Job summary
We are looking for a Clinical/Counselling psychologist with experience of working with psychosis to act as pathway lead alongside the existing lead for Early Intervention in Psychosis psychology and psychotherapy services. You will be based clinically in Merton Early Intervention service, Wilson Hospital in Mitcham, South West London, providing individual and family interventions to service users. You will offer supervision and leadership to qualified and trainee psychologists, CBT therapists and family intervention therapists across the SWLSTG trust early intervention services covering Wandsworth, Sutton, Merton, Kingston and Richmond and develop innovations and promote access to talking therapies across these services.
We are preparing to implement the trust's community transformation plans in line with the Community Mental Health Framework, to improve access and provision for clients with severe mental health difficulties. In doing so we will be strengthening relationships with primary care and developing new links with the voluntary sector. The trust also provides regular CPD covering a wide range of clinical topics and opportunities for individual and specialist group supervision to support your development. In particular, our Early Intervention therapy provision has expanded over the last few years, and each team now has a strong team of therapists who can offer a range of therapies including Family Interventions, CBT for psychosis and EMDR.
Main duties of the job
The successful applicant will be committed to MDT working and to advancing trauma informed care and anti-racist practise across the pathway. You will contribute to and supervise the delivery of high quality evidence-based psychological therapies for people who have experienced a first episode of psychosis and their families. The role is dynamic and will require you to attend multidisciplinary meetings and to offer supervision, consultation, and training to clinicians within the wider MDT team. You will utilise your research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.
There is a significant leadership component to the role and alongside the co-lead you will be overseeing a large team of psychologists, CBT therapists and family intervention therapists based in the different boroughs, contributing to job and service planning, recruitment, supervision and service development.
Agile and flexible working:
As one of the few Trusts in London we are proud to offer flexible and agile working as part of our new ways of working, and we are happy to talk flexible working at the interview stage.
The Trust is committed to supporting flexible working, including a blended approach of on-site and home working. We will consider job shares/part time working requests.
About us
We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.
We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.
This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services as we invest a further £120m to upgrade and modernise our estate by 2027.
We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.
We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.
Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to their clinical team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and 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 and implement 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 of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of 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 evaluate and make 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 autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
6. To provide 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 treating team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
9. To act as care coordinator, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the clients needs, coordinating the work of others involved with care, tasking responsibility for arranging CPA reviews as required and communicating effectively with the client, his/her family and all others involved in the network of care, and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.
10. To communicate in a 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.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to their clinical team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and 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 and implement 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 of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of 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 evaluate and make 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 autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
6. To provide 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 treating team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
9. To act as care coordinator, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the clients needs, coordinating the work of others involved with care, tasking responsibility for arranging CPA reviews as required and communicating effectively with the client, his/her family and all others involved in the network of care, and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.
10. To communicate in a 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.
Person Specification
Training & Qualifications
Essential
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS/HCPC
- To be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council under the appropriate domain specific title
Desirable
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice, preferably CBTp or Family Interventions
- BABCP accreditation as practitioner and/or supervisor
Experience
Essential
- Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical/counselling psychologist for a minimum of five years, including at least three years post qualification experience with adults in secondary care
- Experience of supervised provision of CBTp and/or Family Interventions for persons presenting with first onset psychosis.
- Experience of supervising CBTp and Family Interventions for psychosis
- Experience of working with a wide variety of clients and carers, 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.
- Experience of delivering evidence-based psychological therapies to service users in secondary care settings
Desirable
- Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists
- Experience of assessing and treating clients across the full range of care settings
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
Person Specification
Training & Qualifications
Essential
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS/HCPC
- To be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council under the appropriate domain specific title
Desirable
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice, preferably CBTp or Family Interventions
- BABCP accreditation as practitioner and/or supervisor
Experience
Essential
- Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical/counselling psychologist for a minimum of five years, including at least three years post qualification experience with adults in secondary care
- Experience of supervised provision of CBTp and/or Family Interventions for persons presenting with first onset psychosis.
- Experience of supervising CBTp and Family Interventions for psychosis
- Experience of working with a wide variety of clients and carers, 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.
- Experience of delivering evidence-based psychological therapies to service users in secondary care settings
Desirable
- Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists
- Experience of assessing and treating clients across the full range of care settings
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
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).
