Deputy Head of Clinical Health Psychology

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical

1. To have advanced specialist knowledge, including doctoral level degree, specialist training courses, and to be in receipt of regular clinical and management supervision.

2. To be accountable for the direct delivery of Clinical Health Psychology in Kensington & Chelsea, in conjunction with the Head of Clinical Health Psychology.

3. To provide highly developed specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team, based upon the appropriate analysis, 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, requiring frequent periods of intense concentration.

4.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.

5. To work with highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, at times in environments which might be antagonistic or highly emotive, including but not limited to difficult family dynamics, difficult team dynamics, risk assessment and end of life care.

6. 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.

7. To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

8. To exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the treatment of and discharge of clients whose difficulties 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.

9. To have full responsibility for providing expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients specialised formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

10.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.

11. 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.

1. To ensure appropriate systems for the clinical and professional supervision of qualified and unqualified psychologists across the service/sector.

2. To provide clinical and management supervision of the Senior Leadership Team within the Clinical Health Psychology service, in conjunction with the Head of Clinical Health Psychology. To ensure safe and effective line management supervision is provided to all qualified and assistant psychologists in the services.

3. To provide specialist clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, 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.

1. To contribute to the leadership of the department including for its strategy, which should specifically include its sustainability, equality and diversity, and maintaining the partnership between all commissioning acute Trusts and CNWL NHSFT.

2. To lead as a senior clinician in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service for clients, 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.

3. To contribute to ensuring relevant operational strategies are implemented and reviewed regularly and are accessible to all relevant staff, such as Business Continuity Plans.

4. To lead as the senior clinician in the development of a high quality, supportive and inclusive working environment for team members and managers, including their welfare, professional and personal development.

5.To support the systematic professional and clinical governance of psychological practice within the sector/service, including maintaining systematic records of appraisals, clinical record keeping standards and the transcribing of minutes and records of appropriate professional meetings.

Person Specification

Education and Qualification

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.
• Current HCPC Practitioner Psychologist registration.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the HCPC.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.

Desirable

• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.

Experience

Essential

• Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist including post qualification experience within clinical health psychology
• 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.
• Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists.
• Experience of management of staff including rostering, welfare and performance management.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.

Desirable

• Experience of multi-professional management of teams or services within clinical health psychology.
• Experience of representing the profession in local policy and professional network forums.
• Experience of initiating and developing a psychology service to patients of a healthcare group, including business case development.
• Experience of liaising and managing partnerships with external organisations.
• Experience of budget management and control.

Skills and knowledge

Essential

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• A high level ability to communicate effectively at both a written and oral level complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS.
• Ability to identify and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and practice of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
• Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Well-developed knowledge regarding key policies and drivers within the NHS, locally and nationally.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.

Desirable

• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies.

Attitudes, aptitudes, personal characteristics

Essential

• Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery, and an ability to articulate the value by psychology services within the context of multidisciplinary healthcare teams.
• Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others.

Desirable

• A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the service area.
• Ability to demonstrate leadership and management skills.

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

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

South Kensington Mental Health Centre

1 Nightingale Place

London

SW10 9NG

Employer's website

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