Clinical or Counselling Psychologist / Psychological Therapist

Delivering great care, achieving great outcomes - together

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is a successful provider of mental health and learning disability services, rated Outstanding by CQC. We are a Values Based organisation and our aim is to ensure that we deliver an experience that is consistently welcoming, kind, positive, respectful and professional, because these are the values that our service users, carers and staff told us meant the most to them.

We now have a vacancy for a band 7 Clinical or Counselling Psychologist / Psychological Therapist to join our newly established SMI Psychological Therapy Service in Mid Essex. This post offers an exciting opportunity to join a team who will be providing psychological therapies for individuals under clusters 5 and 6 who exceed the threshold for IAPT, but who do not meet criteria for secondary care services. This is a newly commissioned service which is part of the mental health transformation plan in Mid and South Essex, and will work alongside an established IAPT team enjoying excellent relationships with local secondary care services. At HPFT we pride ourselves on the quality of the service that we offer and place importance on supporting all our therapists to provide great care, with an emphasis placed on maintaining and developing therapist skills and regular supervision.

Main duties of the job

This post would suit someone with a core mental health qualification and registration (including nursing, social work, occupational therapy, practitioner psychologist or other appropriately registered therapists - see person spec for details) and with an interest of working collaboratively with service users (and their families) to improve their psychological wellbeing. Also it would suit someone who loves working as part of a therapy team and alongside multidisciplinary colleagues in a primary care setting. We are looking for someone who has experience of working with patients who have an SMI in community settings, or someone who has experience of IAPT services or secondary care and is looking for a new challenge and the opportunity to develop or expand their skills. HPFT places an emphasis on the provision of high quality therapy services, and recognises that training is core to this, therefore training opportunities will be available; there will be opportunities to access top up training in CBT for Personality Disorders and CBT for Psychosis and Bipolar Disorder. Experience of providing consultation or training would be an advantage, as providing training and consultation is key to this role. The post will be based as described, but the ability to work flexibly as the needs of the service demands will be essential. The post holder would expect some travel within their working week as needed.

About us

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

Our family of over 3500 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.

The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Our Trust values are:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

These values are at the core of who we are, everything we do, and how we do it!

Would you like to be part of the HPFT family? Would you like work with us to ensure our service users live the fullest lives possible they can? Would you like to be supported in your career to be the best that you can be?

Then please read on...

Job description Job responsibilities

For full details of the role and responsibilities for this vacancy please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification documents attached.

Person Specification QUALIFICATIONS/EDUCATION/TRAINING Essential

• Doctoral/Masters level training in clinical/counselling psychology, including specific models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS.
• To have achieved a competency level that fulfils the requirements of the regulatory, accrediting, or professional body
• To be a member of a relevant professional or regulatory body and continue to fulfil any accreditation or membership criteria, including meeting requirements for: i) continuing professional and personal development, ii) regular supervision and iii) codes of practice.
• Professional qualification degree level, which should include knowledge and application of research methodology

Desirable

• Current registration with HCPC or have completed one year recognised full time (or equivalent two years part time) psychotherapy or counselling training leading to a qualification, certification or accreditation recognised by a relevant professional or regulatory body in one (or more) of the modalities listed: o Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (with Psychosis) o Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) o Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) o Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) o Other BCP accredited psychodynamic modality o Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

PREVIOUS 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, including at least six months clinical experience working in adult mental health.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life span 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 multi-disciplinary team working and inter-agency collaboration
• Ability to provide consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Ability to take the appropriate action to address any issues or risks
• Ability to work autonomously as well as part of a team

Desirable

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings
• Experience of service quality monitoring e.g. clinical audit, evaluative research, etc.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or offering supervision.
• Experience of working in a community mental health setting
• Experience of service development/project management

SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE/ABILITY Essential

• Knowledge of whole life span development and the impact on emotional, psychological and mental wellbeing
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least one evidence based psychological therapy (i.e. CBT, Interpersonal Therapy, CAT, systemic family psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy) relevant to the treatment of adults with complex problems and their families .
• Awareness of basic research methodology
• Awareness of Child and Adult Safeguarding Procedures
• Awareness of current NHS initiatives and Developments .
• Knowledge of legislation and the national agenda in relation to Adult Mental Health .
• Knowledge and awareness of specific clinical practices and issues relating to clients with mental health problems

COMMUNICATION SKILLS Essential

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to communicate 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
• Ability to work and communicate therapeutically with clients and their families consistent with their level of understanding, culture, background and preferred ways of communicating
• Ability to work and communicate as a responsible participating member of a multi - disciplinary team and the ability to respect and value other members' contributions and to encourage participation of all involved
• Ability to keep accurate and complete records of activities and communications consistent with legislation, policies and procedures
• Ability to alert line manager / team when direction, policies and strategies are adversely affecting users of services or the public
• Ability to time manage effectively and to work under pressure and to prioritise a clinical workload

ANALYTICAL SKILLS Essential

• Positive problem -solving approach.
• Ability to critically evaluate and review developments made by others to determine if and how they could be applied within own area of work

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

367-IAPT-6274-A