Psychological Therapist/Clinical Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job purpose

To provide a qualified specialist clinical psychology/psychological therapy service to service users of the Mood and Anxiety-related Disorders Team, Specialist Psychotherapy Service. To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on service users psychological care to psychologist/therapist colleagues, non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers. In common with all Clinical Psychologists/ Psychological Therapists, to receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with good practice.

To take sole professional responsibility and exercise autonomous professional and clinical judgement within the overall framework of Trust, HCPC/NMC & BPS/BABCP/ACAT/UKCP policies/guidelines/standards.

To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

General requirements

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post-holders professional and service manager(s).

To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology/ psychological therapy across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal, and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology/psychological therapy and related disciplines.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the HCPC or NMC and BABCP/BPS/ACAT/UKCP, and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues.

To develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues within Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust and in the statutory and voluntary services with the aim of promoting high standards of care and clinical practice.

To maintain professional registration as a Clinical Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council

OR

To maintain accreditation as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist with the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP)

OR

To maintain accreditation with another recognised national professional body for psychological therapy e.g. ACAT, UKCP.

Principal duties

To provide specialist psychological assessments of service users referred to The Mood and Anxiety-related Disorders Team, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in the persons care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a service users problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the persons problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across a full range of care settings.

To work routinely in face-to-face individual, family and/or in group therapy settings with service users presenting with complex and distressing psychological problems, including complex anxiety and depressive disorders.

To be responsible for implementing a range of specialist 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 different provisional hypotheses. This will include the implementation for safe, effective, evidence-based trauma focused psychotherapy for PTSD.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of service users whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals (both psychologists/therapists and non-psychologists) contributing directly to service users formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all users of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the service user group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual service users and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

To coordinate, where appropriate, the intervention plans, taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviews of plans, and including service users, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of service users under their care and to monitor progress during both the course of uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

Service development

Management, Recruitment, Policy, Organisational and Service Development.

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of aspects of the teams clinical practice through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To manage the workloads of assistant psychologists, where appropriate, within the framework of the team/services policies and procedures.

To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant psychologists.

To implement the policies and propose changes to working practices/procedures concerning professional good practice for the provision of psychological/therapy services as applicable to MAPPS to ensure the highest standards of service to the service user group.

Research and Service Evaluation

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To undertake, where appropriate, research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.

To disseminate research findings through publications and conference presentations.

Working Environment.

To provide psychological care to service users and their carers in the least restrictive and least stigmatising environment in St Georges Community Health Centre

The job role will involve working alone in situations where there may be some risk of verbal or physical aggression from service users, carers, and the general public.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

To receive regular clinical professional supervision in accordance with professional practice (HCPC/ BPS/NMC/BABCP/ACAT/UKCP) and Trust guidelines.

To gain wider post-qualification knowledge, skills and experience through further experience and specialist supervision in specific psychological approaches and/or with service user groups supported by case presentations, group supervision and short courses as part of an agreed personal development plan.

To provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work, as appropriate.

To provide professional and clinical supervision of assistant psychologists where appropriate.

To offer training placements to trainee CBT therapists where appropriate.

To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical psychology/CBT therapy, as appropriate.

To provide advice, consultation and training to staff (including both psychologists/ therapists and non-psychologists) working with the service user group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

To attend supervisor training in preparation for becoming a supervisor for the DClinPsy Training Courses or the Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy where appropriate.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology/near completion or Post-graduate Diploma qualification in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Or Completion of specialist training in CAT Or Recognised qualification as a High Intensity IAPT CBT therapist Or oPost-graduate diploma or qualification in a recognised NHS psychotherapy model such as DBT, CAT, CBT, Psychodynamic or EMDR and accredited by a professional body.
• Registration as a Clinical Psychologist with the HCPC Or Full accreditation with BABCP for CBT Or Accredited by another known professional body

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology/psychological therapy.
• Completed or partial training in EMDR Additional, post-qualification short courses.

Clinical Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users across the full range of care settings.
• Ability to work with service users presenting with complex psychological difficulties. Ability to work with the potential of individuals or their carers becoming abusive and aggressive
• Experience of delivering safe, effective, evidence-based trauma focused psychotherapy for PTSD
• Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal and physical abuse.
• Evidence of being able to work effectively in multidisciplinary settings and teams

Desirable

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology/psychological therapy in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of using EMDR

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Demonstrable knowledge and skills in the safe and effective delivery of evidence-based trauma focused psychotherapy for PTSD
• Well-developed, high-level skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS

Desirable

• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific complex groups, including complex anxiety and depressive disorders

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

Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

St. Georges Community Health Centre

Winter Street,

Sheffield

S3 7ND

Employer's website

https://www.shsc.nhs.uk/working-us (Opens in a new tab)