Principal Paediatric Clinical/Counselling Psychologist in Diabetes and Cancer

The Great Western Hospitals NHS FT; Swindon; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider in Swindon is seeking a Principal Clinical/Counselling Paediatric Psychologist to lead and enhance psychological care for children with diabetes and cancer. The role requires substantial experience in paediatric healthcare, managing clinical caseloads autonomously, and implementing evidence-based psychological practices. This position offers opportunities to contribute to multidisciplinary teams and develop psychological frameworks for a diverse patient population.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Career development opportunities

Supportive work environment

Qualifications

• Experience in paediatric physical healthcare settings is essential.
• Ability to lead and manage a clinical caseload autonomously.
• Strong understanding of psychological frameworks for treating children and young people.

Responsibilities

• Manage a clinical caseload and prioritize treatment plans.
• Design and administer psychological interventions.
• Evaluate treatment options based on psychological assessments.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Autonomous working

Psychological interventions

Risk assessment

Consultation and mentorship

Education

Doctoral degree in Clinical or Counseling Psychology

Job description

Overview

The post holder will be the clinical lead for the Great Western Hospital (GWH) Paediatric Diabetes and Oncology Psychology Service. This will require working autonomously within professional, trust and departmental guidelines, and exercising responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the paediatric diabetes and oncology psychology service. They will be responsible for developing, leading, managing and providing an entirely autonomous and systematic specialist psychology service to patients of the paediatric diabetes and cancer care team, and their families.

The post holder will be responsible for enhancing the psychological care provided by the paediatric diabetes and oncology care team in a variety of ways, including consultancy and training with the two teams. They will carry an appropriate clinical caseload of patients with a wide variety of difficulties and presentations, as well as contributing to appropriate multidisciplinary interventions and pathways within the service. As a Principal Clinical Psychologist, the post holder will be accountable for his/her own professional actions and will also supervise trainee psychologists working across the relevant settings.

In collaboration with the Lead for Clinical Health Psychology and the Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Adult Diabetes, the post holder will carry out and contribute to audit, policy and service development, and research activities and/or programmes as appropriate and required.

Working for our organisation

Both the paediatric diabetes and oncology service are well-established at GWH and value psychology.

The post holder will also be joining an established team of psychological professionals working within a range of areas at GWH, including Adult Diabetes, Cancer Services, Pain Management, Critical Care, Weight Management and Occupational Health & Wellbeing Services.

The psychology team meet regularly for teams meetings, departmental updates, CPD and Reflective Practice sessions. While team members are encouraged to routinely work alongside their MDT colleagues within individual services, there is also a shared psychology office with opportunities for linking in with psychology colleagues.

Key Responsibilities

• To be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload and to exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the planning and prioritising of own workload and the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, within the bounds of the service operational policy.
• To formulate and implement plans for evidence based psychological treatment and/or management of a client's psychological distress, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's difficulties.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of complex psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make complex decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To provide consultation, mentorship, supervision and advice about psychological issues relating to paediatric diabetes and cancer at a high level of professional expertise to other members of the team/service and other professionals working with the service users, across a range of agencies/settings as appropriate.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to benefit all children and young people seen within the two services.
• To undertake highly complex risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management, including assessments of individuals who are frequently aggressive.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, consultation, training and clinical supervision to other professionals in order to develop a psychological understanding on the basis of which to plan, implement and evaluate evidence-based interventions for clients with complex needs.
• To be responsible for the professional supervision and development of trainee clinical psychologists in the service.
• To assess the need for further training and access CPD when necessary.
• To lead on local and national initiatives relevant to psychology.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care to the MDTs and other relevant organisations.
• To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external continuing professional development training and development programmes, in consultation with management.
• To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner.
• Take part in regular professional and managerial supervision and appraisal and maintain an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society, the HCPC and Trust policies and procedures.
• To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.
• To participate fully in multidisciplinary team meeting and activities as appropriate.
• To attend case conferences, reviews and other meetings as appropriate.
• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams' operational policies and services, through the development of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
• To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychology and/or organisational matters need addressing.
• To work with team/service lead on service policy development and review.
• To make informed comment on local and divisional policy affecting service development.
• To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of their psychological practice within the service.

Thank you for expressing interest in this role. For further employer guidance, please review the attached supplementary applicant information.

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used, then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

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, subject to eligibility of the role for a skilled worker visa and salary requirements. Not all roles in the Trust are eligible for sponsorship.

Eligibility

• Current right to work in the UK, subject to verification.
• Qualification of the eligibility sponsorship criteria.

From 4 April 2024, UK immigration policy changes has increased minimum salary levels for skilled workers. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

Current employees should be aware that this position is advertised as a Great Western Hospitals position and appointment ends any TUPE protection.

Candidates are responsible for covering the cost of their own DBS check if required: £21.50 for a Standard DBS check, recoverable from the first pay, or £49.50 for an Enhanced DBS check, divided and recoverable over the initial two pay periods. Payment for DBS checks for bank posts must be settled prior to commencement. Apprentices are exempt from DBS payment.

We are committed to supporting our staff in achieving a healthy work-life balance through flexible work arrangements. Upon joining the Trust, you have the right to request flexible working, with an unlimited number of requests allowed.

Upon acceptance of a job offer, your information will be transferred to the national NHS Electronic Staff Records System. All communication regarding your application will be conducted via email; please ensure to check your junk/spam folders as emails may occasionally be filtered there.

Position Details

We are looking to welcome an enthusiastic, compassionate and experienced Principal Clinical/Counselling Paediatric Psychologist, who can play a significant part in enhancing and developing the psychological care of children and young people (CYP) with diabetes (0.4 WTE) and cancer (0.2 WTE) across our locality. You will have previous experience of leadership and working in paediatric physical healthcare settings, and will be looking to apply and expand your knowledge of clinical/counselling psychology in this area further.

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a unique organisation, serving as the sole integrated provider in the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire system. Our scope extends beyond boundaries as we oversee adult community services in Swindon and provide acute care from the Great Western Hospital.

Our 5,500 staff have 1.2 million patient contacts a year, with 13,000 operations carried out in our Theatres, around 4,000 babies born, and our emergency attendances are now well over 100,000 per year. Those numbers only tell part of our story about what an exciting time it is to join Great Western Hospitals.

We are cultivating a culture that fosters our ambitions, prioritising equality, diversion, inclusion, wellbeing, and leadership. We aim to create an environment where every member of our team can truly thrive.

Equality and Inclusion

The Trust is a Disability Confident Employer; all applicants who have a disability can opt to be considered under the guaranteed interview scheme, which means that, providing they meet the minimum essential criteria for the post, they will be offered an interview. We are also proudly accredited as a Veteran Aware organisation and have signed The Armed Forces Covenant.

If we receive a high volume of applications, we may close adverts prior to the published closing date. Therefore, we advise you to complete and submit your application as soon as possible.