Band 8a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist - Swindon

Job summary

We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join the Swindon Psychological Therapies Service (PTS).

There are two elements to the job:

1. Windswept ward (0.4 wte): Windswept is a 14 bedded rehabilitation unit, providing input for adults of working age, experiencing complex mental health difficulties, most typically psychosis. The unit provides holistic care, including perspectives from a multi-disciplinary team. The ward is currently embarked on an exciting project to repatriate people who have been in long term, out of area placements, and to find creative ways to meet their needs more locally.
2. Community (0.6 wte): We are co-located with the Recovery team, and work closely with them to deliver high quality, evidence based interventions. There are opportunities to develop more specialist skills in working with a variety of different presentations in this part of the job. However, many of the people referred to Swindon PTS have a history of complex traumatic experiences, so experience of working with these presentations would be invaluable.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide assessment, formulation and psychological intervention for service users during their admission to Windswept. Consultation, training and facilitation of team formulation would be key aspects of the role. Psychology input to the ward is well established and highly valued by the multi-disciplinary team.

For the community part of the role, the post holder would provide assessment, formulation & ongoing psychological intervention to service users with complex mental health difficulties. As part of the CMHF transformation, there will also be opportunities to provide training & supervision to colleagues from other disciplines in the delivery of psychologically informed interventions.

About us

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.

AWP is committed to support and create a positive research and evidence-based environment and culture, which can have a beneficial impact on everyone who works for the organisation and the care we provide to those who use our services.

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.

Job responsibilities

To provide a high quality and largely autonomous and systematic clinical/counselling psychology service. To undertake highly specialist assessments, including neuropsychological assessment, risk assessment and assessment for suitability for specialist psychological therapies with clients and their carers (as appropriate to the role). To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of clients' mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients' problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings. To be responsible for providing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers 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. 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 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 Your Team, Your Conversation, Your Plan. To enter data as requested by the Trust in a timely manner.

Person Specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral Clinical Psychology or Counselling Psychology qualification, or equivalent
• HCPC Registered
• Post qualification and further specialist training in specialist intervention, or models relevant to the setting

Desirable

• Supervision Training

Experience and Knowledge

Essential

• Experience of working alongside multidisciplinary colleagues
• Clinical supervision/consultation with other professionals.
• Evidence-based therapeutic interventions with client group
• Psychological assessment skills and knowledge
• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in the specialism. Ability to use this knowledge to think systemically/ organizationally
• Experience of risk assessment and management
• Knowledge of relevant legislation eg MH Act.
• Experience of delivery of training

Desirable

• Relevant R&D or clinical audit work post qualification.
• Clinical supervision of Clinical or Counselling psychology trainees
• Experience of working in an acute setting

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Ability to work effectively and flexibly as an integral member of a team
• Good communication and liaison skills
• Well organised with good administration skills
• Empathy/engagement skills with the client group
• Ability to cope with workload pressure/ prioritise workload
• Ability to work independently
• Self-awareness and emotional resilience

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 .

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.
UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see

Employer details

Employer name

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Address

Chatsworth House

Swindon

SN1 4BP

Employer's website