This role is the Deputy Lead Clinical/Counselling Psychologist for CNWL Community Perinatal Mental Health Services. The Deputy Lead supports the Lead Psychologist with the leadership, development and management of the psychological therapy provision for the four community teams serving Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Hillingdon and Brent and Harrow Boroughs.

The Psychological Therapies Team for PMHS are currently focusing on developing the following cross-service initiatives in their teams:

- - Trauma-Informed Care implementation of the Power Threat Meaning Framework Formulation sessions

- - To develop a Systemic Therapy offer across our services

- - Access to mental health and psychological therapies promoting equity of access to our services to engage and support people from a diverse breadth of backgrounds and needs.

- - Developing and delivering the therapeutic models outlined through the LTP for PMHS services by adapting and tailoring therapeutic models to ensure that they hold both mother and baby in mind throughout.

-To hold in mind the findings of the MMBRACE report and ensure that our teams are proactively working in a psychologically sensitive way with awareness of these issues and the impact they have on the women we aim to support.

- To develop the safeguarding pathway for working with complex cases.

Main duties of the job

To work as part of the psychological leadership team to contribute to the development of the therapy pathways for our services. We are particularly keen to interview clinical/counselling psychologists who are trained in systemic therapy, have BABCP accreditation for delivering CBT, EMDR and/or DBT as we are looking for a psychologist who would be interested in leading on these models for the service. To contribute centrally to the systematic provision of a high quality, highly specialist perinatal clinical psychology and perinatal psychotherapy service to clients of the CNWL perinatal service, across all sectors of care. To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a deputy lead specialist in perinatal mental health.

To supervise and support the psychological assessment and treatment of patients provided by the psychologists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care and evidence-based treatments which are adapted to the needs of perinatal patients. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service and teams.

To conduct, promote and facilitate audit and research within the perinatal field.

To deputise in the absence of the Consultant Perinatal specialist clinical psychologist.

To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the team/service

About us

CNWL perinatal mental health services consist of four community PMHS teams, a specialist maternity trauma and loss care team and Coombe Wood Mother and Baby Unit. These teams are multi-disciplinary with psychological therapies, art therapies, occupational therapists, social workers, nursery nurses, nurses and medics. We are focused on developing clear frameworks, structures and pathways for the delivery of CBT, DBT, EMDR, VIG and Circle of Trust interventions.

The aim of these teams is to detect, prevent and treat perinatal mental health problems and to improve the experience of pregnancy and the postpartum period for women and their families. The mother, infant and family are all at the centre of the care delivered.

We are looking for applicants for a Band 8b deputy lead clinical psychologist who will be in a position of leadership within our perinatal services Tuesday-Thursday 9am-5pm. We are looking for motivated and committed clinical psychologists who are passionate to lead the development of psychological therapies and the therapy pathways within our perinatal mental health services. We are particularly interested in applicants who are either interested in training in Systemic Therapy or have started their systemic therapy training, and/or interested in leading CBT or EMDR provision (and BABCP) accredited and also psychologists who are experienced of working within a trauma informed care framework.

Job description

Job responsibilities

To provide clinical leadership and supervision for a group of specialist perinatal clinical psychologists and psychological therapists who deliver care and support for women in the perinatal period, to include their families and carer networks across the four community PMHS teams.

To undertake and supervise highly specialist perinatal psychological assessment and treatment interventions to referred service users and to provide reports on the above. To utilise and supervise the provision of specific perinatal psychological interventions, working with women who are pregnant and postnatal with a range of perinatal presentations. These include birth trauma, tokophobia, foetal and neonatal loss, perinatal OCD, puerperal psychosis, serious mental illnesses, antenatal and postnatal mood disorders and bonding difficulties.

To utilise specific methods of assessing risk to the unborn child as well as to the infant and to make decisions based on the care needs of both mother and child. To undertake specific duties as requested, pertaining to clinical and service governance objectives including planning, data collection and analysis, report writing and presentation. This will necessitate the substantive use of IT equipment and software.

To undertake and contribute to teaching, training, supervision, health promotion, research and related activities of the service and affiliated organisations to the Trust as relevant to this post.

To contribute to perinatal service developments as part of the LTP delivery processes.

To support with the development of particular pathways including safeguarding/separation and loss, CBT/EMDR and/or Systemic therapy pathway.

To support with the implementation of Trauma Informed Care framework across the community PMHS teams.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
• Registered with the Health Professions Council as a Clinical Psychologist

Desirable

• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
• Post-qualification accreditation in particular psychotherapeutic approaches e.g DBT, systemic therapy, EMDR or VIG

Experience

Essential

• Assessed experience of post qualification experience within the designated specialty where the post is located
• 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 full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, inpatient and residential care settings 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.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan
• Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.

Desirable

• Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists.
• Experience of multiprofessional management of teams or services within the designated specialty.
• Experience of representing the profession in local and/or national policy fora.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care
• Experience of assessing and treating clients across the full range of care settings.
• Specialist experience in the area of perinatal mental health.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• 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, highly technical, and 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 nonprofessional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists or equivalent experience

Desirable

• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (particularly. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies.
• 50 hours supervision in a specific modality, case presentations, group supervision supported by short courses approved by the Psychology Head of Service.

Other

Essential

• Ability to identify provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
• Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Employer details

Employer name

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Perinatal wide post

Northwick Park Hospital

HA1 3UJ

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

333-J-PERI-0147