Job summary
Are you interested in a role where every day is different and where you can use a variety of psychology skills? If so, we are looking for a caring and innovative clinical psychologist to join us in our Specialist Older Adult Mental Health Service (SOAMHS) for people over 70. You will play a key part in enabling the more therapeutic nature of support throughout the service as well as providing and supervising clinical interventions. The teams are small so you will be working with the whole range of mental health problems. You will provide groups and individual therapy for people within the service as well as for their carers/families where indicated alongside other team members.
The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham is culturally highly diverse and there is a real commitment to meet the needs of the communities we serve. You will therefore be involved in ensuring psychology provision is appropriate and accessible for this diverse community and outreach activities are encouraged.
Main duties of the job
The service supports people with a wide range of difficulties and the whole service works within a Trauma Informed model. Although the psychology team works with psychological therapies with a proven evidence base, we also understand that to truly meet client needs, flexibility of approach is essential. As the service is relatively new, it is likely that it will change in response to the needs that are identified within the community, so you will need to be flexible in your thinking and approach to patient care. Our service users come from a wide variety of cultures and experiences, so there is a need to adapt any therapy to the needs of the client and creativity is therefore valued. There is also an emphasis on working with staff, through supervision, consultation, training and joint working to increase psychological thinking within the team and to maximize the potential for improving the psychological well-being of all patients and carers.
About us
West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services. The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.
Our high secure services care for patients from South of England and we provide low and medium secure services across eight London boroughs. The Trust also provides mental and physical healthcare in three London boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham). We employ over 5,000 staff, of whom 59% are BME. Our turnover for 2024-25 is over £500m.
The Trust is rated as 'Good' overallby the Care Quality Commission. Forensic services are rated as 'Outstanding'.
The Trust is an established partner and contributor in the development of the evolving North West London Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Board. The Trust leads the NW London Children and Adolescent Mental Health provider collaborative.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. Please view as attached
The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. Please view as attached
The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Good honors degree (2:1 minimum) in Psychology. Eligibility for graduate membership of BPS.
- Post-graduate doctorate in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or those in lateral transfer) as accredited by the BPS.
- Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council.
Desirable
- Other related academic qualifications.
- Evidence of additional training in psychological therapy techniques.
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with older people
Desirable
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
- Experience of having facilitated/co-facilitated psychological therapy groups.
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Able to adapt to rapidly changing service demands
- Able to maintain intense concentration frequently and for prolonged periods with unpredictable patients (e.g., in the assessment and treatment of patients with complex difficulties).
- Able to function in potentially traumatic circumstances and in highly emotionally distressing circumstances on a frequent basis (e.g., in dealing with patients with serious mental illness, violence, self- harm, sexual abuse).
Knowledge
Essential
- Specialist knowledge, both theoretical and practical, of psychology applied to clinical practice.
- Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of the assessment and treatment of a range of mental health conditions.
- Able to provide and receive complex, sensitive or contentious information, where there are significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills such as would be required when communicating in a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere.
- Able to plan, prioritise and organise own service user caseload, treatment programmes (individual or group) involving other staff and other aspects of the work such as research activity.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
- Able to use database, word processing and test administration/scoring software.
- Evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
- Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of assessment and intervention with families.
- Able to speak other languages present in local communities such as Hindi, Punjabi or Polish.
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Good honors degree (2:1 minimum) in Psychology. Eligibility for graduate membership of BPS.
- Post-graduate doctorate in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or those in lateral transfer) as accredited by the BPS.
- Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council.
Desirable
- Other related academic qualifications.
- Evidence of additional training in psychological therapy techniques.
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with older people
Desirable
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
- Experience of having facilitated/co-facilitated psychological therapy groups.
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Able to adapt to rapidly changing service demands
- Able to maintain intense concentration frequently and for prolonged periods with unpredictable patients (e.g., in the assessment and treatment of patients with complex difficulties).
- Able to function in potentially traumatic circumstances and in highly emotionally distressing circumstances on a frequent basis (e.g., in dealing with patients with serious mental illness, violence, self- harm, sexual abuse).
Knowledge
Essential
- Specialist knowledge, both theoretical and practical, of psychology applied to clinical practice.
- Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of the assessment and treatment of a range of mental health conditions.
- Able to provide and receive complex, sensitive or contentious information, where there are significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills such as would be required when communicating in a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere.
- Able to plan, prioritise and organise own service user caseload, treatment programmes (individual or group) involving other staff and other aspects of the work such as research activity.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
- Able to use database, word processing and test administration/scoring software.
- Evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
- Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of assessment and intervention with families.
- Able to speak other languages present in local communities such as Hindi, Punjabi or Polish.
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.
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
