Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust; Peterborough; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job description

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide clinical oversight and guidance of Assistant Psychologists work relating to assessments, formulations, treatment planning and delivery of care to service users.
• To offer regular clinical supervision to Assistant Psychologists who will be carrying out suitability assessment and delivering low intensity psychological interventions.
• To hold their own small caseload of direct clinical therapeutic work with the service users.
• To formulate risk and clinical need in collaboration with team members.
• To formulate plans for the psychological treatment and/or management of offenders based upon appropriate conceptual frameworks of risk management, mental health, family systems and individual psychological functioning.
• To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about risk management and treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, developmental, and systemic processes that have shaped the offender.
• To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to offenders' formulation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
• To provide clinical expertise to the Liaison and Diversion Service, providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to offenders.
• To manage risk and improve outcomes for offenders by providing weekly supervision to an assistant psychologist who will be working with offenders to offer them a manualised treatment under Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs) ordered by the courts as a part of a Community Order.
• To support the clinical lead in providing consultation and clinical expertise to colleagues in the Liaison and Diversion service to encourage a psychological approach in their work and to facilitate their professional development, reflective capacity and the effective and safe delivery of Liaison and Diversion Services.
• To utilise research skills for audit, service development and research, particularly with respect to evaluating the MHTRs and monitoring outcome for the interventions provided by the assistant psychologist.

Person specification

Physical Requirements

Essential criteria

• Sustained periods of sitting
• Advanced keyboard skills
• Ability to travel and work flexibly across different locations in Cambridgeshire.
• Car owner and able to travel independently across the country as required.

Education/Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, or counselling psychology including specifically, models of psychopathology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS, or a BPS Statement of Equivalence.
• Registered with the HCPC

Desirable criteria

• Chartered Clinical Psychologist
• BABCP Accreditation
• Undertaken relevant post-doctoral/ post qualification training
• Undertaken post-qualification further training in a specialised area of psychology or therapy
• Undertaken training in the supervision of trainee or assistant psychologists.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of providing psychological assessment, formulation, treatment planning and delivery of interventions to clients with mental health difficulties in a community setting.
• Experience of carrying out psychological assessments, formulations and delivering treatment using a cognitive behavioural model.
• Experience of delivering psychological interventions to adult service users
• Ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse, and the threat of physical abuse
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment as a qualified clinician.
• Experience of supervising non-qualified members of psychology staff e.g. Assistant Psychologists or Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in a primary care mental health service.
• Experience delivering psychological therapists using a range of models such as third wave approaches e.g. CFT, ACT, DBT
• Experience of delivering psychologically informed training to staff
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Experience working with adults with mental health issues and complex trauma
• Experience of working with offenders within the clinical justice system
• Experience of working with adults who have complex and serious mental health problems

Skills & Abilities

Essential criteria

• Positive problem-solving approach
• Ability to critically evaluate and review developments made by others to determine if and how they could be applied within own area of work.
• Ability to establish and maintain professional relationships and boundaries with clients from diverse backgrounds.
• Ability to apply psychological practice in different cultural contexts

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of different specialised psychological therapies.

Knowledge & Understanding

Essential criteria

• Can deliver high intensity, evidence-based interventions in line with NICE guidelines
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group within a criminal justice context and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group.
• Ability to establish and maintain professional relationships and boundaries with clients from diverse backgrounds.
• Ability to apply psychological practice in different cultural contexts
• Personal experience of coping with work and life stressors.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g., personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc.).
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the adults and mental health.
• Knowledge or experience working with relationships, attachment issues or complex trauma.

Other

Essential criteria

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, enabling formation of networks with professionals within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective team working
• Able to contain and work with distress from clients
• Ability to work within a team fostering good working relationships
• Good organisational skills
• An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines

Here at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) we are dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion. We deliver many of the NHS services that are provided outside of hospital and in the community such as physical, mental health and specialist services.

We are a health and social care organisation, offering a wide range of services, including:

• Integrated physical and mental health services for adults and older people;
• Specialist mental health and learning disability services;
• Children and young people's mental health services;
• Children's community services in Peterborough;
• Social care;
• Ground-breaking research

We strongly encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people and members of our ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities. For further information about our positive equality, diversity and Inclusion work, please visit https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/equalityanddiversity.

CPFT is looking to build upon its pool of temporary workers with Temporary Staffing Services (TSS). You will be asked at interview if you would be willing to register with TSS. This is an excellent opportunity for those looking to take on additional hours that are flexible around your personal circumstances.

Please be advised that in line with the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List, 2020 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust currently are unable to accept applications from overseas candidates whose country of residence is classed as a 'Red List' country.

Applicants who require entry into the UK will be required to provide a valid police certificate from the relevant authority from each country (except the UK) where the applicant has been present for 12 months or more, 10 years before the date of visa application, while aged 18 or over.

If you are successful at interview you will be subject to pre-employment checks, including a DBS (if appropriate), references and Occupational Health. To ensure a smooth process please bring all identity documents to your interview. A list of required identity documents will be attached to your interview invitation.

All communications will be sent to you via TRAC Systems. By applying for this post you are agreeing to CPFT transferring the information contained in this application to TRAC. If you are made an offer, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

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.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Specification (PDF, 376.4KB)
• CPFT Values (PDF, 114.7KB)
• CPFT Mindful Employers (PDF, 51.3KB)
• CPFT Accommodation (PDF, 296.6KB)