Clinical or Counselling Psychologist Band 7-8a Development Post

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

This job is now closed

Job summary

This job makes better lives by providing psychological services to parents within Family Safeguarding. To provide clinical expertise to the Family Safeguarding Team, providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to clients, their families or carers, where there are highly complex presentations.

The post will be based within the Family Safeguarding Service of Surrey County Council (permanently seconded from Surrey & Borders Partnership NHS Trust). You will be managed and supervised by the Lead Clinical Psychologists within the Safeguarding service and work alongside a team of social workers and other professionals with parents and their children where there is high risk of severe parenting problems including maltreatment and neglect.

Our ground-breaking family safeguarding model will bring together all the professionals we need, under one roof, to provide intensive support to parents to address the mental health, substance misuse and domestic abuse that place children at risk of significant harm. As part of the mental health team, you will be working alongside parents experiencing a wide range of mental health needs that may be impacting upon their parenting role.

Main duties of the job

There are opportunities to use a range of psychological models including systemic, CBT and trauma focused models to understand and meet parents needs and the social contexts that are impacting upon them. Alongside this direct work, a powerful part of the role is disseminating psychological knowledge within a multi-agency context. This includes providing training and consultation to Social Work colleagues to develop understanding of parents psychological needs and support relationships within the professional system. An important focus of our model is to invest in training all team members, with Social Work colleagues trained in motivational interviewing and excellent opportunities for CPD and training for psychologists.

The post will include professional development opportunities including supervising mental health practitioners within the service and developing group work. You will join a dedicated and enthusiastic multi-disciplinary team committed to developing the highest standards of assessment and treatment for the most vulnerable infants, children and parents. There will be ample opportunity to develop and apply a wide range of skills.

The post holder will be expected to work flexibly in line with the hours of operation and travel to and from other locations, including to family homes.

About us

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the leading provider of health and social care services for people of all ages with mental ill-health and learning disabilities in Surrey and North East Hampshire. We also provide social care services for people with a learning disability in Croydon and ASD and ADHD assessment services in Hampshire.

We actively seek to engage people who use our services and our communities in improving the mental wellbeing of the local population. We work closely with other NHS and voluntary sector organisations who provide services and support people who use services and carers.

Surrey is a beautiful county lying just 30 minutes away from Central London and from the South Coast.

Our historic market towns and bustling districts are enveloped in wonderful countryside, and our excellent road and rail networks bring the rest of the country within easy reach.

For international travel, both Gatwick and Heathrow airports are nearby.

Please note that we reserve the right to close posts as soon as sufficient applications are received.

Working from home contracts do not attract high cost area payments.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Date posted

21 September 2022

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£43,574 to £56,534 a year Incl 5% Fringe HCAS.

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

C9325-22-3851

Job locations

Surrey County Council

Southway

Guildford

Surrey

GU2 8WZ

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

To adhere to professional code of conduct at all times

To provide highly specialist psychological assessment of adults with mental health difficulties. To undertake the assessment utilising information from a broad range of structured psychometric and semi-structured clinical methods. To administer, score and interpret neuropsychological assessment where appropriate. To integrate all information into a psychological formulation of the client and his/her psychosocial environment, drawing on a range of psychological theoretical perspectives.

To be responsible for the systematic provision of specialist psychology services to adults with complex, severe and enduring mental health difficulties within Family Safeguarding Teams

To undertake high quality direct (assessment and therapeutic) and indirect (consultative, advisory and evaluative) specialist psychological interventions making autonomous clinical decisions about own professional practice.

To ensure the clinical effectiveness of own practice and of service functioning by undertaking audit, research and service development activities relevant to the service area.

To supervise and support the psychological therapy provided by other members of the multidisciplinary team.

To provide a clinical psychology assessment and treatment service and support the multi-disciplinary teams to apply psychology models and evidence-based practice in their work.

To manage risk and improve outcomes for children who have a range of needs, including the need to be protected and to be looked after by the local authority.

To provide consultation and clinical expertise to social work colleagues, foster carers, health and education professionals and others.

To utilise research skills for audit, service development and research.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the locality service for clients.

Band 8a (in addition to Band 7 responsibilities):

To take a lead role in implementing policy and service development changes and projects agreed with the service manager and professional lead

Assist in appropriate staff recruitment and induction and contribute to the wider strategic plans regarding psychology recruitment.

To provide reports and give evidence in the Family Court if required.

Clinical:

To demonstrate specialist clinical skills such specialist psychological assessments, formulation, therapeutic interventions.

To carry out specialist psychological assessments, including risk assessments of children referred to Family Safeguarding.

To actively involve people in developing and agreeing their own care plan, to act as an advocate and ensure that there is proper regard for their choice, self-esteem, racial, cultural, sexual and religious needs and preferences.

To provide consultation and advice to the Local Authority regarding decision making on risk and maltreatment of children.

To provide consultation and support to other clinicians within Family Safeguarding to encourage a psychological approach in their work and to facilitate their professional development, reflective capacity and the effective and safe delivery of psychological services.

To provide a therapeutic service to the most vulnerable children and their families.

To carry out comprehensive assessments, plan, implement and evaluate delivery of psychology interventions as part of a holistic approach working in a variety of settings.

To undertake comprehensive risk assessments and develop effective risk management plans.

To work in partnership with primary care services and other healthcare providers.

To establish and maintain effective relationships with colleagues, other agencies, people who use services and their families.

To manage the planning and direction of the psychological therapy group programme and to take part in delivering group psychological therapy.

Band 8a (in addition to Band 7 responsibilities):

To contribute highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other

professionals, contributing to the formulation and development of more in-depth care and risk management plans

Demonstrate experience in the specialist area of practice and confidence to supervise qualified Psychologists and offer expert consultation to non-psychology colleagues.

Professional

To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of clinical work and care.

To maintain high standards of care in all areas of practice in accordance with the HCPC Code of Conduct, professional guidelines and Trust Policies and Procedures. To follow the principles of the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act (2005).

To be aware of and implement Safeguarding Adult and Child Protection Policies, Procedures and legislation. To carry out professional responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and other relevant legislation.

To contribute to conducting clinical audit and research, maintaining current knowledge of research findings.

To participate in quality assurance activities as required.

To contribute to the development, implementation and monitoring of interventions driven by government initiatives.

To contribute to developing and providing a range of specialist teaching/training packages which can be delivered to a range of multi-disciplinary audiences.

Band 8a (in addition to Band 7 responsibilities):

To act as practice assessor/supervisor/teacher in teaching, facilitating and supporting pre-registration students and junior personnel and to participate in the audit of educational placements. To oversee new staff induction.

To be responsible for relevant data collection on work activities, inputting data onto the Trust databases as required, and to maintain a high standard of clinical record keeping.

To participate fully in supporting the activities of the Psychology profession within the Trust, including attending relevant Locality/department meetings where appropriate.

Please note that this is band 7 development opportunity and funding has been secured for appointed candidates to progress to a band 8A Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist position once agreed clinical and leadership competencies have been met. Unless 8a competencies are met at the time of application, the successful candidate will commence in post at band 7 and then work towards individualised competencies as discussed with the psychology leads.