Job summary
This 8a Psychologist post will support the operational leadership for Westminster for the SLaM Psychology in Hostels (PIH) Service. The service works to address the psychological needs and experiences of trauma that are both causes and consequences of homelessness, in line with national best practice guidance promoting Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) and Trauma-Informed Care (TIC).
The client group experience multipledisadvantageandhavehigh levelsof complex trauma and interpersonal difficulties coupled with substance misuse, physical health issues and risk-takingbehaviour. We offer a 'PIE' approach to support clients and 3rd sector staff teams. A PIE takes into consideration how the psychological and emotional needs of the clients are affected by the environments they inhabit and how services support them. This includes the approaches adopted by hostel and outreach staff; the training and support offered; the psychology-specific interventions delivered, and the integration of psychological and trauma informed approaches in the design of services. The current PIE psychology model uses a range of evidence-based treatments for working with complex needs populations (Incl. MBT, DBT, CBT, Narrative, Systemic, Psychodynamic).
We aimto work with the whole system around people experiencing homelessness, and are keen to continue to develop our community psychology ways of working.
Main duties of the job
Adopt community psychology, trauma informed and PIE approaches to work with people with significant needs, including homelessness, multiple exclusion, criminal offending, complex trauma, substance use, psychosis and brain injury; and with the teams that support them.
Work alongside 3rd sector partner organisations to deliver psychologically informed environments in hostel, supported accommodation and outreach settings
Staff support including training, consultation, reflective practice and incident debriefs
Contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create psychologically safe environments.
Develop and maintain good working relationships with 3rd sector partners, local commissioners and community services.
Be responsible for the good clinical governance,qualityand appropriateness of the work ofPiHservices.
Supervise and linemanage multiple qualified psychologists and psychological therapists in the team.
Support the wellbeing of the PiH team through formal and informal systems and spaces used to attend to and address issues.
Lead on PiH quarterly data reporting for the OHID Rough Sleeping Drug & Alcohol Treatment Grant (RSDATG) Contract
Contributeto winningbids, grants, tendering and commissioning, andsupportClinical lead with recommissioning, funding management and contract delivery.
About us
This senior role will sit within a wider Psychology in Hostels team based across Westminster and Lambeth.
About the location:
This post will support leadership and management of a team based across multiple third sector run accommodation sites (hostels and shared housing) within Westminster. The team has an admin base in Brixton and also involved home working.
Our Trust headquarters is located at Denmark Hill less than 5 minutes from the train station (zone 2). We also provide services and operate across other locations, such as London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; and substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Lambeth, Greenwich and Wandsworth.
Benefits:
We are committed to ensuring our staff get the most out of their benefits package and understand the importance of a healthy work life balance. There is an extensive range of excellent benefits for you and your family. We want you to feel like you are part of a close knit team at SLaM. It's important to us that you feel valued and appreciated and that is why we have a comprehensive benefits package on offer.
Some of our benefits are highlighted here:
- Generous pay, pensions and leave
- Work life balance,
- Career development
- Car lease
- Accommodation
- NHS discounts
Other benefits include:
- Counselling services
- Wellbeing events
- Long service awards
- Cycle to work scheme
- Season ticket loan
- Childcare vouchers
- Staff restaurants
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:
Clinical and Client Care
To plan, organise and ensure the delivery of Psychology in Hostels (PIH) services in Westminster - working creatively and flexibly, in line with Community Psychology principles to meet the needs of our third sector partners and the people they support.
To provide a high level of clinical expertise in supporting the psychological needs of rough sleepers and homeless people in supported accommodation with histories of complex trauma, personality disorder, addiction, brain injury. This includes specialist assessment, clinical formulation and delivery of evidence-based models (e.g.: MBT, DBT, Systemic, Narrative, Integrative) for clients with a wide range of complex mental health needs.
To provide and oversee the delivery of evidence based and culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
Delivery of case consultations and formulation spaces to a wide range of hostel and outreach front line workers and managers to support psychological understanding of and approaches to support clients with complex and multiple needs.
Partnership Work
To develop and maintain effective partnership working with our third sector hostel, supported housing or outreach partner services, as well as other community services and local commissioners.
To develop and maintain partnership working with the Westminster Drug & Alcohol service (Turning Point) and provide psychological input into existing MDT case discussion spaces and support front line Turning Point staff and managers.
To lead on quarterly PiH data reporting for the OHID Rough Sleepers Drug & Alcohol Treatment Grant Contract in Westminster and present data at quarterly meetings.
Teaching, Training, and Supervision
To be responsible for planning, organising, and the delivery of teaching and training of pre- and post- qualification psychologists and specialist training to other professions in the PiH team.
