Deputy Service Lead and Duty Clinician

Job summary

Are you a registered Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist or accredited Psychotherapist with post qualification experience in mental health settings who wants to transition into physical health care or who already has experience in both settings?

We are recruiting to a Band 8B 1.0wte role to act Deputy Service Lead and to lead our Duty Clinician function. The Duty Clinician function supports patients, their families and staff working predominantly in the inpatient hospital setting; it also provides advice and guidance regarding patients' mental health concerns to colleagues in the outpatient setting.

The post-holder should expect to spend approximately 3 days a week in the Duty role, with the remaining two days focused on management, leadership and supervision activities.

The post attracts inner-London weighting and will be based in Chelsea (usually 2 days) and Sutton (usually 3 days).

Please note that due to the requirements of the role, opportunities for home working will be limited.

You will be joining a supportive and friendly team of qualified and trainee psychological practitioners, including, counselling/ psychotherapy, psychology, psychosexual therapy; as well as liaison psychiatry and mental health nursing with whom the post holder will work very closely. There is excellent internal and external CPD provision.

Main duties of the job

• Lead/ co-ordinate/ clinically deliver the APSS Duty Clinician function, which supports staff and patients within APSS and across the hospital (approximately 3 days/ week).
• Screen and triage inpatient referrals and collaborate with ward staff on psychological care plans.
• Provide timely specialist psychological assessment and intervention to inpatients whose psychological distress is preventing them from accessing or continuing with cancer tests/ treatment, for example, phobias (e.g. needle, claustrophobia), panic, depression; as well as to provide risk assessment/ management.
• Provide specialist advice and consultation (in/formally) to members of APSS and to clinical teams across RMH. For example, providing telephone advice re day/ outpatients, attending meetings/ handovers, helping staff understand and respond to complex psychological presentations (of patients or relatives) including behaviour that challenges and risk assessment/ management.

About us

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a world-leading cancer centre. Our role is to offer our patients the best cancer care available anywhere in the world, and to continue to make a global contribution to finding better ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. We employ over 4,500 staff in a diverse range of careers including nursing, medical, science, radiography, pharmacy, occupational therapy, finance and administrative services. We have two hospitals - one in Chelsea, London, and one in Sutton, Surrey - as well as a Medical Daycare Unit in Kingston Hospital.

At The Royal Marsden, we deal with cancer every day, so we understand how valuable life is. When people entrust their lives to us, they have the right to demand the very best. That's why the pursuit of excellence lies at the heart of everything we do.

At the heart of the hospital is our dedicated team. We offer a stimulating and dynamic working environment, a wide range of staff benefits, learning and development opportunities and clear career pathways. There are opportunities to work flexibly across a range of areas and specialities and we welcome flexible working requests from point of hire to support employees work life balance. We are looking for employees who aspire to excellence, share our values and can play a crucial role in our on-going achievements.