Assistant Psychologist
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
East London CAMHS Alternative to Admissions Pathway have recently been successful in securing funding to enable to provision of a Specialist DBT-A service pilot. The pilot is initially funded for 12 months, however with strong clinical evidence of effectiveness there is opportunity to extend this funding substantively.
This post will be based within the East London CAMHS DBT Service which is part of the Alternative to Admissions Pathway, sitting alongside our CAMHS Crisis Team and Intensive Community Care Service (ICCS).
The East London CAMHS DBT Service will provide high intensity, effective; evidence-based psychological treatment for adolescents with traits and/or diagnosis of an (emerging) Borderline Personality Disorder, including self-harm and suicidality.
The Service will offer a full DBT assessment, treatment and consultation for Adolescents kn own to community CAMHS services within Newham, Tower Hamlets, City and Hackney. Full treatment comprises of a year-long treatment and includes weekly individual therapy sessions, weekly skills groups (for the young person and parent/carers) and access to telephone skills coaching.The service is operational Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, working closely with community CAMHS and sister services within the Alternative to Admissions Pathway to support young people through their journey to recovery.
Main duties of the job
The post-holder will be a psychology graduate with some relevant experience working with young people and families, as well as high level written and verbal communication skills. They will be keen to use supervision and training to develop assessment and clinical skills.
The post-holder will work in an experienced multi-disciplinary team and be able to work well in different systems. This will also include contribution to group therapies and using visual tools and statistical packages to analyse and present the performance data of the service.The post holder will be supported to form links with the other Assistant Psychologists in the service and to undertake CPD activities related to career progression. Please note that this is a fixed term appointment in the first instance.
Working for our organisation
The clinical team leaders are committed to staff development: there are regular opportunities for staff to apply for appropriate training courses. We are also passionate about service user participation, for example in evaluation of groups and service development.Our teams regularly undertake quality improvement initiatives. ELFT also prioritises staff wellbeing and we have introduced a range of staff wellbeing initiatives to support this.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For Full details of the job, please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification.
Person specification
Training & Qualification
Essential criteria- 2:1 (Hons) or First in Psychology (or a master’s degree in applied psychology or a further period of academic study at a commensurate level)
- Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
- First in Psychology (or a master’s degree in Applied Psychology or a further period of academic study at a commensurate level)
Experience
Essential criteria- Some Experience in an administrative/secretarial role
- Experience of office systems and procedures
- Experience that supports working with and addressing issues of diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and / or lived experience
- Experience of quantitative research and skills in statistical data analysis (SPSS)
- Experience of working in a professional environment
- Experience with psychological assessment interviews / questionnaires
- Experience co-facilitating therapeutic groups
- Experience of data base development and management
- Experience at preparing presentations
- Experience of interviewing young people who are experiencing psychological problems and their families
- Experience working in the NHS
Knowledge & skills
Essential criteria- Excellent communication skills both verbal and written, including an ability to communicate sensitive information to clients, families, and colleagues
- Well-developed IT skills including data entry and analysis (SPSS, spreadsheets)
- Excellent organisational and time management skills
- Able to take clear concise messages and deal with enquiries, including dealing with callers’ distress appropriately
- Ability to liaise with a range of stakeholders, such as mental health staff, service users, commissioners, and managers
- An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context
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 also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and 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
We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rate 'Outstanding' in 2021.. 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 £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.
What Next?
If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!
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. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made.Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.
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