To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the PiH teams by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology, psychological therapies, Homelessness, PIEs, Mentalisation-Based Treat (MBT) and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
To provide clinical, professional and managerial supervision to junior members of the team for all aspects of their work.
To deliver training in psychological and trauma-informed approaches to care and working with different mental health difficulties for other professionals and third sector partners across Westminster
Team and Service Clinical Functioning
To work with other SLaM services and other agencies services (particularly the homeless sector) to plan and deliver joint services that are integrated around the needs of service users.
To support recruitment of staff including the psychology and psychotherapy staff in the PiH teams.
To support the wellbeing of the PiH team through formal and informal systems and spaces used to attend to and address issues.
Clinical and Client Care Policy and Service Development
Support on winning bids, grants, tendering and commissioning, and support recommissioning, funding management and contract delivery.
Support on developing service sustainability models, recommissioning and grant applications, including working with relevant SLaM Corporate, Legal and Contracts teams and directorate leadership as required
To initiate, implement and ensure appropriate service developments to improve the quality and delivery of PiH services and in partnership organisations and services.
To support the PiH service to be national leaders in service design and delivery for working with homeless people and those experiencing multiple disadvantage through the continued development of innovative Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) practice.
To take a lead role in ensuring that services to clients are of a high quality and are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards and local authority commissioners and direct provider contracts.
Leadership
To provide leadership to psychologists, psychotherapists and other professionals in the PiH team.
Support and maintain a service culture and values in line with Trust values as well as the teams' vision of addressing health inequalities and multiple disadvantage of people experiencing homelessness, and the value of cross-sector partnership working as ways of improving clinical practice and service delivery.
Research and Service Evaluation
To provide expertise in the highly specialist research area which contributes to PiH and PIE more broadly.
To develop and maintenance of a strong research culture that values the use of outcome measures and mix-method evaluations as a way of improving clinical practice.
Professional Responsibilities
To receive regular clinical and professional supervision according to HCPC, BPS, or other relevant professional requirements and in-line with Trust guidelines.
To ensure professional registration with the HCPC (for psychologists). For other therapists, to ensure professional accreditation with their relevant registry body is maintained.
To ensure that all psychology and psychotherapy staff for whom the post-holder has leadership or management responsibility, maintain professional standards and continuing professional development.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:
Clinical and Client Care
To plan, organise and ensure the delivery of Psychology in Hostels (PIH) services in Westminster - working creatively and flexibly, in line with Community Psychology principles to meet the needs of our third sector partners and the people they support.
To provide a high level of clinical expertise in supporting the psychological needs of rough sleepers and homeless people in supported accommodation with histories of complex trauma, personality disorder, addiction, brain injury. This includes specialist assessment, clinical formulation and delivery of evidence-based models (e.g.: MBT, DBT, Systemic, Narrative, Integrative) for clients with a wide range of complex mental health needs.
To provide and oversee the delivery of evidence based and culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
Delivery of case consultations and formulation spaces to a wide range of hostel and outreach front line workers and managers to support psychological understanding of and approaches to support clients with complex and multiple needs.
Partnership Work
To develop and maintain effective partnership working with our third sector hostel, supported housing or outreach partner services, as well as other community services and local commissioners.
To develop and maintain partnership working with the Westminster Drug & Alcohol service (Turning Point) and provide psychological input into existing MDT case discussion spaces and support front line Turning Point staff and managers.
To lead on quarterly PiH data reporting for the OHID Rough Sleepers Drug & Alcohol Treatment Grant Contract in Westminster and present data at quarterly meetings.
Teaching, Training, and Supervision
To be responsible for planning, organising, and the delivery of teaching and training of pre- and post- qualification psychologists and specialist training to other professions in the PiH team.
To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the PiH teams by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology, psychological therapies, Homelessness, PIEs, Mentalisation-Based Treat (MBT) and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
To provide clinical, professional and managerial supervision to junior members of the team for all aspects of their work.
To deliver training in psychological and trauma-informed approaches to care and working with different mental health difficulties for other professionals and third sector partners across Westminster
Team and Service Clinical Functioning
To work with other SLaM services and other agencies services (particularly the homeless sector) to plan and deliver joint services that are integrated around the needs of service users.
To support recruitment of staff including the psychology and psychotherapy staff in the PiH teams.
To support the wellbeing of the PiH team through formal and informal systems and spaces used to attend to and address issues.
Clinical and Client Care Policy and Service Development
Support on winning bids, grants, tendering and commissioning, and support recommissioning, funding management and contract delivery.
Support on developing service sustainability models, recommissioning and grant applications, including working with relevant SLaM Corporate, Legal and Contracts teams and directorate leadership as required
To initiate, implement and ensure appropriate service developments to improve the quality and delivery of PiH services and in partnership organisations and services.
