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Location

Orpington, Greater London | United Kingdom

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Job description

Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist, Band 8b
Fixed Term/Secondment (1 year, maternity cover) - Part Time - 30 hours per week

Acute Inpatient Crisis Directorate

The successful candidate will have the unique opportunity to lead an innovative and creative inpatient crisis psychology service. This will offer you the potential to develop highly specialist knowledge, skills, and experience of the interface between inpatient and community adult mental health services, whilst improving access to early intervention, family work and evidenced based therapy, at a crucial point in people’s lives.

The role of psychology is well-established and valued in the acute inpatient and crisis service at Green Parks House. You will be based on one ward (Norman Ward) providing clinical input and team support (including reflective practice, support following incidents, MDT formulation and clinical governance). You will be leading a team of two clinical/counselling psychologists, three assistant psychologists and one Patient Engagement Facilitator, working across the three adult wards. You will also be part of the wider acute psychology team at Green Parks House, including Psychiatric Liaison and Home Treatment Team as well as the larger group of acute inpatient crisis Psychologists in the Trust offering excellent support, supervision, and opportunities for continued professional development.

We would particularly welcome applicants with expertise and/or interest in family and group work.

The post holder will provide skilled and experienced leadership for the psychology team, overseeing the provision and development of the psychological therapies service and wider psychological and trauma-informed practice in acute services. The post will ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist clinical psychology service to clients on the adult acute mental health wards.

The post holder will provide direct clinical input to one ward (Norman Ward) and including MDT formulation and clinical governance. They will lead the assistant psychologists in providing a well-established group programme drawing on DBT, ACT, Narrative therapy (tree of life) across all three wards. They would also be involved in the provision of family interventions during the crisis period across all three wards. There is the possibility for some longer-term therapy as continuity from the ward.

To provide consultation and reflective practice and incident debriefs to the service and to facilitate team working, psychologically informed practice, trauma-informed care and appropriate treatment pathways to optimise service user journey and experience across service transitions.

To utilise research skills for audit, policy, training and service development and research.

On Call/Unsocial Hours

Not a current expectation of the post. This job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

Management responsibilities
1. To exercise delegated responsibility for managing the psychological resources available to three adult mental health wards, whether in the form of additional qualified and unqualified graduate psychology staff, or in the form of psychological materials employed in the assessment and treatment of patients.
2. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service.
3. To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, both in the short-listing process and as a member of interview panels for assistant, trainees and qualified clinical psychologists.
4. To provide day to day management of the psychology team at Green Parks House.
5. To be an authorised signatory for staff related expenses.
6. Liaise with the budget holder to agree best use of funds and be responsible for reviewing and monitoring usage.
7. To contribute to the overall management and functioning of the service

Leadership
1. To provide clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good mental health care and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.
2. To provide post-qualification training (CPD) and clinical professional supervision to qualified clinical and/or counselling psychologists attached to the service.
3. To provide advice, consultation and training and clinical supervision to other members of the service for their provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve clients’ functioning.
4. To provide pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or counselling psychology as appropriate.
5. To maintain and develop skills in the area of professional pre- and post-graduate training and clinical supervision.
6. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Clinical
1. As lead psychologist for the adult acute mental health wards, to provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological 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 client’s care.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
6. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
7. To ensure that all members of the treating team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management, including responsibilities within the policies and clinical duties to safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.
9. To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care. This will require being able to convey this to clients, families and colleagues with a range of understanding and knowledge so will require the ability to be flexible, adaptive and simple but yet retain a sophisticated understanding and approach. This communication is likely to take place in situations which are highly emotive and with people who may also have concurrent and/or associated physical health conditions
10. To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the treatment team.

Research
1. To take the psychology lead, as a senior clinician, in the evaluation, monitoring and development of the team’s operational policies, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit and ensuring incorporation of psychological frameworks for understanding and provision of high quality care.
2. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
3. To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.
4. To initiate project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service to help develop and improve services to clients and their families.

Communication
1. To maintain registration with the Heath Professions Council as a Clinical Psychologist, Counselling Psychologist or Psychological Therapist.
2. To ensure the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes.
3. To ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychology within the service area and contribute across the service by exercising 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 and related disciplines.
4. To maintain and promulgate 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 British Psychological Society, Health Professions Council and Trust policies and procedures.
5. maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.

This advert closes on Friday 23 Feb 2024

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