Consultant Psychologist or Psychological Therapist

Job summary

This is an exciting Consultant Psychologist/Psychotherapist role, combining leadership, strategy and direct complex clinical work for the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway in South London. The post requires high-level clinical expertise, the ability to forge and maintain strong multi-agency relationships, and service development and evaluation skills. The right post-holder will have a passion for working with violent offender populations who struggle to progress smoothly through the criminal justice system due to their complex trauma histories and attachment styles. Extensive experience and high-level skill in working directly and supervising others in working with this client group are essential.

Main duties of the job

To plan, organise and ensure the delivery of effective and accessible psychological services in the OPD in-patient and outpatient teams

To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the OPD pathway according to discipline, including working with personality disorders, violent offending behaviour and trauma.

To ensure the effective working of the team or service and a psychologically informed framework for the service.

To plan, initiate, implement and ensure appropriate service developments to improve the quality and delivery of services in the service and in partner services, including not only the OPD pathway but also the South London Partnership (SLP) and the wider SLaM inpatient forensic service.

To ensure the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

About us

The Waddon inpatient and I-CAN community teams are multi-professional teams including Psychiatry, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Therapies and Social Work. Both teams are well established and regarded and enjoy good inter-disciplinary relationships. There is a strong emphasis on team formulation and dynamic risk management and this post holder will be a key member of the senior leadership team, leading and modelling expert management of complex interpersonal and risk situations. The service is embedded within the context of the wider National OPD Pathway. South London & Maudsley Offender Mental Health Services are part of the South London Partnership along with Oxleas NHS Trust anbd South-West London & St George's Trust, and there are ample opportunities to engage in service development and research.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

To develop strategy for and lead, manage and plan the delivery of a highly specialist psychological therapy service for the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) in-patient and outpatient teams, and personally provide expert clinical input.

To be responsible to theProfessional Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy for the monitoring and implementation of professional standards in the practice of psychological therapy, and for the systematic and effective provision of professional supervision.

To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.

To ensure the conduct of research, service evaluation and audits relevant to the service and the research agenda.

To develop standards for and take a lead in ensuring the good clinical governance, quality and appropriateness of the work of psychological practitioners in the service.

To take a lead on staff support within their area, working closely with Corporate Psychology and Psychotherapy to support colleagues and ensure all staff in SLaM have access to evidence-based support. To participate, as a recipient, in staff support work when appropriate.

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To plan, organise and ensure the delivery of psychological services in the OPD in-patient and outpatient teams

To plan and organise the integrated delivery of psychological services with other agencies and service providers and ensure co-ordination of psychological therapy with other services.

To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the OPD pathway according to discipline, including working with personality disorder and violent offending behaviour, at levels expected of a psychological practitioner who has achieved the equivalent of a PG Diploma-worth of post-qualification specialist development.

To provide culturally appropriate psychological therapy interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.

To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans

To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities which make up the OPD pathway(service users and carers).

KR 2 Responsibilities for team or service clinical functioning

To work with the leads/managers of other SLaM services and of other agencies services to plan and deliver joint services that are integrated around the needs of service users

To co-ordinate and chair team and service meetings for the service to ensure effective functioning and review when appropriate.

To ensure the effective working of the team or service and a psychologically informed framework for the service.

To take a lead in ensuring the team or services ability to deliver accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.

To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services, including through engagement with the PCREF work happening in the Directorate.

To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.

To liaise with referrers, prison, probation and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

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

KR 3 Policy and service development

To lead on strategy development and the development of policy and guidance for application in the service. To be responsible for the interpretation and implementation of policy.

To plan, initiate, implement and ensure appropriate service developments to improve the quality and delivery of services in the service and in partner services, including not only the OPD pathway but also the South London Partnership (SLP) and the wider SLaM inpatient forensic services.

To ensure the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

To participate in, or lead when appropriate, Trust and Directorate strategic development and implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines), through membership of committees and/or working parties.

To lead in the development and application of clinical governance standards within the service and ensure that these are maintained and improved.

To take a lead role in ensuring that services to clients are of a high quality and are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

To be responsible for the management of psychological resources.

To ensure the cleanliness and safe functioning and use of equipment that will be used by clients or other persons.

To monitor and advise clients on the safe use of materials and processes.

To ensure adequate confidential and safe storage for artefacts produced during the therapy process in line with professional guidelines.

To be responsible for obtaining, storing and maintaining all necessary materials and equipment for the provision of therapy in work setting within budgetary constraints.

