Consultant Psychologist in Learning Disabilities

Consultant Psychologist in Learning Disabilities

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Bolton community learning disability team in our consultant psychologist role. The successful applicant will join our integrated learning disability team; a team of health and social care professionals who work jointly to provide assessment, support and health or social care interventions to adults with learning disabilities.

The post holder will offer psychological assessments, formulations and treatment plans for adults with learning disabilities who may have highly complex psychological needs. The post holder will have professional and managerial responsibility for the specialist psychology resource and will lead on the strategic development of psychology services within the community learning disability team.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will have the skills required to coordinate the delivery of highly specialised psychological assessments, therapeutic interventions and risk assessments with individuals who may have highly complex psychological needs. These needs may include autism spectrum conditions, mental health needs and/or distress behaviours. You will be able to interpret complex data from a variety of sources, including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self report measures, rating scales, observations and semi structured interviews with individuals, their carers or family members. As professional lead, you will have the management and leadership skills required to support the team to delivery high quality service, meeting established key performance indicators and with a focus on continued service development. You will offer clinical supervision to clinical or counselling psychologists within the team and oversee the delivery of supervision to psychology assistants.

About us

The community learning disability team is a friendly team of health and social care professionals, working in partnership to deliver the highest quality health and social care interventions for adults with learning disabilities.

The team is hosted by Bolton council and based at Farnworth Town Hall. Health workers maintain NHS employment and retain all the benefits of working for the Foundation Trust. We aim to provide high quality support to our workforce, valuing regular, quality supervisions, annual appraisals with a continued focus on professional development.

Job responsibilities

The successful candidate will be required to coordinate the allocation of specialised psychological assessments for adults with learning disabilities who have been referred into the service via our open referral system. The psychology team offer specialist assessments, formulations and treatment plans, employing a range of psychological interventions, some of which will be adapted to meet individual need. There is an ongoing requirement to evaluate treatment options, taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models. The role includes responsibility for offering specialist psychological advice and consultation to members of the multi-disciplinary team to inform practice across the service. The consultant psychologist will lead on specialist risk assessments and risk management for individual clients, also providing advice and support to other professionals on the psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management. Our work is community based, therefore you will need to be able to travel to and from visits within the community.

Person Specification Qualifications

• Good honours degree in psychology with graduate membership of BPS
• Post graduate doctorate in clinical psychology (or equivalent)
• HCPC Registered
• Chartered Status with BPS and membership of the division of clinical psychology

Experience

• Extensive post qualification experience of working with adults with LD
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team
• Supervision and consultation work with other health and social care professionals
• Experience of working with offenders with LD
• Experience of working with people who have been detained under MHA

Skills

• Skilled in application of theory to clinical practice.
• Ability to think creatively in relation to complex clinical issues
• Willingness to consider new ideas and lead implementation of these
• Research and Evaluation skills
• Excellent communication skills, oral and written.
• Able to utilise a range of therapeutic interventions

Knowledge

• Knowledge of DoH legislation in relation to people with LD and its implications for clinical practice.
• Excellent working knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act
• Excellent knowledge of clinical governance and risk management

Travel

• Ability to travel for work purposes

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.