Clinical/Counselling Psychologist – Adult Inpatient Wards

East London NHS Foundation Trust; Luton; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 63,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider in Luton seeks a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join inpatient services. Your role involves applying clinical expertise in assessments, providing guidance, and supervising trainees. The position offers continuous professional development opportunities and a commitment to team wellbeing and service user care. Various working patterns including full-time and part-time options are available.

Benefits

Access to training and development

Flexible working arrangements

Mental health support initiatives

Qualifications

• Must have eligibility for BPS registration and HCPC registration.
• Experience in inpatient settings is essential.
• Experience with diverse client groups and high emotional distress is required.

Responsibilities

• Apply clinical expertise to assessments and care planning.
• Supervise Assistant Psychologists and Trainee Psychologists.
• Facilitate team formulation and reflective practice.

Skills

Clinical assessment skills

Supervision skills

Empathy

IT proficiency

Education

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist

Job description

Clinical/Counselling Psychologist – Adult Inpatient Wards

East London Foundation Trust are pleased to offer the opportunity for a Psychologists to join us in our Inpatient Services in the Luton area of our Trust. You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and will join the other Psychologists and Assistant Psychologists who work across our 7 adult acute psychiatric inpatient wards.

Main duties of the job

As a psychologist whose time is dedicated to 1 or 2 ward teams, you will apply your expertise in clinical and risk assessments, develop formulations and care plans with service users, and provide guidance and formal consultation to the MDT. You will supervise Assistant Psychologists and Trainee Psychologists. One of the key roles is the facilitation of reflective practice and team formulation approaches to support staff wellbeing and to promote psychological understanding of complex cases.

We provide access to training and CPD to support development in clinical and leadership roles. In ELFT we are passionate about our Quality Improvement approach and psychologists are key players in many projects on the wards. We have a thriving therapies workforce in the Trust with opportunities for learning and supporting each other.

We have community based posts available or an opportunity for protected research time for those working full-time hours , so do challenge us to find creative solutions if you are keen to work in a hybrid role! We would welcome your enquiries!

About us

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.

Job responsibilities

Please kindly refer to the job description and person specification attached to this vacancy for further information on this role.

Person Specification

Education/ Qualification

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalence and able to demonstrate eligibility for BPS CPsychol (Chartered Psychologist) .
• HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist.
• Further training or qualifications in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
• Quality Improvement Training.
• Clinical supervision training for doctoral psychology trainees.

Experience

• Post-qualification experience as a practitioner psychologist or equivalent.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the range of care settings, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the treat of physical abuse.
• Experience of providing teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
• Experience in working in multidisciplinary settings and representing a psychological perspective in teams and services.
• Experience of working as a psychologist in an inpatient setting.
• Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience in the recruitment of psychology staff.
• Experience in contributing to service development, redesign and improvements in secondary mental health services

Knowledge & Skills

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, psychometrics and neuropsychology.
• Able to draw upon a broad theoretical knowledge base in the analysis of highly complex facts and situations, requiring sustained and intense concentration, to arrive at appropriate formulation and compare and select from a range of treatment options. Skills in two or more distinct psychological therapies.
• An in depth knowledge and skills in applying clinical risk assessment and management in own and others' clinical caseload.
• Able to use highly specialist skills of empathy to overcome barriers to understanding and acceptance.
• Able to communicate at a high level verbally and in writing highly complex, technical and sensitive information to clients, families, carers, and a range of professionals and lay people within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and delivery of specialised psychological practice relevant to a secondary mental health setting (e.g. psychosis, personality disorder, complex trauma).

Knowledge & Skills (cont'd)

• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis. Able to use skills and knowledge to design and implement service evaluations.
• Up to date knowledge of psychological research and national guidance relevant to the delivery of secondary mental health services.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in secondary mental health services.
• Aware of the potential impact of discrimination & disadvantage on mental health.
• Able to be flexible and adapt approach according to need.
• Competence in use of IT equipment and software packages for the purposes of clinical record keeping, electronic communication, creating organisational documentation, data entry and analysis, research, and multimedia presenting and teaching.
• Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books.

Personal

• Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery and an ability to articulate the value added by clinical psychology services within the context of multi-disciplinary mental health services.
• Able to contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others.
• Able to sit in constrained positions for a substantial proportion of working time.
• Able to concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact, teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc.
• Able to manage effectively frequent exposure to highly distressing/highly emotional circumstances and exposure to traumatic circumstances.
• Able to manage effectively verbal aggression from service users, families, etc and the risk of physical aggression.
• Respectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals. Willing to negotiate and can handle confrontation effectively and professionally.

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.

Lead Psychologist for adult Mental Health

£55,690 to £62,682 a yearper annum, pro-rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time,Part-time,Job share,Flexible working