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Lead Clinical Psychologist

Employer
East London NHS Foundation Trust
Location
BEDFORD
Salary
£56,164 to £65,262 a year per annum
Closing date
21 Feb 2023

View more

Profession
Learning disability nurse, Psychologist
Grade
Band 8B
Contract Type
Permanent
Hours
Full Time
We are seeking an experienced, enthusiastic, self-motivated Psychologist for the Lead Psychologist position in our dynamic, multi-disciplinary Community Learning Disabilities Service and Intensive Support Team. The service provides specialist healthcare services for adults with learning disabilities across Bedfordshire.

Main duties of the job

The role will involve acting as the day-to-day lead for psychological therapies within the service, representing psychology within the service and supervising more junior members of the psychological therapies and behaviour specialist team. Psychology works across the service, with a specific focus on mental health and complex behaviour, in addition to providing assessment and training, and supporting service and organisational development.

There will be opportunities to participate in innovative quality improvement service development projects. There are good links with other psychologists working in learning disabilities services in the 3 other learning disabilities services within ELFT, allowing for opportunities to influence innovation across learning disabilities services in the Trust. There are also good links across wider Trust Psychological Therapies services and the local Hertfordshire DClinPsy Training Course. The Trust is committed to continuous professional development with access to internal and external training opportunities.

The successful candidate will have excellent communication skills, the ability to work independently, as well as part of a multi-disciplinary team, and to be able to manage a varied and complex caseload. They will actively engage in direct clinical work and support the development of others in the team.

Informal contact regarding this post invited.

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

The post holder will ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality comprehensive specialist clinical psychology service to the service users of the Bedfordshire Community Learning Disabilities Service and the Bedfordshire Intensive Support Team. They will also ensure that all members of the multidisciplinary teams have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding clients through the provision of advice, consultation and the dissemination of psychological knowledge and theory.

The post holder will provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and therapies, specialist risk assessments and advice on risk management, and the provision of psychological advice and consultation to others involved in service user care. The clinical work is undertaken in a range of settings including inpatient, day and educational services, supported living and the clients own home. They will also provide specialist advice to other professions and carers, including statutory, charity and third sector services where appropriate to do so.

The post holder will have line management responsibilities and will have responsibility to manage and co-ordinate the workload of qualified psychologists, assistants, trainee psychologists and other psychological practitioners within their area. As such, they may be required to undertake disciplinary, capability or sickness processes as necessary. The post holder will provide professional and clinical supervision to the other Psychologists, Assistant Psychologists, Positive Behaviour Support Practitioner and other psychological practitioners working in the service.

The post holder will regularly attend the multi-disciplinary team clinical meetings within the service, as well as, broader strategic and operational meetings both within the Trust and Local Authority as required.

The post holder will utilise research skills for audit, policy, research and service development within the service as a whole and specifically for psychology within the service. They will attend the service operational and strategic meetings as requested by the service manager, keep up to date with policy development, and propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the team.

Please kindly refer to the job description and person specification attached to this vacancy for more information.

Person Specification Qualifications Essential
  • Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent (statement of equivalence or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) and able to demonstrate eligibility for BPS CPsychol (Chartered Psychologist)
  • HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist
  • Training in clinical supervision for doctoral clinical psychology trainees
Experience Essential
  • Substantial experience of working as a qualified Clinical Psychologist including substantial post-qualification experience working in a multi-disciplinary team for people with a learning disability.
  • Well-developed experience of assessment, formulation and treatment with people (and families/carers) with a learning disability.
  • Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts, including working with interpreters.
  • Experience of the assessment of capacity to consent and providing consultation to capacity assessments across a range of issues pertinent to people with learning disabilities.
  • Research and audit experience.
  • Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
  • Experience of developing and delivering specialist training programmes.
  • Experience of supervising professional and clinical practice of qualified and unqualified staff.
  • Experience of liaison and joint work with other statutory agencies, including crisis management.
  • Identification of need and development of services to meet need.
Knowledge and Skills Essential
  • Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised areas of psychological practice with adult clients with learning disability.
  • Knowledge and skills in the implementation of Positive Behaviour Support for people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour.
  • Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult-to-treat groups (e.g. complex needs, self-harm, dual diagnosis, and persons with additional disabilities etc).
  • Knowledge of relevant evidence base, best practice and legislation in relation to the provision of psychological therapies and psychological informed interventions for adults with learning disabilities.
  • High level of expertise in neuropsychological assessment of in adults with impairment in cognitive functioning and/or learning disabilities in the context of diagnostic assessments of learning disabilities and dementia baseline and follow-up assessments
  • Working knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act, Best Interests and DOLS legislation.
  • Communication & Relationship skills: Able to provide & receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information in a highly emotive and sometimes hostile atmosphere, in a range of relationships and settings. Able to use highly specialist skills of empathy to overcome barriers to understanding and acceptance.
  • Analytical & judgemental skills: Able to draw upon a broad theoretical knowledge base in the analysis of highly complex facts or situations to arrive at appropriate formulations. Able to compare and select from a range of treatment options, based on formulation.
  • Planning and organisational skills: Able to plan, organise and prioritise own workload.
  • Ability to work creatively, co-operatively, reliably and consistently as an independent practitioner, as a mentor and supervisor, and in multi-disciplinary and team settings.
  • Physical skills: Competence in advanced IT packages including keyboard skills.
  • Information resources: Able to record and report on as required clinical information.
  • Competent in use of basic IT packages - word processing, excel, e-mail and internet.
  • Research & Guidance: Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis.
  • Up to date knowledge of psychological research and national guidance relevant to patient group
  • Knowledge of legislation and its implications for clinical practice with this client group.
  • Cultural awareness: Ability to provide a culturally-competent and non-stigmatising service including an awareness of the potential impact of discrimination and disadvantage on mental health.
  • Able to be flexible and adapt approach according to need. Able to innovate on the basis of theoretical knowledge
  • Information resources: Competent use of other IT packages e.g. PowerPoint, Excel and Access.
Other Essential
  • Able to work to professional guidelines. Must be capable of accountability for own work, of autonomous clinical practice, of being guided by precedent and of working towards defined results.
  • Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, and an interest in models of service delivery.
  • Able to contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others.
  • Physical effort: Able to sit in constrained positions for a substantial proportion of working time.
  • Mental effort: Able to concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact, teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc.
  • Emotional effort: Able to manage effectively frequent exposure to highly distressing/highly emotional circumstances and exposure to traumatic circumstances.
  • Working conditions: Able to manage effectively verbal aggression from service users, families, etc and the risk of physical aggression.
  • Values: Respectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals. Willing to negotiate and can handle confrontation effectively and professionally.
  • Able to articulate the value added by psychological interventions within the context of multi-disciplinary services.


Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

363-BED12263-B

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