Clinical Psychologist

Job responsibilities

Please see Job Description and Person Specification for further information

Clinical

To provide highly specialist neuropsychological assessments of service users referred to Sheffield memory service, 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 on a daily basis in face to face individual, family and/or in group therapy settings with service users presenting with highly complex and distressing psychological problems, including dementia and cognitive impairment.

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.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly 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 highly 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, complex 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.

Teaching, Training and SupervisionTo receive regular clinical professional supervision in accordance with professional practice (HCPC), BPS and Trust guidelines

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

To provide supervision for trainee clinical psychologists

To provide clinical supervision to less experienced qualified clinical psychologists, assistant(s), or other professionals.

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

To provide highly specialised 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

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 contribute to the governance of psychological practice within their own team by developing and collecting relevant measures of outcome and audit and to provide consultation to other health and social care professionals to enable them to develop their own effective systems of governance.

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

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

To manage the work of assistant psychologists within the framework of the team/services policies and procedures.

To manage any waiting lists within the team and participate as a senior clinician in the allocation of cases taking into account skill mix and caseload. To respond to referrals, making autonomous professional and clinical judgements based upon complex information, prioritising accordingly and contributing to multidisciplinary decision making.

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

To propose policy or service changes which impact beyond own area of activity by participation in Trust working parties and other local development groups.

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 appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

To supervise DClinPsy research projects.

To supervise the research activities of assistant psychologists.

To initiate, undertake and supervise project management, service evaluations and complex audits with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision

To disseminate research findings through publications and conference presentations.

Disclosure and Barring Service CheckThis 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 dependents (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 RegistrationApplicants must have current UK professional HCPC registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer's websitehttps://www.shsc.nhs.uk/working-us (Opens in a new tab)

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological / therapeutic assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Well developed high level skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and / or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non professional groups
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology, including use of computerised statistical packages (eg SPSS)
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific complex groups (e.g. physical health co-morbidities, neurological impairment).
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation

Training and qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate, doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996), including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the HCPC and/or BPS
• Registration with the HCPC as a Clinical Psychologist
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.

Desirable

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

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient 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 working therapeutically with stroke patients within a community rehabilitation setting and within a community stroke rehabilitation inpatient setting, and with their families and carers; working within stroke MDTs
• Experience of neuropsychological assessment, formulation and intervention with people post stroke.
• 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, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Evidence of being able to work effectively in multi-disciplinary settings and teams
• Demonstrates further training/experience normally through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a clinical psychologist/psychological therapist.

Desirable

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

Other

Essential

• Ability to plan, prioritise and organise own workload and that of others
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials including Powerpoint suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain own clinical practice and to contribute to that of others
• Ability to deal with exposure to highly distressing or highly emotional circumstances
• Ability to maintain intense concentration on a frequent basis
• Ability to exercise judgement when presented with highly complex facts or situations requiring the analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).