Band 8a Clinical / Counselling Psychologist - Bristol

We are looking for two enthusiastic and highly motivated Clinical/Counselling Psychologists to join the Bristol Inpatient Psychology Service, providing a service to Alder (a mixed gender rehabilitation ward) and Hazel (male Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit), Callington Road Hospital. The wards highly value psychological perspectives and are committed to a multidisciplinary approach to care. These roles will also be responsible for developing and delivering a new programme of CBT groups across the acute pathway. This an exciting opportunity to be part of service expansion and development. If you enjoy the challenges and rewards of influencing best clinical practice and the development of psychologically informed environments, then this post offers a wealth of opportunities. You will join a supportive team of seven other inpatient Psychologists with opportunities to link with peers through team meetings, shared projects, and peer supervision groups. Opportunities for CPD will be available, tailored to the acute care pathway. The inpatient psychology team is engaged in a range of ongoing service development and research projects and welcomes applicants who have a passion to collaborate in advancing the quality of the services we offer. We have close ties with the University of Bath Clinical Psychology Doctorate Training programme, with opportunities to teach, provide placements, and collaborate on research., The post-holders will provide a comprehensive psychology service to the team, including specialist assessment, formulation, individual and group interventions. Applicants should have skills to work with a wide range of mental health issues whilst adapting interventions to the dynamic inpatient setting.,

• To provide a high quality and largely autonomous and systematic clinical/counselling psychology service.
• To undertake highly specialist assessments, including neuropsychological assessment and risk assessment.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of clients' mental health problems.
• To be responsible for providing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers and groups.
• To provide at least one specialist evidence based psychological intervention as dictated by the needs of the service.
• To provide highly specialist consultation to members of the various teams in the area and beyond regarding formulation and psychological management of clients of those teams.
• To use highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills to contribute to the more effective management of patients by teams.
• To be involved in the development and delivery of training within the Trust.
• To participate in clinical and caseload supervision arrangements provided by the Service.
• To maintain accurate records and to monitor clinical workload using agreed systems.
• To support the full implementation of CPA or equivalent including acting as care-coordinator as appropriate to the needs of the service.
• To enter data as requested by the Trust in a timely manner.
MANAGEMENT
• Delegated caseload supervision.
• Represent the service at specialist meetings as requested.
• The co-ordination of small scale projects as requested.
PROFESSIONAL
• To fully adhere to the Policies and Procedures of the HCP. To fully observe the BPS (1996) Code of Conduct and the DCP Guidelines for the Professional Practice of Clinical Psychology (1995).
• To be aware of, adhere to, and where appropriate, contribute to the formulation and review of Trust, Area, Clinical Psychology policies and procedures. Copies of Trust Policies can be accessed via the staff intranet or from your manager.
• To participate in local psychological therapy meetings and trust wide meetings as appropriate.
• To maintain and develop high standards of clinical psychology practice by engaging in CPD and co-operative working/networking with other clinical psychologists.
• To participate in an annual performance appraisal.
• To participate in clinical supervision.
SERVICE GOVERNANCE
• To participate in service governance processes in the profession and in the LDU to maintain a safe, effective service which responds to Service User feedback.
• To support and participate in multidisciplinary clinical audit.
• To liaise with other disciplines and agencies to ensure that best practice is shared.
• To promote the use of effective interventions in the service.
TRAINING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT
• To provide supervision for clinical psychology trainees from regional training courses and elsewhere as appropriate.
• To provide training, supervision and consultation in psychological approaches.
• To contribute to the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care across service settings through providing teaching, training, consultation and supervision.
• To participate in peer supervision arrangements for psychologists in the area.
• To agree a plan of personal development with the line manager and professional lead for the service.
• Provide inclusive, compassionate and effective leadership for your team by setting clear vision and direction.
• Develop a culture and environment in which members of staff are encouraged and supported to deliver high- quality services and to innovate and improve services where appropriate.
• Encourage your team to feel able to raise concerns openly and safely.
• Promote equality of opportunity in service delivery and employment, ensuring that no person receives less favourable treatment than another on the grounds of gender, marital status, race, religion, creed, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation or disability.
• Support prompt recruitment by identifying vacancies to the AWP Recruitment Team as soon as they arise, and participate in the selection and effective induction and onboarding of new joiners to the team.
• Ensure that all team members have a very positive introduction to the team and a well-supported first year.
• Take responsibility for encouraging people to stay with AWP, ensuring that you are aware whenever a member of your team is considering leaving, seeking to understand their reasons and encouraging them to stay.
• Ensure that key messages are cascaded in your team and that your team are encouraged to put forward suggestions.
• Show appreciation to your team when they do good work and support them when they are struggling.
• Consider the individual needs of team members for a healthy work-life balance and think about how their needs can be supported by providing flexible ways of working.
• Support all team members to keep their mandatory and statutory training up-to-date and identify the learning and development needs of all team members of the team ensuring that everyone has an up-to-date personal development plan (PDP).
• Ensure that every team member as at least an hour of supervision (one-to-one meeting) each month, this may include both managerial and clinical supervision.
• Ensure all team members receive a constructive assessment of their performance each year and set SMART objectives for the coming year.
• Seek support from the HR Team to tackle any worries regarding matters of discipline, including both conduct and capability concerns, supporting a 'just and restorative culture'. Take prompt action regarding serious concerns and ensure clear plans are in place for problems which are less serious in nature but prove difficult to resolve.
• Act as a positive role model at all times, encouraging people to feel equal members of the team whilst working within clear frameworks and policies.
• Promote effective use of bank and agency nursing staff, providing a safe and effective service, complying with regulatory standards.
PERFORMANCE AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the agreed key performance indicators for your service, particularly relating to outcomes and essential standards to be met.
• Ensure that you and your team understand data quality standards and that all the necessary records for your service are maintained and reported.
• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the clinical and business action plans relevant to your services.
• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the monitoring, auditing and reporting systems relevant to your services.
SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
• Actively seek opportunities for improvement for the services which you and your team provide by identifying research evidence and best practice elsewhere, interpreting/translating and facilitating adaptation for AWP.
• Analyse and interpret data to inform the strategic direction of the services which you and your team provide
• Ensure multidisciplinary involvement and the use of quality improvement (QI) techniques in service improvement, by negotiating shared solutions, facilitating the resolution of complex or contentious issues and managing any conflict into constructive outcomes.
• Ensure effective risk identification, analysis, mitigation and management within your services, encouraging all members of your team to be aware of and to manage risks.
GOVERNANCE AND POLICY
• Ensure that you understand all of the key governance requirements, policies and standards for your services and that these are communicated to your team; make sure your team understand the importance of good governance.
• Support the development of policies relevant to your services, including your team in this work.
SERVICE/POLICY DEVELOPMENT
• To collaborate with specialist staff and other agencies in the LDU to extend the range of specialist psychological individual, family and group interventions available across the area.
• To propose changes to policies and procedures in multidisciplinary teams as appropriate.
• To advise managers of service developments
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
• To engage in research relevant to service priorities as appropriate.
• To participate in audit and service evaluation activities examining the effectiveness of current service delivery and informing the development of services relevant to client needs.
• To provide advice, support and consultation to colleagues from other disciplines undertaking research in the area.
We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with 'lived-experience' of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,- we are a 'Disability Confident Employer' offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities). We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

There is a strong focus on indirect work through team formulation, reflective practice and training with staff teams. You will need to be well organised with the ability to prioritise your work according to clinical need, with good communication skills. This role will involve some supervision and line management of other staff.

Working for our organisation We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care. We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset. Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care. At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.