Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist NHS AfC: Band 8b

Main area: Adult Autism Service

Grade: NHS AfC: Band 8b

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

• Full time
• Part time

Job ref: 395-BD165-24-B

Site: Broad Street Health Centre

Town: Dagenham

Salary: £62,215 - £72,293 Plus HCAS per annum (pro rata for part time)

Salary period: Yearly

Closing date: 24/02/:59

Joining means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award-winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients.

Job overview

We are seeking to appoint a Principal Psychologist to join the Adult Autism team. The Psychologist should enjoy working with other professionals, have experience of active multidisciplinary participation, and work to integrate psychological mindedness with assessment, formulation, and intervention as a core component of the post. This role will require knowledge, experience, and skills in triaging new patient referrals, neuropsychological assessment and diagnostics, and clinical management of adults presenting on the Neurodevelopmental pathway. The post holder should have experience and a good understanding of cognitive factors impacting recovery and rehabilitation.

The post holder will undertake service evaluation, audit, research, and policy development if required. They will work as an autonomous professional within HCPC and BPS guidelines and codes of conduct. He/she will be guided by principles, systems, and procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters in delivery of defined outcomes.

The post holder will have clinical expertise working psychologically within physical health care settings and/or neuropsychology settings. Experience is required in clinical assessment, interventions, and signposting. The postholder will manage one's own caseload, undertake risk assessment/management, and individual/group psychology programmes in a timely and professional manner.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will support the autism team by:

• Participating in the development and implementation of high standards of clinical care ensuring the service provided is needs led, compliant with national guidance, and is viewed positively by service users.
• Contributing to the strategic development and transformation of Specialist Adult autism services in NELFT and maintenance of high-level quality of delivery of therapeutic provision across the borough.
• Deputising for the Deputy Director of Psychological Professions including complex clinical cases, leadership, line management, and service development.
• Conducting high quality assessments, treatments, and systematic outcome measurement in the specialist Autism care pathway.
• Supporting delivery of complex specialist psychological assessment, intervention, and support service for service users referred within the specialist care pathway.
• Providing specialist consultation and clinical input to complex cases presenting with significant distress associated with autism with co-morbid psychosis, anxiety, mood disorders, such as depression, forensic involvement, and enduring difficulties that may have been given the diagnosis of 'personality disorder' across the directorate.

Person specification Qualifications

• Post-graduate qualification in clinical or counselling psychology
• Additional specialist post-graduate training relevant to this population (e.g. ADOS, AAA, modified therapy for autism etc) /Research in this field
• Additional specialist training in neurodiverse focused interventions (e.g. Narrative Exposure Therapy, EMDR etc) or in Neuropsychology
• Professional registration with the appropriate body (e.g. HCPC) as Practitioner Psychologist

Experience

• A thorough knowledge of evidence-based clinical practice and a commitment to keeping abreast of new evidence-based practice developments in psychology and those specific to Adult Autism
• Experience of working with high levels of risk and severe mental health difficulties
• Experience of applying NICE compliant therapies relevant to the target population (e.g. CBT-modified, Anxiety and depression, CBT or DBT for personality disorders)
• Extensive knowledge and experience with working with safeguarding issues, issues concerning forensic risk, and highly complex mental health problems

Knowledge

• Expert knowledge of evidence-based psychological treatments for autism
• Well-developed knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention, and management
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing

Skills

• An ability to work autonomously, setting appropriate goals, in accordance with professional ethics guidelines and Trust policies
• Ability to manage working in situations of conflict and with multiple sources of stress

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically.

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions, and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work-life balance, through flexible working opportunities.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part-time hours or another flexible pattern.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.