We are looking for a dedicated Clinical Psychologist to join the Kingston Psychology & Psychotherapies services based in the North Kingston Integrated Recovery Hub and Kingston Early intervention Services.

It is an exciting time to join our trust, as we are preparing to implement the trust's community transformation plans in line with the Community Mental Health Framework, to improve access and provision for clients with severe mental health difficulties. In doing so we will be strengthening relationships with primary care and developing new links with the voluntary sector.

Career Progression pathways and development opportunities:

This post offers a number of opportunities for further training and development.

The trust supports staff to access HEE funded training in EMDR, CBT and Family Interventions for psychosis, as well as opportunities to train in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and to co-facilitate DBT skills groups.

The trust also provides additional CPD covering a wide range of clinical topics and opportunities for individual and specialist group supervision to support your development. At Band 8a, there will be opportunities to attend supervision skills training, and supervise clinical psychology trainees, through strong links with the University of Surrey D.ClinPsy course.

For preceptorship posts, there will be dedicated CPD funding, and the opportunity to work one day per week in a different service in the Trust, to further develop specialist clinical skills.

Main duties of the job

The successful applicant will be committed to MDT working and to advancing trauma informed care across the trust. You will contribute to the delivery of evidence-based psychological therapies for severe and enduring mental health conditions, including psychosis & bipolar affective disorder, personality disorders, and complex mood, anxiety disorders & PTSD. The role is dynamic and will require you to attend multidisciplinary meetings and to offer supervision, consultation, and training to clinicians within the wider MDT team.

Agile and flexible working:

As one of the few Trusts in London we are proud to offer flexible and agile working as part of our new ways of working, and we are happy to talk flexible working at the interview stage.

The Trust is committed to supporting flexible working, including a blended approach of on-site and home working.

This post is established at 8a level but we welcome applications from final year Trainee Clinical Psychologists, and from Clinical / Counselling Psychologists with less than 18 months post qualification experience, who could progress from a Band 7 preceptorship to a Band 8a in this post.

About us

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.

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.

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. 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.

2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.

6. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

7. 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 this client group of people with severe and enduring mental health problems.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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, integrating the contribution of other professionals on the basis of client need.

11. To effectively draw on a variety of sources to establish care plans and treatment formulations in a context in which much data may be unavailable because of the clients inability to express themselves and because of the loss of much historical information, when early life has been extremely disrupted.

12. To be able to overcome a variety of barriers to communication when working with clients who are fearful of others, unable to articulate their problems or who think within a very different frame of reference, requiring imaginative and sensitive approaches towards engagement.

13. To provide a service that operates in a range of community settings individual homes and hostels, community houses, inpatient units and team base requiring particular attention to issues of risk and confidentiality.

14. To manage time effectively and efficiently as a sparse resource in a context of high level demand.

15. To contribute to the teams duty system as required.

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 in patient settings
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course with 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
• Experience of working with people who experience severe, complex and long-term mental health problems
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision while working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Director of Psychology

Desirable

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of working as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

Training & Qualifications

Essential

• 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 neuropsychology (for Clinical Psychologists), 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

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology

Knowledge & Skills

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, 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
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS
• Formal training in the supervision of doctoral level trainee clinical psychologists

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. dual diagnosis including people experiencing psychosis with personality disorder, substance misuse, learning disability, neurological dysfunction, additional disabilities etc)
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
• Knowledge of recent policy and legislation in relation to people with severe and enduring mental health problems specifically and concerning mental health in general

Employer details

Employer name

South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

Address

Tolworth Hospital

Red Lion Rd

Tolworth

KT6 7QU

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

294-COMM-6780347-JB