Job summary
Clinical or Counselling Psychologist
We are looking to recruit a highly motivated HCPC-registered Clinical or Counselling Psychologist with an interest in community psychology approaches to an innovative post with the Tower Hamlets Community Psychology Team within Adult Mental health Psychology Services.
The post holder will provide psychological interventions to people with complex mental health needs. They will also contribute to developing and maintaining partnership working with local community groups to promote social connections, community engagement and participation. The post holder will contribute to staff supervision and training and provide psychological advice (informal, ad hoc, and formal consultation) to other staff, community workers, carers and people with lived experience of mental distress.
The post is suitable for a psychologist who is keen to embrace the privileges of working in a diverse borough and a commitment to working with people with complex mental health difficulties and from a range of religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds as well as working in partnership with staff teams and community organisations to deliver psychologically informed care.
We aim to develop and deliver our services through co-production with people with lived experience. The department has an excellent relationship with People Participation and the local Recovery College. We would expect you to be fully committed to partnership working and co-production.
Main duties of the job
- The post is responsible for the provision of specialist psychological input to secondary mental health services and those in the community, particularly those vulnerable to poor health outcomes through poverty and other social inequalities, disabilities and physical health conditions.
- To develop and maintain partnership working with local community organisations.
- To develop, through co-production, psychological interventions that address the needs of undeserved communities in the borough including shared support, social connections and community engagement.
- To provide consultation and support to staff of ELFT and other community organisations.
- To promote population and public health and develop innovative ways of working that will also inform the further development of the Trust's approach to population health
- Be responsible for and ensure the provision of a specialist psychological perspective to the work of statutory and voluntary sector agencies working with people who have complex health and social needs.
- Manage, co-ordinate, provide clinical supervision to the work of assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists as appropriate.
- Develop and implement evaluation of the work, and prepare reports to disseminate the work.
- To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.
- Participate in CPD and other developmental activities, keeping up to date with relevant psychological research and national guidance (DoH, NICE etc).
About us
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations
Job description
Job responsibilities
Kindly refer to the job description and person specification that is attached to the vacancy profile.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Kindly refer to the job description and person specification that is attached to the vacancy profile.
Person Specification
Education/Qualification/Training
Essential
- Post Graduate Doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology or equivalent accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).
- HCPC registration
Desirable
- Clinical supervision training for doctoral psychology trainees
- Further training in systemic, narrative therapy or community psychology approaches
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity.
- Providing specialist psychological assessment, including the use of theoretical models to analyse information and to develop formulations upon which to base choice of treatment.
- Planning and exercising clinical responsibility for service users' psychological care and treatment within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- The application of psychologically informed interventions in different cultural contexts including working with interpreters.
- Ability to provide a culturally competent and non- stigmatising service including an awareness of the potential impact of discrimination and disadvantage on mental health
- Co-produced clinical care
Desirable
- Providing specialist psychological assessment, including cognitive and neuropsychological assessment, and treatment of service users across the full range of care settings and clinical severity including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient.
- Experience of providing teaching, training and clinical supervision.
- The application of psychological principles across multiple environments and populations
Knowledge
Essential
- Community psychology approaches to population mental health
- The theory and practice of psychological assessment and therapies in relation to treatment of a range of mental health disorders.
- Risk assessment practice and procedures.
- Application of standardised assessments, outcome measures and evaluation tools
- The value of People Participation in the delivery and development of services
- Wide range of IT applications, including databases, word processing, presentation software and teleconferencing tools.
- Doctoral-level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
- The presentation of complex mental health problems.
- The legal and ethical issues relating to health care and working in the community.
Desirable
- Understanding of community psychology principles as applied to a clinical setting
- Knowledge of the academic literature of the specialism
- Approaches to addressing population health
Skills
Essential
- Deliver co-produced clinical care and service delivery at population, systemic and individual levels with service users and carers
- Demonstrably respectful and collaborative approach to service users, carers, colleagues, other professional contacts.
- Specialist psychological (e.g. systemic, narrative or other) assessment, intervention and evaluation skills.
- The use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management including the use of theoretical models to analyse information and to develop formulations upon which to base choice of treatment with particular reference to Adult Mental Health.
- Provide a psychological perspective within interagency and community settings.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, to support partnership building and maintenance both within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective working with local communities.
- The use of research and audit relevant to the evaluation of service interventions, and compliance with guidance/policy
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS. Whilst remaining collaborative and respectful
- Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from service users.
- Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information.
Desirable
- Working in local community centres and spaces in partnership with local community groups
- Work creatively, co-operatively, reliably and consistently both as an independent practitioner, within team settings and in multi-agency settings.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance
Knowledge and Skills
Desirable
- Proficient in one of the locally spoken languages (Bengali Sylheti dialect or Somali)
Person Specification
Education/Qualification/Training
Essential
- Post Graduate Doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology or equivalent accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).
- HCPC registration
Desirable
- Clinical supervision training for doctoral psychology trainees
- Further training in systemic, narrative therapy or community psychology approaches
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity.
- Providing specialist psychological assessment, including the use of theoretical models to analyse information and to develop formulations upon which to base choice of treatment.
- Planning and exercising clinical responsibility for service users' psychological care and treatment within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- The application of psychologically informed interventions in different cultural contexts including working with interpreters.
- Ability to provide a culturally competent and non- stigmatising service including an awareness of the potential impact of discrimination and disadvantage on mental health
- Co-produced clinical care
Desirable
- Providing specialist psychological assessment, including cognitive and neuropsychological assessment, and treatment of service users across the full range of care settings and clinical severity including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient.
- Experience of providing teaching, training and clinical supervision.
- The application of psychological principles across multiple environments and populations
Knowledge
Essential
- Community psychology approaches to population mental health
- The theory and practice of psychological assessment and therapies in relation to treatment of a range of mental health disorders.
- Risk assessment practice and procedures.
- Application of standardised assessments, outcome measures and evaluation tools
- The value of People Participation in the delivery and development of services
- Wide range of IT applications, including databases, word processing, presentation software and teleconferencing tools.
- Doctoral-level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
- The presentation of complex mental health problems.
- The legal and ethical issues relating to health care and working in the community.
Desirable
- Understanding of community psychology principles as applied to a clinical setting
- Knowledge of the academic literature of the specialism
- Approaches to addressing population health
Skills
Essential
- Deliver co-produced clinical care and service delivery at population, systemic and individual levels with service users and carers
- Demonstrably respectful and collaborative approach to service users, carers, colleagues, other professional contacts.
- Specialist psychological (e.g. systemic, narrative or other) assessment, intervention and evaluation skills.
- The use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management including the use of theoretical models to analyse information and to develop formulations upon which to base choice of treatment with particular reference to Adult Mental Health.
- Provide a psychological perspective within interagency and community settings.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, to support partnership building and maintenance both within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective working with local communities.
- The use of research and audit relevant to the evaluation of service interventions, and compliance with guidance/policy
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS. Whilst remaining collaborative and respectful
- Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from service users.
- Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information.
Desirable
- Working in local community centres and spaces in partnership with local community groups
- Work creatively, co-operatively, reliably and consistently both as an independent practitioner, within team settings and in multi-agency settings.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance
Knowledge and Skills
Desirable
- Proficient in one of the locally spoken languages (Bengali Sylheti dialect or Somali)
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).