To support the PiH service to be national leaders in service design and delivery for working with homeless people and those experiencing multiple disadvantage through the continued development of innovative Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) practice.
To take a lead role in ensuring that services to clients are of a high quality and are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards and local authority commissioners and direct provider contracts.
Leadership
To provide leadership to psychologists, psychotherapists and other professionals in the PiH team.
Support and maintain a service culture and values in line with Trust values as well as the teams' vision of addressing health inequalities and multiple disadvantage of people experiencing homelessness, and the value of cross-sector partnership working as ways of improving clinical practice and service delivery.
Research and Service Evaluation
To provide expertise in the highly specialist research area which contributes to PiH and PIE more broadly.
To develop and maintenance of a strong research culture that values the use of outcome measures and mix-method evaluations as a way of improving clinical practice.
Professional Responsibilities
To receive regular clinical and professional supervision according to HCPC, BPS, or other relevant professional requirements and in-line with Trust guidelines.
To ensure professional registration with the HCPC (for psychologists). For other therapists, to ensure professional accreditation with their relevant registry body is maintained.
To ensure that all psychology and psychotherapy staff for whom the post-holder has leadership or management responsibility, maintain professional standards and continuing professional development.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Entry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession and extensive demonstrable practice in this field (e.g. professional Doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology or other relevant professional doctorate or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/ supervised practice/ additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration
- Additional training beyond entry-level qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent) OR a combination of specialist short courses and/an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by a registered body and/or an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher.
- Registered with professional body as appropriate to discipline HCPC/APC/ BPC/UKCP/BACP/ BABCP/ADMP-UK.
Desirable
- Additional postgraduate training in other relevant specialist psychological models (DBT, Systemic).
Experience
Essential
- Evidence of having worked in an area of relevance (incl. complex trauma, homelessness, substance misuse and/or personality disorder).
- Experience of supporting the design, development and delivery of 'Psychologically Informed Environments' (PIEs) and/or 'Trauma Informed Care' in homeless sector settings and organisations.
- Experience of highly specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in PiH homeless services.
- Experience of designing services and supporting clinical teams to work with hard to reach clients or marginalised populations.
- Experience in staff management including line management, performance management and appraisal.
Desirable
- Experience of working with homeless organisations, services, and teams.
- Experience of managing commissioner relationships and reporting against contracts
Knowledge
Essential
- Advanced knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics relevant to PiH and homeless psychology services.
- Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care and models of care required to reach diverse, excluded, and marginalised populations.
- Doctoral level knowledge or equivalent of psychological research methodology and statistical analysis.
Skills and Abilities
Essential
- Highly developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, highly technical and sensitive information to clients, families and colleagues.
- Skills in providing teaching and training to psychologists and other professional groups using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings, including to doctoral level.
- Skills and experience in organisational consultancy, service design and strategic leadership.
Desirable
- Skills in designing clinical audit projects, managing internal evaluations, external evaluation teams, implementing change and taking responsibility from end to end.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Entry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession and extensive demonstrable practice in this field (e.g. professional Doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology or other relevant professional doctorate or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/ supervised practice/ additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration
- Additional training beyond entry-level qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent) OR a combination of specialist short courses and/an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by a registered body and/or an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher.
- Registered with professional body as appropriate to discipline HCPC/APC/ BPC/UKCP/BACP/ BABCP/ADMP-UK.
Desirable
- Additional postgraduate training in other relevant specialist psychological models (DBT, Systemic).
Experience
Essential
- Evidence of having worked in an area of relevance (incl. complex trauma, homelessness, substance misuse and/or personality disorder).
- Experience of supporting the design, development and delivery of 'Psychologically Informed Environments' (PIEs) and/or 'Trauma Informed Care' in homeless sector settings and organisations.
- Experience of highly specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in PiH homeless services.
- Experience of designing services and supporting clinical teams to work with hard to reach clients or marginalised populations.
- Experience in staff management including line management, performance management and appraisal.
Desirable
- Experience of working with homeless organisations, services, and teams.
- Experience of managing commissioner relationships and reporting against contracts
Knowledge
Essential
- Advanced knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics relevant to PiH and homeless psychology services.
- Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care and models of care required to reach diverse, excluded, and marginalised populations.
- Doctoral level knowledge or equivalent of psychological research methodology and statistical analysis.
Skills and Abilities
Essential
- Highly developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, highly technical and sensitive information to clients, families and colleagues.
- Skills in providing teaching and training to psychologists and other professional groups using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings, including to doctoral level.
- Skills and experience in organisational consultancy, service design and strategic leadership.
Desirable
- Skills in designing clinical audit projects, managing internal evaluations, external evaluation teams, implementing change and taking responsibility from end to end.
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).
