of verbal or physical aggression from service users, carers, and the general public.

General Requirements

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post-holders professional and service manager(s).

To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychotherapy across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal, and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology/psychotherapy and related disciplines.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the HCPC, BPS, UKCP and other accrediting organisations (e.g. ACAT, EMDR Association) as appropriate and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues.

To attend and contribute to relevant professional meetings.

To develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues within Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust and in the statutory and voluntary services with the aim of promoting high standards of care and clinical practice

To maintain professional registration as a Psychological Therapist/Clinical Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council and to maintain accreditation as required/appropriate with other accrediting organisations

Person Specification

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• oSkills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• oWell-developed, high-level skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• oSkills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• oEvidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC, UKCP, BABCP or other accreditation body as appropriate.

Desirable

• oHigh level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies in the context of issues associated with diagnoses of Mood, Anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders e.g. CAT, CBT/CBT for trauma, EMDR etc.

Qualifications

Essential

• Professional qualification in clinical psychology or psychotherapy
• oFull accreditation and registration with the relevant professional body related to the psychotherapeutic training e.g. HCPC, BPS, BABCP/BACP/UKCP or other body, dependent upon therapeutic modality.
• oAdditional and relevant accredited psychotherapeutic training relevant to an informed clinical model including CBT, CAT, EMDR, psychodynamic or other psychotherapy qualification.

Experience

Essential

• oSignificant experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users with difficulties associated with a diagnosis of anxiety, mood disorders and/or PTSD/complex trauma, using a limited-limited therapy intervention.
• oExperience of working with a wide variety of service user groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.

Desirable

• oExperience of providing supervision

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

Sheffield Health Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Address

The Fitzwilliam Centre

143-145 Fitzwilliam Street

Sheffield

S1 4JP

Employer's website

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