KR 5 Management and supervision

To deputise when appropriate for theProfessional Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy.

To provide leadership to psychological practitioners and other professionals in the service.

To ensure appropriate systems are in place for the clinical and professional supervision of psychological practitioners in the service.

To lead recruitment of psychological practitioners.

To lead appraisals of, and personal development plans for psychological practitioners in the service.

To be responsible for the management of psychological practitioners in the service , includingallocation and review of work and initial stages of grievance or disciplinary action etc.

To provide professional, clinical and management supervision to less senior psychological practitioners, assistants and trainees and the psychological work of other professions as appropriate and having completed the relevant training.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

To organise access to, and provide specialist clinical placements for trainee applied psychological practitioners.

To be responsible for planning, organising, and the delivery of teaching and training of pre- and post- qualification psychological practitioners and specialist training to other professions.

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.

To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.

To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post-holder has management or leadership responsibility.

KR 8 Research and development

To take a lead on the planning, initiation and completion of research, service evaluation and audits relevant to the OPD pathway and the directorate research agenda and to be an active participant in the local research governance committee, including chairing on a rotational basis.

To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychological practitioner according to professional and Trust guidelines.

To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with registered body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the Standards for Continuing Professional Development.

To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.

To comply with the registered body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.

To ensure that all psychological practitioners for whom the post-holder has leadership or management responsibility, maintain professional standards and continuing professional development.

KR10 General

To travel to meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.

To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.

To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations including highly challenging behaviour, abuse and aggressionand to support others involved in such situations.

To work closely with Corporate Psychology and Psychotherapy to ensure consistent and timely delivery of staff support within their area across all disciplines. Contributing to the development of the staff support offer in line with relevant quality improvement projects.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• oEntry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy and demonstrable practice in this field (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration. (A/I)
• oAdditional training beyond entry-level qualification in a relevant specialised area of psychological practice through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of relevant specialist short courses and/an evidenced portfolio of relevant supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by a registered body and/or an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher. (A/I/R)
• oTo have undertaken a recognised qualification in one of the core mental health professions, e.g. psychiatric nursing, clinical psychology, medicine, social work and occupational therapy OR to have equivalent relevant experience and demonstrable competence to work in the mental health field in the NHS.
• oCompleted training course in clinical supervision and/or accredited to supervise qualified psychological practitioners in relevant discipline. (A/I/R)
• oRegistered with / accredited by professional body as appropriate to discipline HCPC/APC/BPC/UKCP/BACP/BABCP/ADMP-UK/BPS. (A/I)

Desirable

• oAccreditation in at least one relevant therapy model (e.g. DBT, MBT, Schema Therapy, EMDR)

Experience

Essential

• oEvidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in forensic settings (A/I)
• oExperience of undertaking leadership roles (A/I)
• oExperience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in offender mental health. (A/I)
• oExperience of supervising qualified staff, assistants and trainees having completed the relevant training. (A/I)
• oPost-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. (A/I)

Desirable

• oRecord of publications in either peer reviewed, academic or professional journals/books) (A/I/R)
• oExperience of working across inpatient, outpatient and prison/probation settings

Knowledge

Essential

• oKnowledge of the theory and practice of management and leadership. (A/I/R)
• oAdvanced theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the treatment of personality disorder in offending populations (A/I/R)
• oAdvanced knowledge of the theory of psychological practice/processes in the management and treatment of personality disorder in offending populations.
• oAwareness of assessment and clinical psychometrics. (A/I/R)
• oAdvanced knowledge and experience in the administration of risk assessment and personality disorder assessment tools. (A/I/R)

Skills

Essential

• oTo deliver specialist therapy across cultural and other differences. (A/I/R)
• oTo select and administer specialist assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources, on which expert opinion may differ. (A/I/R)
• oTo communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information. (A/I/R)
• oTo plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual clients and groups and carers (and for meetings such as CPA and case reviews where appropriate). (A/I/R)
• oTo plan allocation of tasks to more junior qualified staff, assistants/trainees as appropriates. (A/I/R)

Desirable

• oExperience of neuropsychological testing and interpretation

Abilities

Essential

• oAbility to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles. (A/I/R)
• oAbility to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate. (A/I/R)
• oAbility to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings (A/I/R)
• oAbility to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these. (A/I)
• oAbility to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour. (A/I)

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.

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 dependants (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 Registration

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

Employer details

Employer name

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Bethlem Royal Hospital

Monks Orchard Road

Beckenham

BR3 3BX

United Kingdom

Employer's website

https://www.slam.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

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