Principal Clinical Psychologist

Want to make a real difference and have a truly rewarding career? Join 'Team Derbyshire Healthcare' and become part of a talented, compassionate and enthusiastic workforce committed to a vision of 'making a positive difference in people's lives'.
We've been rated 'good' overall by the CQC, with some outstanding services. The CQC commented at our most recent inspection on how our colleagues "treated patients with compassion and kindness" and "felt positive and proud about working for the trust.
We are passionate about making equality, diversity and inclusion part of our DNA. We take pride in our "People First Culture" which creates a workplace where everyone feels a genuine sense of belonging, difference is celebrated, and people are comfortable to bring their whole selves to work. We value the richness that comes from having colleagues that are fully representative of the local community. We welcome people who identify as Black, Asian or from a Minority Ethnic background, protected characteristics, and with all backgrounds and experiences., The post-holder will be responsible for the provision of a specialist stroke inpatient and early stroke discharge psychological service for adults admitted to Chesterfield Royal Hospital.
Relevant experience in neuropsychological settings is expected and experience in inpatient care is an advantage, but not essential. We encourage our staff to work flexibly, collaboratively, compassionately and to utilise the best-evidenced models for rehabilitation psychology. You will join the vigorous Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Trust neuropsychology specialist group and have the opportunity learn and contribute to our growing body of knowledge and clinical experience. We also run a group for those people who are working towards their BPS qualification in clinical neuropsychology (QICN).
Our trust's wider department of 320+ psychologists boasts a good retention rate due to a friendly working atmosphere and a wide range of accredited psychological CDP including, trauma, EMDR, Psychodynamic, ACT, CAT and neuropsychology. We are committed to helping you develops your skills in a variety of clinical pathways so that we can further develop this vital and well-respected service., The clinician would work closely with the consultant for neuropsychology, who offers community stroke psychology provision for North Derbyshire. The intent is that we offer a seamless and integrated service from admission to ward, through highly acute and early stroke discharge and then on to wider community support.
The role includes direct therapy input to inpatients, groups, face to face or via video call. This work requires the passion and resilience to work with clients who are facing severe illness and sometimes end of life issues. The duties will also include working compassionately with carers, families and other staff members along with helping us to develop the team's research and quality improvement projects. At this grade the postholder would also be required to provide leadership in development of the service and contribute to the wider integrated care board in the East Midlands. This would include representing our trust at county and regional meetings.
Our trust's large psychology division offers a wide range CPD via expert supervisors. The postholder will have access to advice, consultation and support from psychology peer group meetings.
This post may require working across a variety of hospital settings, offering consultation and direct intervention on intensive care, high dependency and cardiac wards. Our experience is that psychology consultancy input is highly appreciated by the medical staff that we work with., The post-holder will work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service's policies and procedures. They will provide advice and consultation to other psychologists and psychological therapists, colleagues from other disciplines, and formal and informal carers, on matters related to the psychological needs and issues relevant to the service and its users.
The post-holder will have the opportunity to combine clinical work with supervision, training, consultation, research, service evaluation and service development, depending on the needs of post.
KEY RESULT AREAS
1 Clinical:
Responsible for:
Provision of specialist psychological assessments to those referred, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including self-report measures, rating scales, and semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in their care.
1. Formulating and implementing plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of those referred, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the difficulties, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
2. Implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations as required mainly in person but also over TEAMS or telephone as appropriate.
3. Evaluating and making 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.
4. Exercising autonomous professional responsibility, for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of service users.
5. Consulting, advising, and/or supervising colleagues from other disciplines on the psychological formulation and management of people with cognitive and emotional issues.
6. Directly leading a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users of the service. This would include integration with the wider clinical psychology services in Derbyshire Mental Health NHS Trust. This would also include working both on paper ward notes and on the Systm1 electronic staff record.
7. Implementing case management within the framework of the Care Programme Approach if appropriate, contributing to planning and review of care plans involving patients, carers, and others involved in the care package, in this process.
8. Assessing, monitoring, and managing clinical risk (where practicable) in order to minimise this risk to service users, other people, and oneself, and providing advice on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
9. Communicating orally and in writing, in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of service users, to referrers and others involved in the service user's care on a need-to-know basis.
10. Leading the inpatient psychology provision and developing and maintaining links and liaison with staff in services that refer to the stroke team. The 8b role would include taking on management responsibility for parts of the stroke service and representing both the ward, the stroke psychology team, or Derbyshire Healthcare NHS trust as appropriate.
11. Attending clinical meetings, case reviews, and case conferences as appropriate.
12. Maintaining / managing the waiting list of referrals to the stroke psychology team as required.
13. Carrying out other clinical duties as may be agreed with the lead for psychology and psychological therapies and the lead for specialist care psychology.
2 Policy And Service Development:
Responsible for:
1. Devising and leading the implementation of policies and procedures relevant to the delivery of services within the agreed area of work.
2. Leading the development, evaluation and monitoring of the inpatient psychology service's operational policies, by monitoring and providing feedback on how the service is operating, and through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit. Leading the management of support for the early stroke discharge team in liaison with the matron / manager of the inpatient ward/s.
3. Identifying and advising the lead for specialist care psychology or the lead for psychology and psychological therapies on potential improvements to working practices and procedures within the service.
+ Human Resources:
3.1 Clinical Supervision, Teaching and Training.
Responsible for:
1. Receiving regular clinical supervision in accordance with Trust and professional good practice guidelines.
2. Offer training and provide supervision to other teams related to their psychological work, as appropriate.
3. Observing a personal duty of care in relation to equipment and resources used in the course of one's own work.
4. Remotely attending service and business meetings within the Psychology and Psychological Therapies Service as required and agreed with the Lead for Psychology and Psychological Therapies and the Lead for Specialist Care Psychology.
5. Providing, as required, professional and clinical supervision of assistant psychologists including workload management.
3.2 Management and recruitment
1. To manage the workloads of Assistant Psychologists working within the service within the framework of the team/service's policies and procedures, as required and as appropriate.
2. To be involved, as appropriate, in the short listing and interviewing of Assistant Psychologists and Psychologists and Psychological Therapists as agreed with the Lead for Specialist Care Psychology and the Lead for Psychology and Psychological Therapies.
4 Research And Development:
Responsible for:
1. Conducting and supervising research, particularly in areas of clinical relevance if appropriate and agreed.
2. Utilising theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work.
3. Undertaking clinical project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, within the service to help develop service provision.
Information Technology:
Responsible for:
1. Collecting, recording, maintaining, and providing data and statistics, including clinical information, in accordance with Trust and National requirements and policy, and comply with appropriate monitoring and review processes as required.
2. Processing text and constructing databases and spreadsheets for teaching and/or audit or research
8. General
1. 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 holder's professional and service manager(s).
2. To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology 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 applied psychology and related disciplines.
3. 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 Health & Care Professions Council. British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.
4. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health and/or learning disabilities.
To be noted:
This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the 8b post holder may be required to undertake other management duties that fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with their manager.

Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Trust was an early adopter of mindfulness and compassion-focussed care due to the influence of one of our best known local psychologists Sir Paul Gilbert. His continued support of the division has meant that we have integrated mindfulness and CFT at the centre of a wide body of psychological approaches. This is also at the heart of our staff support system; we are proud that during covid we took care of our staff and even gave advice to other trusts about staff wellbeing. This has led to high retention rates amongst our psychological staff.
Recently we have solidified our structure by becoming one of the core divisions of our trust. This has combined all of our counsellors, psychotherapists, PWPs, psychologists and allied staff into one strong group. We all endeavour to 'work in place' and integrate into our own team areas but there is a strong sense of belonging to one psychology 'family'.
At present our new focus, alongside truly integrated care, is to instil trauma informed care at the heart of our work. Many staff are training in EMDR or are already experienced practitioners. Therefore we will support new staff to train and contribute to our growing division of compassionate evidence-driven professionals.

Flexible Working
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for our service and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's job share, part time or another flexible pattern.
Disability Confident Employer
The Trust is a Disability Confident Employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you in the recruitment process please let us know.
If you require any support in completing the application form please do not hesitate to contact the Recruitment Team, , option 1, option 1 or email [email protected] and we will be happy to provide assistance.
DBS Checks
The cost of undertaking a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) disclosure will be met by the individual. The Trust will meet the initial costs of the disclosure which will be deducted from your first month's salary.
This job may close early if a large number of applications are received. You are advised to submit your application as early as possible to avoid missing your chance to apply.