Highly Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Highly Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist Band 8a / 7 preceptorship Main area: Adult Community Services
Grade: Band 8a / 7 preceptorship
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 294-COMM JB-B

Site: Springfield University Hospital
Town: London
Salary: £61,927 - £68,676 per annum inclusive of inner London HCAS
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 13/04/:59

South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We provide a full range of local mental health services to the Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth London boroughs, as well as specialist forensic mental health services, including specialised services such as national deaf adults and CAMHS inpatients and OCD.

We are committed to providing high quality integrated health and social care for local people with mental health problems in South West London and more specialist mental health services for people throughout the UK. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' however we aim to be 'outstanding'.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values; being consistent, compassionate, collaborative, respectful and open is at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is "making life better together".

When you join us, you'll be part of something special - an innovative and rapidly growing organisation that is helping to redefine the Mental Health, education and social care landscape in the UK.

As a Trust, we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview We are looking for two enthusiastic and experienced Highly Specialist Clinical/ Counselling Psychologists to join our South East Wandsworth Integrated Recovery Hubs. This is a multidisciplinary Integrated Recovery Hub in Wandsworth and provides specialist assessment, treatment and recovery work for adults with a wide variety of severe and enduring mental health difficulties.

The Trust has a strong commitment to the development of psychological work, and you will be part of a larger group of psychologists working in the service and will receive regular supervision from the borough psychology professional lead. There are good CPD opportunities within the Trust.

Main duties of the job You will be responsible for the provision of a systematic clinical psychology service within the context of a multidisciplinary team focusing on:

• Specialist psychological assessments
• Evidence based psychological interventions
• Teaching, training and consultation to MDT
• Service evaluation, audit and development
• Provide a training placement to a trainee clinical psychologist

The post is for a qualified clinical psychologist registered with the Health & Care Professions Council and who has at least 18 months post qualification experience. We will accept applications from applicants who may not have the required length of experience but may have significant relevant experience for a band 7 role.

Working for our organisation We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti-racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients' care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client's mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological 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 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 clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to client's formulation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA including clients, 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 clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

Person specification Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client 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
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Director of Psychology
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

Training & Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and (for Clinical Psychologists) neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology; OR alternative training outside of the UK that is recognised by the Health & Care Professions Council leading to registration in the UK as a Clinical or Counselling psychologist
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
• To be registered with the Health & Care Professions Council under the appropriate domain specific title
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology

Knowledge & Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g . click apply for full job details