Clinical Psychologist | East London NHS Foundation Trust

There are opportunities for personal and professional development and to be involved in service development.

The post holder will provide psychological assessments, formulations and therapies, specialist risk assessments, advice on risk management and the provision of psychological advice and consultation to others involved in service user care. There is opportunity to work individually, as well as with families and staff teams, utilizing a wide variety of modalities of therapies. There are opportunities to work using a consultation model as well as lots of opportunities for service development.

The post holder will be part of a multi-disciplinary team and will contribute to psychological thinking within the MDT and provide specialist advice to other professions and carers.

The clinical work is undertaken in a range of settings including inpatient, outpatient and the clients' own home. The geographical area covered by the service includes Bedfordshire and Luton and therefore requires the post-holder to drive.

The post holder will utilise research skills for audit, policy, research and service development within the service as a whole and specifically for psychology within the service.

The post holder will participate in CPD and other developmental activities, keeping up to date with relevant psychological research and national guidance. They will attend clinical, professional and managerial supervision.

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.

Key Responsibilities

Clinical

1. Provide specialist psychological assessments, based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources (including psychological/neuropsychological tests, measures/rating scales, direct and indirect observation and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and involved others).

2. Formulate plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management ofpeople with a learning disabilityacross a range of care settings, based upon a broad theoretical knowledge base to analyse, interpret and compare complex information in order to design client-centred specialist programmes of intervention for individuals, groups and families tailored to individual need.

3. To be responsible for autonomously implementing a broad range of evidence-based specialist psychological treatments and interventions which require the formulation and modification of plans and strategies as practice and experience demands. This will require the adjustment and refinement of complex formulations which draw on different explanatory models, and the maintenance of a number of provisional hypotheses.

4. To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other multidisciplinary professionals contributing directly to service users' formulation, diagnosis and treatment planning.

5. To ensure that multidisciplinary colleagues have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding the care of service users.

6. To undertake risk assessment and management and to provide specialist advice for psychologists and other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.

7. To be responsible for providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive, distressing and emotional information in relation to health issues where there are often barriers to acceptance.

8. To spend sustained amounts of time with service users who may have poor communication skills and self-care and special physical and/or mental needs.

9. To be mindful of the needs of individuals and families from a wide range of racial, cultural, sexual, religious, disabilityand social backgrounds and to develop with colleagues innovative ways of working across language,culturaland communicationbarriers.

10. To be responsible for developing and maintaining knowledge of local resources and developing working relationships with relevant statutory, voluntary and community groups and organisations. Provide consultation about the psychological care of the service user group to external staff and organisations.

11. To be responsible for recording, monitoring and reporting on clinical work and communicating complex clinical information to a variety of recipients, e.g. service users, families and carers, other professionals, formal panels and statutory and voluntary organisations, orally, in writing and/or electronically.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

1. Provide specialist consultation and training to other multidisciplinary professionals for their provision of psychologically-based interventions for service users.

2. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

3. Develop and deliver, jointly with other clinical psychologists where necessary, teaching events for clinical psychology Doctoral training programmes.

4. Ensure the maintenance and development of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes.

5. In line with professional practice guidelines and HCPC registration requirements, take part in regular professional supervision and appraisal.

Human Resources, Recruitment, Policy and Service Development

1. To receive regular clinical, professional and managerial supervision in line with good practice guidelines and engage in the Appraisal Process with the Principal Clinical Psychologist.

2. To work in a coordinated and co-operative way with other psychologists employed within local services and the wider psychology services in the Trust. This will involve participation in the effective development and organisation of the Trust's Psychology Services by attendance at meetings as required

Research and Service Evaluation

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

2. To monitorthe effectiveness of the clinical work undertaken either personally or jointly with other members of the multi-disciplinary team to ensure that it reflects the best available evidence for practice

3. To participate in data collection, audit and clinical research designed to improve the understanding and effectiveness of services delivered to service users. This will be agreed with the Trust according to clinical governance guidelines and in agreement with the post-holder's service and professional managers

4. To disseminate research from work that the post-holder has been involved in a way that will benefit the services provided by the Trust. This will include feedback from any training opportunities that the post-holder has been able to attend as part of their employment with the Trust

Information Technology

1. Provide accurate and timely clinical information as required and input into Trust electronic record systems.

2. Use information technology in line with Trust and NHS information governance requirements, and maintain up to date knowledge of systems and governance requirements.

3. Collate and report on information across service area using information systems to a high standard.

4. Prepare teaching materials and presentations to a professional level.

We are a motivated, enthusiastic psychology team based within a strong multidisciplinary team working with people with learning disabilities across the county of Bedfordshire.

We are looking for a qualified clinical psychologist at a band 7 to 8a preceptorship post, or someone coming in at a band 8a role to work with our team. The team currently consists of clinical psychology, a Positive Behaviour Support Team and a variety of arts psychotherapists.

The post holder does not need to have a strong background of working with this client group, although this is of course desirable, as there are many transferable skills from the clinical psychology training course. There is a need for good communication skills, an enjoyment of being able to work creatively and an enjoyment of working with the the systems around the individual as well as individual therapy.