Full Time = 37.5 Hours Per Week

Are you passionate about supporting people with learning disabilities and committed to improving their quality of life?

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical Psychologist to join the Kirklees Community Learning Disability Team on a temporary 12-month contract, to cover maternity leave.

Our well-established team serves the whole of the Kirklees area and includes psychiatry, clinical psychology, learning disability nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech & language therapy, dietetics, and healthcare support staff. The team works together to support adults with learning disabilities and their families/carers across Kirklees.

This post involves direct assessment, formulation and intervention work with service users, as well as indirect working with families, carers and staff teams. You will also be involved in audit, service development and clinical governance.

To discuss this post please contact Dr Nicola Roberts, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, on 07917 552412.

Main duties of the job

For this post, we are looking for candidates who demonstrate a positive attitude to working with PWLD and a commitment to promoting a high quality of life for this client group. Interest and/or experience in undertaking therapeutic assessments and interventions with PWLD, with or without autism, would be an advantage.

The post holder will have opportunities for engaging in service development, teaching/training, practice-based research and CPD. The successful candidate will be supported by the Trust to undertake accredited specialist training, if needed. The Trust offers flexible/hybrid working, and staff are supported to work agilely.

To support you, we offer a robust supervision framework and offer clinical and leadership development programs, as well as a range of continuing professional development opportunities, from one-day workshops to fully accredited courses.

The Team works closely with the Leeds Clinical Psychology Doctorate programme and regularly take trainees on placement.

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect patients

About us

We are a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental health and learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and are the lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission is to help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do this by providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employ staff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make a difference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourage and welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we value diversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Being a foundation Trust means were accountable to our members, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people (including staff) are members of our Trust.

Join us and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improving the mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet and help each year.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.

We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.

Job description

Job responsibilities

This job description is an outline of the main duties of the post. The postholder will be required to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade as directed. The content of this post will be reviewed in consultation with the postholder when necessary and in line with the service developments.

JOB PURPOSE:

The post holder will provide a high quality specialist clinical psychology service to clients as part of the multidisciplinary team within the service.

Provide highly specialist psychological assessment and intervention.

Provide advice and consultation on psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues, and other, non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines, and the overall framework of the team and trusts policies and procedures.

Supervise and support Psychology Assistants, Trainees and Band 7 HCPC Registered Clinical Psychologists.

To utilise research skills for audit, policy, service development and research within the areas served by the team/service.

JOB DIMENSIONS:

(e.g. budgetary or supervisory responsibilities)

To offer consultation and supervision when required by other agencies involved in the psychological, emotional and behavioural well-being of serive users

To provide supervision of Band 7 Clinical Psychologists, doctoral level clinical psychology trainees, assistant psychologists and trainees from other disciplines as appropriate.

KEY RESULT AREAS:

Clinical

To provide highly specialist psychological assessment and treatment for service users experiencing moderate, severe and complex mental health/psychological problems 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 observation and semi-structured interviews with service users, their family and/or carers.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological intervention and/or management of mental health/psychological and/or behavioural difficulties based upon an appropriate conceptual framework and exercising expert clinical judgement based on the highest standards of evidence based practice across a full range of care settings.

To establish rapport and build effective working relationships with service users and all those involved in their psychological, emotional and behavioural well-being.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes.

To work jointly with other team members and professionals in delivering the most appropriate clinical service to service users and, where appropriate, their families/carers.

To follow appropriate local Safeguarding Adults and Children policies in all clinical work, including close liaison with all relevant agencies.

To provide specialist risk assessment of, and intervention to, service users who may present in local acute settings in line with agreed procedures

To liaise and consult with the wider professional network in the care of service users, offering consultation and supervision where necessary.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychological interventions and to autonomously manage a caseload of clients.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users, the settings in which they present, and agencies involved in the psychological, emotional and behavioural well-being.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to effectively evaluate progress.

To participate in the multi-disciplinary assessment and treatment of service users.

Teaching, Training, Consultation and Supervision

1. To receive regular professional supervision from a Senior HCPC Registered Clinical Psychologist and where appropriate, other Senior Clinicians.

2. To continue to access continuing professional development opportunities in line with agreed targets and agreed personal development plan up to one session per week (pro rata).

3. To assist in providing supervision to Band 7 HCPC Registered Clinical Psychologists, doctoral level Clinical Psychology trainees, trainees from other disciplines as appropriate, and assistant/graduate psychologists to ensure that they acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good mental health care of Service users and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.

4. To contribute to advice, consultation, teaching and training of professionals from all agencies concerned with the psychological, emotional and behavioural well-being of service users in community and in-patient settings as appropriate.

Research, Audit and Evaluation

1. To use doctoral level research skills for audit and evaluation in relation to relevant aspects of the Service.

2. To contribute to research in the service area.

3. To utilise theory, evidence based literature and research to support evidence based practice of self and others.

4. To provide advice on research projects to other staff within the service around appropriate methodology, statistical analysis, etc.

5. To undertake project management as required to aid service development.

6. To follow appropriate ethical and professional standards and research governance procedures when conducting relevant research, audit and evaluation.

For full Job Description, please see the attached in ' Supporting Information'.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient 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.
• Frequent, protracted sustained and intense concentration.
• Show respect and treat people with dignity.
• Be able to give bad news sensitively.
• Be able to sustain empathy in difficult situations.
• Be aware of all interviewees in any situation.

Desirable

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of groupwork.

TRAINING

Essential

• Completion of formal training to meet eligibility as clinical supervisor of Doctoral Trainee Clinical Psychologists.

Qualifications

Essential

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
• Significant Post qualification experience in a Setting relevant to the post
• HCPC Registration as a Clinical Psychologist.

SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS

Essential

• Good Psychometric Assessment skills.
• Experience of assisting in training of Post Graduate Clinical Psychology Trainees.
• Exceptional communication skills in verbal, non verbal and written modes.
• Ability to empathise and develop good therapeutic alliance .
• Ability to Formulate Complex processes.
• Capacity to conduct Psychometric Assessment.
• Ability to travel around the Trust as appropriate to the role.
• Keyboard skills.
• Manual Dexterity for conducting tests.

Desirable

• Working with people in Crisis.
• Working on an in-patient Psychiatric ward.

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Essential

• Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where
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