Highly Specialist Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist (Band 8a / Band 7 Preceptorship)

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 8a Highly Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to provide psychological expertise within Newham Centre for Mental Health (NCMH). We welcome applications from newly/early qualified psychologists, who could be appointed at band 7 under a preceptorship to work towards requirements for band 8a, subject to satisfactory completion of preceptorship process.

Previous experience working in acute services and/or a considered appreciation of the role of psychology within these settings are highly desirable. Job share and flexible working options are available within this role.

About the Directorate & Service:

Newham Mental Health Directorate provides opportunities for creativity and innovation in service development and delivery. This is an exciting opportunity as the role serves a diverse population of service users accessing both acute and community services.

The acute psychology service aims to provide a high quality, equitable and culturally competent service to people with acute and highly complex needs. We look forward to welcoming the successful candidate their ideas, passions and aspirations into our team.

Main duties of the job

You will be responsible for providing psychological expertise to two acute psychiatric wards through individual and group therapy sessions, staff consultation, reflective practice, supervision and teaching.

This is an exciting role that includes a broad range of service leadership development opportunities such as leadership of service delivery. Newham has embarked on an inpatient Quality Improvement project which you will be encouraged to join. Your views and ideas would be valued in the development, delivery and leadership of this project. You will also be part of staff development initiatives, trauma-informed care training and supervision.

You will be encouraged to explore clinical and/or research CPD activity of your choice which could involve working with the local specialist psychotherapy service offering individual and/or group interventions within CBT, integrative, psychodynamic and systemic modalities.

All research opportunities are encouraged on-site through our close links with the Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry (Queen Mary University of London). This is a globally-renowned centre for social psychiatry research which supports small and large-scale projects, including multi-centre randomised controlled trials.

The Trust has embraced flexible working and encourages a hybrid way of working that is within the scope of the role. Thus we are keen to explore working-from-home opportunities, particularly for in-direct aspects of this role.

About us

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Kindly refer to the job description and person specification that is attached to the vacancy profile.

Person Specification

Education/ Qualification/Training

Essential

• Doctorate in Clinical/ Counselling Psychology or equivalence and able to demonstrate eligibility for BPS.
• HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist

Desirable

• Further training or qualifications in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
• Clinical supervision training for doctoral psychology trainees
• Quality Improvement Training.

Experience

Essential

• Post-qualification experience as a practitioner psychologist or equivalent.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the range of care settings, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the treat of physical abuse.
• Experience of providing teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
• Experience in working in multidisciplinary settings and representing a psychological perspective in teams and services

Desirable

• Experience of working as a psychologist in an inpatient setting
• . Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists.
• Experience in the recruitment of psychology staff.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience in contributing to service development, redesign and improvements in secondary mental health services

Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, psychometrics and neuropsychology
• Able to draw upon a broad theoretical knowledge base in the analysis of highly complex facts and situations, requiring sustained and intense concentration, to arrive at appropriate formulation and compare and select from a range of treatment options. Skills in two or more distinct psychological therapies.
• An in depth knowledge and skills in applying clinical risk assessment and management in own and others' clinical caseload
• Able to use highly specialist skills of empathy to overcome barriers to understanding and acceptance
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by BPS/ HCPC
• Able to plan, organise and prioritise own workload in the face of periods of competing demands.
• Able to plan, support and guide the workload of staff under supervisory responsibility.
• Must be capable of accountability for own work, of autonomous clinical practice, of being guided by precedent and of working towards defined results.
• Up to date knowledge of psychological research and national guidance relevant to the delivery of secondary mental health services.
• Aware of the potential impact of discrimination & disadvantage on mental health.

Desirable

• Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books.
• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and delivery of specialised psychological practice relevant to a secondary mental health setting (e.g. psychosis, personality disorder, complex trauma).

Personal

Essential

• Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery and an ability to articulate the value added by clinical psychology services within the context of multi-disciplinary mental health services.
• Able to contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others.
• Able to sit in constrained positions for a substantial proportion of working time.
• Able to concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact, teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc.
• Able to manage effectively frequent exposure to highly distressing/highly emotional circumstances and exposure to traumatic circumstances.

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

East London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Newham Centre for Mental Health

Cherry Tree Way, Glen Road

London

E13 8SP

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

363-NEW5040943