Job summary
Applications are invited for a part-time 0.60 WTE (3 days per week) post as Counsellor within our Parent Counselling Service based at the Evelina London Children's Hospital.
Our Parent Counselling Service is part of the Palliative Care team at Evelina London. We provide counselling to parents following bereavement, or for parents where their children are diagnosed with life-limiting conditions.
The post holder will have experience and knowledge of psychotherapeutic counselling with parents of chronically ill / palliative children and bereavement, which can will inform their multidisciplinary team working in the hospital. They will offer dynamic hybrid models of support, integrating a range of bereavement models alongside general psychotherapeutic counselling to meet the needs of our diverse communities across our region.
The post holder will be responsible for referral triages, assessments, and delivering direct clinical care with parents. They will also contribute to service development, working with both the Lead for Parent Counselling, Palliative Care multidisciplinary team and as part of the Psychological Professionals service.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be on the BACP register of accredited members with designation MBACP, UKCP, ACAT register.
We are looking for a dynamic individual who will work with the service lead, and wider services in the hospital to:
- Work with the team to manage referrals to the service, deliver triages and assessments, and hold a clinical caseload with families. This will include contribution to multidisciplinary team work as appropriate, and work with individuals and couples.
- Practice in accordance with relevant professional and clinical governance guidance, including safeguarding, and record keeping
- Contribute towards the delivery of scheduled Remembrance Services [2 per year].
- Support the service lead to develop teaching sessions regarding Bereavement and Working with Parents.
About us
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK's best known hospitals - Guy's, St Thomas', Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield and employs around 22,700 staff with over 1 million patient contacts a year.
- The Parent Counselling Service comprises of 3 qualified and experienced counsellors / psychotherapists (1.7WTE), admin support located in our paediatric palliative care team. We are a team of practitioners that offer integrative approaches to supporting parents of life limited / threatened and palliative children, alongside bereavement through psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions.
- Our innovative and collaborative approach to decision-making and service delivery promotes spaces where we each contribute to the development of services based on service user feedback, reflective practice and models of best practice.
- We work closely with psychological professionals colleagues, Palliative Care team and across other disciplines to promote the welfare of parents. This includes working with external agencies and networks as appropriate.
Job description
Job responsibilities
- Professional qualifications - Applicants should by on the BACP register of accredited members with designation MBACP, UKCP, ACAT register
- Clinical Experience background in mental / physical health care setting with children and / or adults, hospice and / or hospital environments supported by substantial experience in delivering psychotherapeutic interventions.
- Clinical Skills - Ability to work as an effective member of a multidisciplinary team and to share and encourage good practice through an Integrative approach to psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions.
For further details please see formal job description
Job description
Job responsibilities
- Professional qualifications - Applicants should by on the BACP register of accredited members with designation MBACP, UKCP, ACAT register
- Clinical Experience background in mental / physical health care setting with children and / or adults, hospice and / or hospital environments supported by substantial experience in delivering psychotherapeutic interventions.
- Clinical Skills - Ability to work as an effective member of a multidisciplinary team and to share and encourage good practice through an Integrative approach to psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions.
For further details please see formal job description
Person Specification
Professional/Statutory Registration
Essential
- On the BACP register of accredited members with designation MBACP, UKCP, ACAT register.
Qualifications/Education
Essential
- A degree in Psychology or related subject like Nursing, Medicine or Social work
- Completed and approved postgraduate qualification / diploma in counselling or psychotherapy.
- Approximately 450 hours of supervised practice
- Extensive post-qualification experience of generic counselling
Experience
Essential
- Assessed experience of working as qualified counsellor / psychotherapist with specialist post-qualification experiences in the NHS or similar setting, undertaking assessments and interventions with the bereaved
- Experience working with a wide variety of clients presenting with mild to moderate severity mental health illness
- Maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems
- Experiences of exercising clinical responsibility for patients emotional care and treatment including maintaining confidentiality
- Experience of providing both group and one-to-one based interventions
- Experience of the application of counselling/psychotherapy in different cultural contexts
- Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team.
Desirable
- Experience of working with parents of children with serious medical conditions
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for patients' care and management, both as a professionally qualified counsellor / psychotherapist and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary team.
