Consultant Clinical or Counselling Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY RESULT AREAS

1. Working within a highly specialised clinical area, to provide highly developed specialist psychological assessments of clients based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological (and where appropriate to the professional, neuropsychological) tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
2. To formulate plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings. To ensure that care planning for service users presenting with complex needs takes account of immediate and acute needs, therapeutic needs that are appropriately met in the medium term, and also that future-oriented planning takes place that takes maximises the child or young persons long-term wellbeing and recovery.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of highly specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
5. To exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the treatment of and discharge of clients whose problems are managed as a psychologically based standard care plan, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.
6. To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
7. To ensure that all members of the clinical team have access to a psychologically based framework for the understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological knowledge, research and theory.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual clients and to provide both general and specialist advice for psychologists and other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
9. To act as care co-ordinator, where appropriate, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the clients needs, co-ordinating the work of others involved with care, arranging clients care reviews as required and communicating effectively with the client, his/her family and all others involved in care; and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.
10. To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
11. To provide expertise and advice to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team.
12. To provide expert consultation about the psychological care of the client group to staff and agencies within and related to the Service Line.

1. Under the guidance of the Head of Psychology and Psychotherapies CAMHS and All Age Eating Disorders, to implement appropriate systems for the clinical and professional supervision of qualified and unqualified psychology and psychotherapy staff across the service/sector.
2. To directly provide clinical and professional supervision to qualified and assistant psychologists and psychotherapists working in the service/sector.
3. To provide specialist clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists or psychotherapists, ensuring that they acquire the necessary clinical and research skills to doctoral level where appropriate, and competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good psychological practice, and contributing to the assessment and evaluation of those competencies
4. To provide specialist advice, consultation and training and (where agreed locally) clinical supervision to other members of the team for their provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve clients functioning.
5. To provide pre and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or counselling psychology or psychotherapies as appropriate.
6. To continue to develop expertise in the area of professional pre and post-graduate training and clinical supervision.

1. To participate as a senior clinician in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service for people with mental health problems, their carers and families within the sector/service, including advising both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
2. To exercise responsibility for managing the psychological resources available to the sector/service both in terms of psychology and psychotherapies staff and psychological materials employed in the assessment and the treatment of patients.
3. In conjunction with operational managers, to develop job plans for psychologists and psychotherapists. Within the framework of professional supervision, to oversee the deployment of psychological and psychotherapeutic resources to best meet demand.
4. To lead systematic governance of psychological practice within the sector/service, including the systematic recording of development reviews, note-keeping practices and the transcribing of records and minutes of appropriate professional meetings.
5. To initiate and implement service developments and projects within the sector/service.
6. To lead appropriate professional psychology and psychotherapies recruitment within the service/sector.

1. To take the psychology and psychotherapies lead, as a senior clinician, to planning and implementing systems for the evaluation, monitoring and development of the service/sectors services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit and ensuring incorporation of psychological frameworks for understanding and provision of high quality care.
2. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work, work with other team members and across the service/sector.
3. To undertake appropriate research and/or service evaluation and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research within the service/sector as a major job requirement.
4. To initiate and implement project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service to help develop and improve services to older people with mental health problems and their families.

1. To ensure the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes.
2. To design appropriate CPD for psychologists and psychotherapists within CAMHS Services, and to seek the resources required to implement a CPD plan that best meets the needs of the service.
3. To ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychology and psychotherapies within the service area and contribute across the service by exercising the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and psychotherapies and related disciplines.
4. To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society, Association for Family Therapy, BABCP, Association of Child Psychotherapists, and Trust policies and procedures.
5. To contribute with other consultant psychologists and psychotherapists and Heads of Service to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology and psychological therapies across the Service Line.
6. To ensure that all psychologists within the service/sector maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.

Person Specification

Training and Qualifications

Essential

• Qualified Clinical or Counselling Psychologist registered with the HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS
• Post qualification training in the clinical supervision of trainees

Desirable

• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
• Post graduate qualification in leadership

Experience

Essential

• Significant, demonstrable and evidenced experience of working as a qualified psychologist in child and adolescent mental health services including significant post-qualification experience within the designated specialty where the post is located
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings 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 exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan
• Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision

Desirable

• Experience of the application of psychology and psychotherapy in different cultural contexts
• Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified psychotherapists and clinical psychologists
• Experience of multi-professional management of teams or services within the designated specialty

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).

Employer details

Employer name

South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

Address

Barnes Hospital and Kingston CAMHS (Tolworth Hospital)

London

SW14 8SU

Employer's website

https://www.swlstg.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)