Job summary
This is an exciting opportunity to take a leadership role in the development of the maternal mental health service. This will integrate maternity, reproductive health and psychological therapy for women experiencing mental health difficulties arising from the maternity experience including trauma and loss. This service will be based within the Perinatal Mental Health Team. Specialist Midwives will form part of the team and the work will involve working very closely with local maternity units.
A 0.8 WTE 8B Clinical/Counselling Psychologist post is being advertised, to be based in the north hub (Peterborough, Huntingdon and Fenland). The post-holder will have clinical oversight of the service and lead on service/pathway development and clinical governance. They will deliver assessments, a range of interventions, training, supervision, and support to maternity services. We are a community-based team and there will be some expectation to travel for home visits. We would encourage applications with qualified experience in relevant fields or who have applicable knowledge and skills. A package of support, including specialist training, will be provided for those with relevant experience but new to this specialty or a leadership position.
We have a hybrid working model. Your contractual base can be the nearest site to your home. Travel will be compensated in line with NHS terms.
Main duties of the job
The Principal Psychologist will lead on the provision of a high-quality specialist psychological service. They will be responsible for overseeing the clinical work of the service; for developing and monitoring all governance processes, and the interface with all partner agencies.
The post-holder will conduct psychological assessments and provide therapy, drawing on a range of models, to birthing people and their families focused up trauma and loss related to maternity experiences. They will supervise, and support work, including psychologically informed birth plans, provided by specialist midwives within the team, as well as providing training and consultation to the wider pathway. The post-holder will have a leadership role within the MMHS which will sit alongside the wider multi-disciplinary perinatal mental health team for added support and resource.
The post-holder will be part of a therapy team made up of psychologists, family therapists and a parent-infant psychotherapist and will work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of the psychological practice within the Maternal Mental Health Service. The post-holder will be expected to utilise skills for audit, policy, service development and research and will be part of the Psychological Medicine Service and able to access peer supervision and support through this team.
About us
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high-quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting andempowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services, not only via inpatient and primary care settings, but also within the community. These services include children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, research and development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high-calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at www.cpft.nhs.uk
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
- To clinically lead on the service delivery and target objectives/priorities of the Maternal Mental Health Service, to ensure the most efficient and effective utilisation and contribution of psychological knowledge and practice.
- To provide clinical leadership alongside the consultant clinical psychologist in developing and expanding the MMHS and its influence over the wider maternity and perinatal pathways.
- To undertake highly specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service.
- To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of patients of the service based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems. Formulations and plans for support should incorporate interpersonal, cultural, societal and biological factors.
- To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, families and groups.
- To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
- To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
- To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients in accordance with Trust policy and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management, where appropriate.
- To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of care.
- To develop effective links with the range of agencies, statutory and non-statutory, involved in providing care and support to clients and families / support networks.
- To ensure that clients are appropriately consulted about the relevant aspects of their care and are empowered to express their views in a responsive environment.
- To offer a systemic, reflective, and psychological perspective within the team around our understanding of families as well as team and organisational dynamics.
- To utilise skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other staffs psychological work as appropriate.
- To be responsible for the evaluation, monitoring and development of psychological services, operational policies and procedures, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
- To clinically lead on the service delivery and target objectives/priorities of the Maternal Mental Health Service, to ensure the most efficient and effective utilisation and contribution of psychological knowledge and practice.
- To provide clinical leadership alongside the consultant clinical psychologist in developing and expanding the MMHS and its influence over the wider maternity and perinatal pathways.
- To undertake highly specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service.
- To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of patients of the service based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems. Formulations and plans for support should incorporate interpersonal, cultural, societal and biological factors.
- To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, families and groups.
- To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
- To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
- To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients in accordance with Trust policy and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management, where appropriate.
- To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of care.
- To develop effective links with the range of agencies, statutory and non-statutory, involved in providing care and support to clients and families / support networks.
- To ensure that clients are appropriately consulted about the relevant aspects of their care and are empowered to express their views in a responsive environment.
- To offer a systemic, reflective, and psychological perspective within the team around our understanding of families as well as team and organisational dynamics.
- To utilise skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other staffs psychological work as appropriate.
- To be responsible for the evaluation, monitoring and development of psychological services, operational policies and procedures, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
Person Specification
Education / Qualifications
Essential
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical or 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, or a BPS Statement of Equivalence.
- Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council.
Desirable
- Undertaken post-doctoral training in one or more relevant additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
- Undertaken training in EMDR or Trauma Focused-CBT
- A post doctorate qualification in family/systemic therapy.
Experience
Essential
- Significant experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist in the NHS.
- 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 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 exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
- Experience of service development.
Desirable
- Experience of working within the perinatal mental health specialty and/or experience of working with infants and families, loss or bereavement.
- Experience of clinical leadership
Knowledge & Skills
Essential
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within clinical health psychology.
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and setting, and its implication for both clinical practice and professional management.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention, and management, frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration requiring the use of highly developed analytic skills.
- Excellent communication skills, able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information including contentious and highly distressing information to service users, their families' carers, and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- IT skills to fulfil the duties of the job description.
- Able to contain and work with organisational stress.
Desirable
- Knowledge/interest in attachment and systemic work.
- Knowledge and skills in service development, strategic planning and clinical leadership.
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult situation.
- Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information.
- Highly reflective about the impact of upsetting/distressing work on themselves, and an ability to make use of available support and self-care.
Person Specification
Education / Qualifications
Essential
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical or 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, or a BPS Statement of Equivalence.
- Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council.
Desirable
- Undertaken post-doctoral training in one or more relevant additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
- Undertaken training in EMDR or Trauma Focused-CBT
- A post doctorate qualification in family/systemic therapy.
Experience
Essential
- Significant experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist in the NHS.
- 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 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 exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
- Experience of service development.
Desirable
- Experience of working within the perinatal mental health specialty and/or experience of working with infants and families, loss or bereavement.
- Experience of clinical leadership
Knowledge & Skills
Essential
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within clinical health psychology.
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and setting, and its implication for both clinical practice and professional management.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention, and management, frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration requiring the use of highly developed analytic skills.
- Excellent communication skills, able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information including contentious and highly distressing information to service users, their families' carers, and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- IT skills to fulfil the duties of the job description.
- Able to contain and work with organisational stress.
Desirable
- Knowledge/interest in attachment and systemic work.
- Knowledge and skills in service development, strategic planning and clinical leadership.
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult situation.
- Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information.
- Highly reflective about the impact of upsetting/distressing work on themselves, and an ability to make use of available support and self-care.
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
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).