Senior Clinical Psychologist

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Maidstone; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A community healthcare organization in Maidstone seeks a Senior Clinical Psychologist for the All Age Eating Disorder team. This role involves assessing and treating patients with eating disorders in an outpatient setting, providing clinical supervision, and collaborating with multidisciplinary teams. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience with children and adolescents in mental health, particularly eating disorders, and hold relevant qualifications. The position promises a supportive environment aimed at professional development and excellent patient care.

Benefits

Flexible working opportunities

Comprehensive health and wellbeing support

Continued professional development

Employee assistance programme

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with children and adolescents having eating disorders.
• Ability to communicate complex psychological matters to patients efficiently.
• Knowledge of NHS, Social Care structures, and evidence-based practice.

Responsibilities

• Assess and treat patients with eating disorders in an outpatient service.
• Provide clinical supervision to trainees and assist in service improvement.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams and participate in team meetings.

Skills

Psychological assessment

Communication skills

Team collaboration

Evidence-based interventions

Education

Post-graduate training in psychological practice

Post-graduate qualification in Psychological Therapies

Job description

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

Do you have a passion for helping people struggling with mental health problems such as eating disorders? Do you wish to be part of a supportive and innovative team that works across Kent & Medway? If so, an exciting opportunity for Band 8A Senior clinical psychologist to join the All Age Eating Disorder team in Kent and Medway has arisen.

North East London NHS Foundation Trust All Age Eating Disorder Service is based in the county of Kent. We have a strong focus on training and research and team members benefit from excellent training and CPD opportunities focused around developing exceptional NICE concordant skills in working with eating disorders and related conditions in children and young people and adults.

The post-holder will be a qualified fully registered HCPC members with a passion for working in this area.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be required to assess and treat all age patients who present with an eating disorder. As the service is exclusively an outpatient service, the post holder will not hold an inpatient case load but the post holder will work with adolescent units and adult units in order to maintain joint working and smooth transition into and out of inpatient beds. The post holder will be expected to attend and participate in MDT team meetings as well as CPA meetings of cases on their case load.

The post holder will be required to hold a caseload and provide evidence-based treatment to children, adolescents and adults who present with an eating disorder.

The post holder will support the staff team and be an effective team member whilst working on their own initiative. They will supervise other staff members as required. They will have a commitment to collaborative working and actively supporting and liaising with other health and social professionals and agencies.

The post holder will be encouraged to take on a leadership role supported by the Service Manager and Clinical Lead. The service has excellent links to specialist training via Health Education England and maintains excellent training links with universities for nursing and clinical psychology training. There will be ample opportunities for supervising these placements.

There are twomain bases within Kent in Maidstone and Canterbury with a number of outlying clinics. Travel is required acrosssites in Kent.

Working for our organisation

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focussing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,313 to a maximum of £5,436 pro rata for part time).

High Cost Area Supplement - Fringe

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 5% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £1,192 to a maximum of £2,011 pro rata for part time).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key roles and Responsibilities

The post will suit an enthusiastic senior clinical psychologist with highly specialist skills in delivering evidence-based psychological therapies with this client group and working with multi-disciplinary teams.

The post holder will be expected to provide clinical supervision to newly qualified clinical psychologists, clinical psychology trainees and assistant psychologists. The role may also involve supervising MDT colleagues delivering evidence based psychological interventions.

The post holder will be expected to play a role in developing the skills of the team in relation to these interventions and to contribute to service improvement projects more generally. In addition, they will be expected to lead on treatment pathways and take a leading role in outcome measure collection and reporting.

The post holder will be part of a well-established and supportive psychological therapies service.

The post holder will be expected to participate in supervision and CPD focused on evidence-based interventions in eating disorders. This includes monthly supervision in addition to individual supervision.

Provide highly specialist psychological assessments to service-users referred to the eating disorder team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of highly complex, sensitive data.

Undertake risk assessment, risk management and risk formulation for all patients and provide both general and specialist advice on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.

To formulate evidence-based treatment plans based on sound and current theoretical knowledge and good practice.

Make highly skilled formulations to inform treatment decisions, taking into account information gathered at assessment and via consultation with third party agencies.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Successful completion of a post‑graduate training in psychological practice ( clinical psychologist, family therapist, child and adolescent psychotherapist) or graduate training ( nursing, social work, occupational therapy) plus an additional post‑graduate qualification in Psychological Therapies ( CYP‑IAPT) post graduate diploma in systemic family practice / cognitive behavioural therapy). To be eligible for registration as a full member of the appropriate professional body ( NMC, AC, AFT)

Experience

Essential criteria

• Extensive experience of working with children and adolescents with eating disorders and co‑morbid difficulties and special needs. ( combination of organic and emotional deficits, such as autistic spectrum disorders and trauma)
• Extensive experience of working therapeutically with parents / carers / families of children and young people with complex mental health problems
• Extensive experience of providing specialist individual interventions with a wide variety of children and young people, from 3 to 19 years old- presenting problems at the most severe end of the spectrum, particularly eating disorders

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge of NHS, Social Care and Education structures, national policies and frameworks, evidence‑based practice including NICE guidelines
• Knowledge of risk management and ability to monitor and assess risk and act accordingly to ensure safety.
• Knowledge of research methodology and outcome research methodology and outcome research design and ability to critically interpret research findings.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively highly complex and sensitive matters to patients, which give rise to psychological distress.
• Specialist skill in the ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and / or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside EWMHS.

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT :

• A long-standing and award‑winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term / chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

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 a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.