Job summary
We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic, motivated and compassionate psychologist to join the Huntingdon adult locality team (HALT), for adults of working age.
HALT is part of the northern adult locality team hub that provides high quality care to people aged 17-65 who are experiencing mental health difficulties in the moderate-to-severe range with additional concerns about safety or functional impairment. You will be part of a team of 6 psychologists (varying from 8C to band 7 level), assistant and trainee psychologists, who work closely together to provide psychological services across 4 community teams.
Main duties of the job
The post-holder will be part of an energetic, friendly, and well-established multidisciplinary team consisting of nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and support workers, who all work closely to provide a caring and creative environment.
Your post will involve supervising other psychologists, carrying out specialist psychological assessments, providing therapeutic interventions to people in the community (including group work) and supporting the wider team to develop psychological understandings of people's difficulties through consultation, supervision and training.
We actively promote engaging in service evaluation and improvement projects as well as research studies. We are keen to encourage further service development and have ideas for developing a group for family members of service users with OCD as one possibility. However, we are really keen to have people with other innovations on board.
There are also opportunities to provide input into the strategic development of services and engage in leadership development programmes.
We are keen to promote a trauma informed and responsive culture and there will be opportunities to think about how we promote this developing training, and reflective practice sessions in your smaller team and in the wider team.
We are happy to accommodate remote working and flexible working hours to help ensure a healthy work - life balance.
About us
From 1 April 2022 all job roles that involve patient contact will require the post holder to have completed a full course of authorised COVID-19 vaccine doses, unless they have a medical exemption. (Under parliamentary review).
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share our vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.
CPFT encourages and supports vaccination uptake, as this remains the best line of defence against Covid 19.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
To provide psychological assessments of clients referred to the locality team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex 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.
To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence and which incorporates interpersonal, societal, cultural and biological factors.
To use psychological formulations to develop 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 based upon evidence of efficacy, and to use these plans to inform and lead the work of non-psychology members of the team.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses. This includes responsibility for the delivery of psychological interventions by all team members.
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, carers or group.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, and manage and maintain a caseload in line with service guidelines and under the overall co-ordination of the Lead Psychologist.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures.
To communicate, in a skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care
To monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni-and multi-disciplinary care, and to provide appropriate reports on this.
To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.
To assist the Team and Service Manager in the management of the team caseload.
To attend and contribute to the relevant meetings and case discussion
To work in partnership with other disciplines and to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory and primary care agencies as appropriate.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
To provide psychological assessments of clients referred to the locality team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex 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.
To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence and which incorporates interpersonal, societal, cultural and biological factors.
To use psychological formulations to develop 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 based upon evidence of efficacy, and to use these plans to inform and lead the work of non-psychology members of the team.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses. This includes responsibility for the delivery of psychological interventions by all team members.
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, carers or group.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, and manage and maintain a caseload in line with service guidelines and under the overall co-ordination of the Lead Psychologist.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures.
To communicate, in a skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care
To monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni-and multi-disciplinary care, and to provide appropriate reports on this.
To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.
To assist the Team and Service Manager in the management of the team caseload.
To attend and contribute to the relevant meetings and case discussion
To work in partnership with other disciplines and to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory and primary care agencies as appropriate.
Person Specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential
- Doctorate level training in clinical / counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical, psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS and HCPC
- Registered with Health and Care Professions Council as a practitioner psychologist/ registered with the BABCP as a CBT therapist
- Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, psychological aspects of physical health difficulties, and two or more distinct psychological therapies
Desirable
- Formal training in supervision of other professionals
- High-level knowledge and skills in specialist neuropsychological assessment of adults.
- High-level knowledge and skills in working with carers.
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups
- High-level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
- Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books
- Experience working within an MDT
Experience
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across the full range of adult mental health care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient settings.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity 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 the application of clinical psychology in different contexts.
Desirable
- Experience of working within a multicultural framework
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
Skills
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, psychological formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgement skills
- Skills in individual and group work and in programme planning.
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
Desirable
- Formal training in supervision of other professionals.
- High-level knowledge and skills in specialist neuropsychological assessment of adults.
- High-level knowledge and skills in working with carers.
Person Specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential
- Doctorate level training in clinical / counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical, psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS and HCPC
- Registered with Health and Care Professions Council as a practitioner psychologist/ registered with the BABCP as a CBT therapist
- Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, psychological aspects of physical health difficulties, and two or more distinct psychological therapies
Desirable
- Formal training in supervision of other professionals
- High-level knowledge and skills in specialist neuropsychological assessment of adults.
- High-level knowledge and skills in working with carers.
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups
- High-level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
- Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books
- Experience working within an MDT
Experience
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across the full range of adult mental health care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient settings.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity 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 the application of clinical psychology in different contexts.
Desirable
- Experience of working within a multicultural framework
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
Skills
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, psychological formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgement skills
- Skills in individual and group work and in programme planning.
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
Desirable
- Formal training in supervision of other professionals.
- High-level knowledge and skills in specialist neuropsychological assessment of adults.
- High-level knowledge and skills in working with carers.
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).
