Clinical Associate in Psychology (Complex Emotional Needs)

Transformation Unit; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 38,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

East London NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting a Clinical Associate in Psychology (CAP) as part of the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Mental Health Team. The post involves assessment, empirically-informed therapy, and collaboration with a multidisciplinary group to support complex emotional needs within Tower Hamlets.

The role offers supervision, post-qualification training, and opportunities to develop service development and co-production with people with lived experience.

Qualifications

• Qualified psychologist with GBR eligibility and BPS CAP apprenticeship training including EPA to IFA standards.
• Strong grounding in clinical supervision, evidence-based practice and professional codes.
• Ability to assess and formulate using diverse psychological models across populations.

Responsibilities

• Work in Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Mental Health Team within the psychology service.
• Provide assessment and empirically-informed therapy to service users.
• Collaborate with senior staff; contribute to staff training and provide psychological advice to colleagues.
• Liaise with primary/secondary care and external agencies to support care.
• Support co-production with lived experience to improve service delivery.

Skills

Clinical supervision models

Assessment & formulation

Cross-cultural / multilingual practice

Accurate clinical records

Self-reflection & CPD

Education

Graduate Basis for Registration (GBR) with BPS

Job description

Clinical Associate in Psychology (Complex Emotional Needs)

NHS AfC: Band 6

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving 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.

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for a qualified Clinical Associate in Psychology (CAP), who is keen to join Tower Hamlets Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams and take on the challenge of working in a diverse borough with people on the Complex Emotional Needs (CEN) pathway.

The post-holder will sit within the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Mental Health Team as part of the Psychology service.

Main duties of the job

Candidates should have an interest in working with people with severe and enduring mental health difficulties from a range of religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The post-holder will work closely with other Psychologists, and supervision will be provided by qualified Psychologists.

Working for our organisation

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The successful candidate will work as part of a vibrant multi-disciplinary team operating out of our community office based in the Isle of Dogs, and will liaise with relevant external agencies to facilitate and enable psychological interventions.

Alongside other Psychology staff, the post-holder will provide assessment and empirically-informed therapy to service users. In collaboration with more senior staff, the successful candidate will contribute to staff training and provide psychological advice (informal, ad hoc, and formal consultation) to other staff, support family members and liaise with primary and secondary care providers and various other statutory and non-statutory agencies involved in service users’ care.

The post-holder will be offered a range of opportunities for post-qualification training. The role offers excellent opportunities for developing skills in service-development and co-production.

Your service area is part of the wider psychology and psychological therapy provision in Tower Hamlets, and you would be joining a community of psychologists and psychological therapists working across a wide range of service areas. The department aims to develop and deliver our services through co-production with people with lived experience. We meet regularly and support professional development in a range of ways.

Person specification

Qualifications

• An approved qualification in psychology conferring eligibility for graduate basis for registration with the British Psychological Society, (Class 2.2 or higher)
• Completed BPS [British Psychological Society] accredited CAP apprenticeship training programme including EPA to IFA standards
• Understand the range of behavioural change models, including health belief models, and interventions that promote mental health for the populations (e.g. Ecological Model; Community Psychology).

Skills

• Adept in understanding and using models of clinical supervision and requirements for practice in line with the evidence-base and professional codes of conduct

Skills

• To be able to assess and formulate someone’s experiences drawing on a range of psychological models and theory
• Work cross-culturally and/or in different languages
• Understand the principles of clinical supervision using them to provide a safe and supportive environment to reflect, review and discuss personal and professional responses to work
• Able to correctly handle confidential information and knowing how and when to share this information for appropriate professional purposes and only with appropriate individuals, and as necessary with appropriately gained consent
• Ability to maintain accurate clinical records and why all entries in clinical and practice records are dated, timed and signed
• Ability to analyse and appraise the range of psychological assessment methods used within applied clinical practice to underpin assessment
• Skilled in continuous self-reflection, seeking and responding to support and feedback to develop professional knowledge and skills
• Experience of working closely experts-by-experience, local communities, Community and Voluntary and Social Enterprises, to co-produce and co-develop services
• Awareness of diversity of cultural norms across the borough, and being able to respond to this appropriately
• Knowledge and implementation of local, regional and national policy

Experience

• Strong ability to engage with a variety of services and community partners and stakeholders, and to expand existing networks, and to nurture and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders
• Apply and review risk assessments and formulations when working with complex patients within scope of practice
• Able to assess limits of professional boundaries and capacity and understand when to seek appropriate supervision/advice on practice and whom to refer to so as to ensure best care
• Lived experience of using services, and/or being a carer for someone
• Evaluate and audit clinical practice through conducting service evaluations/QI projects to inform change through dissemination of findings ensuring best use of publicly funded resources
• Assess and identify appropriate practice in relation to critical incident and severe adverse events
• Provide consultation/supervision with regards to psychological formulation, assessment, and intervention

Experience

• Understand how to analyse and appraise key theoretical concepts of psychological models of treatment both at individual and group level recognised in evidence-based national guidelines
• Communicate effectively, share information and check understanding using clear language and appropriate, written materials, making reasonable adjustments where appropriate in order to optimise people’s understanding
• Recognise and accommodate sensory impairments during all communications and the use of personal communication aids
• Take account of how conflicting and sometimes contradictory information from carers and other healthcare professionals, in emotive and challenging situations and contexts, may impact on the outcome of assessment
• Apply and analyse a range of research approaches including both qualitative and quantitative methods in clinical practice

Skills

• Maintain and implement knowledge of contemporary evidence-based practice through appropriate continued professional development
• Understand and recognise professional duty to challenge and report discriminatory behaviour
• Ability to analyse outputs from specialist psychological assessments across a broad range of patient needs
• Knowledge of the range of legal, ethical, professional, financial and organisational policies and procedures that apply to clinical research activities
• Experienced in using a range of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies relevant to situation and service context that draw on specialist psychological tools to collect data to evaluate own practice as well as to enhance service delivery
• Understand and utilise learning styles, tools and techniques that can be used to support learning
• Able to understand and critically appraise best evidence and existing practice to inform clinical decision making where there is no agreed consensus on treatment protocols and evaluate outcome

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

East London NHS Foundation Trust has achieved its third consecutive ‘Outstanding’ rating from the Care Quality Commission; the first Community and Mental Health Trust to achieve this rating for a third time. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other reasons to apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, 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.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £8,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

AI in applications

If you use AI or other tools to assist in writing your job application, make sure you add your own personal touch especially in the supporting information section. AI can make writing easier, but it doesn’t fully understand the position you’re applying for and might generate false or misleading information. Applications written only by AI often sound generic and may not show your real skills, knowledge, or experience. It’s important to write your supporting statement in your own words. East London NHS Foundation Trust does not recommend relying only on AI, as it could negatively impact on your chance of success in the application process.

We carefully check applications to make sure no one has an unfair advantage, and we verify all references. At the interview, you’ll be asked about your experience, so be honest and ensure everything in your application is accurate. Please remember that using AI during the interview is not allowed.

As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..

If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. ...

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Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.