- Experience in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups in the area of physical health.
- Working online in virtual setting
- Working with groups (therapeutic and/or psychoeducational)
- Experience of working with people from the Black African and Black Caribbean communities
Skills/Knowledge/ Ability
Essential
- Competency in working within a recognised theoretical framework suited to parents experiencing loss.
- Skills in psychological assessment for counselling, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- A strong ability to communicate at both a written and oral level, imparting complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, and carers and a wide range of lay and professional people within and outside the NHS. This may require negotiating, motivating, training, reassuring others and demonstrating empathy.
- Experience and ability to undertake risk assessment of client in relation to self and others, and refer on to appropriate services as necessary.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the appropriate regulating body
- Awareness of racial, cultural and diversity differences/issues through attendance of relevant training.
- Ability to work independently as an autonomous practitioner with appropriate level of clinical and managerial supervision.
- Ability to take initiative and contribute to the development of the psychology component of busy and expanding service at a local and national level.
- Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team and contribute to effective team functioning.
Desirable
- Knowledge of more than one model of intervention and the ability to choose and apply different interventions.
- A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the field.
- Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group.
Other
Essential
- A commitment to promoting equality of opportunity through all aspects of working and professional practice with both colleagues and all client groups.
- Willingness to broaden range of skills and take initiative in both own professional development and the development of the service.
- Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others.
- Commitment to continuing professional development, partnership working and to reflective clinical practise.
- Well developed IT skills including data entry and analysis of research data using Microsoft programmes and appropriate statistical packages such as SPSS.
Desirable
- Experience of personal psychotherapy
Person Specification
Professional/Statutory Registration
Essential
- On the BACP register of accredited members with designation MBACP, UKCP, ACAT register.
Qualifications/Education
Essential
- A degree in Psychology or related subject like Nursing, Medicine or Social work
- Completed and approved postgraduate qualification / diploma in counselling or psychotherapy.
- Approximately 450 hours of supervised practice
- Extensive post-qualification experience of generic counselling
Experience
Essential
- Assessed experience of working as qualified counsellor / psychotherapist with specialist post-qualification experiences in the NHS or similar setting, undertaking assessments and interventions with the bereaved
- Experience working with a wide variety of clients presenting with mild to moderate severity mental health illness
- Maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems
- Experiences of exercising clinical responsibility for patients emotional care and treatment including maintaining confidentiality
- Experience of providing both group and one-to-one based interventions
- Experience of the application of counselling/psychotherapy in different cultural contexts
- Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team.
Desirable
- Experience of working with parents of children with serious medical conditions
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for patients' care and management, both as a professionally qualified counsellor / psychotherapist and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary team.
- Experience in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups in the area of physical health.
- Working online in virtual setting
- Working with groups (therapeutic and/or psychoeducational)
- Experience of working with people from the Black African and Black Caribbean communities
Skills/Knowledge/ Ability
Essential
- Competency in working within a recognised theoretical framework suited to parents experiencing loss.
- Skills in psychological assessment for counselling, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- A strong ability to communicate at both a written and oral level, imparting complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, and carers and a wide range of lay and professional people within and outside the NHS. This may require negotiating, motivating, training, reassuring others and demonstrating empathy.
- Experience and ability to undertake risk assessment of client in relation to self and others, and refer on to appropriate services as necessary.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the appropriate regulating body
- Awareness of racial, cultural and diversity differences/issues through attendance of relevant training.
- Ability to work independently as an autonomous practitioner with appropriate level of clinical and managerial supervision.
- Ability to take initiative and contribute to the development of the psychology component of busy and expanding service at a local and national level.
- Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team and contribute to effective team functioning.
Desirable
- Knowledge of more than one model of intervention and the ability to choose and apply different interventions.
- A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the field.
- Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group.
Other
Essential
- A commitment to promoting equality of opportunity through all aspects of working and professional practice with both colleagues and all client groups.
- Willingness to broaden range of skills and take initiative in both own professional development and the development of the service.
- Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others.
- Commitment to continuing professional development, partnership working and to reflective clinical practise.
- Well developed IT skills including data entry and analysis of research data using Microsoft programmes and appropriate statistical packages such as SPSS.
Desirable
- Experience of personal psychotherapy
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
