Senior Clinical Psychologist
Job overview
The Acute Liaison Mental Health Service (ALMHS) at Kettering General Hospital is seeking to appoint a Clinical Psychologist/Senior Assistant Psychologist to provide maternity cover between May 2025 to 2026. At present the team includes a Principal Clinical Psychologist, a Senior Clinical Psychologist (going on maternity leave) and two Senior Assistant Psychologists working at Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital.
Clinical Psychology within the Acute Liaison Mental Health Service (ALMHS) will offer the chance for psychological assessment, formulation and intervention for adults that present to the general hospitals across Northamptonshire. This includes those patients that attend A&E and those that have been admitted into the hospital for physical health needs.There is also the opportunity to offer follow-up psychological therapy to patients discharged from the hospital.
You may have preconceived ideas of what it might be like working in an acute hospital, working in physical health and specifically what your role might entail so I would encourage you to make contact in order to have a discussion about this and ask questions.This would also be relevant to establish your developmental needs/interests, the service needs and how the service will be able to support your development.
Main duties of the job
Joining this service/Trust would include:
- Regular supervision with the Principal Clinical Psychologist
- Opportunities to have Trainee Clinical Psychologists on placement via University of Leicester
- Opportunities for further training and development based on professional and service needs
- The ability to help shape the service and psychological provisions
- A balance of inpatient and outpatient working
- Ability to attend special interest groups, training days and events utilising the training budget
- Attendance to development sessions facilitated for the team on a regular basis
- Regular opportunities to meet as a Psychology team within the service
- Joining a team that is willing to consider your interests and development needs and help you reach your potential
- Opportunities to meet with the Trust Psychology network monthly for CPD
- Opportunities to attend training on leadership and wellbeing within he Trust
Working for our organisation
The service includes a strong multidisciplinary team presence with Psychiatry, Nursing, Occupational therapy, Social Workers, Support workers, Experts by experience and Administrative support. There are also opportunities to be involved in staff training, staff wellbeing, service development, reflective practice and case formulation with teams.Clinical Psychology within liaison services, in relative terms, are a new discipline which offers the chance for development, growth and innovation in order to meet the mental health needs of patients within the general hospitals.
In addition to the benefits offered under the NHS terms and conditions of service, this post additionally attracts an incentive of £5000 pro rata for the successful applicant/s paid over the first 18 months of employment.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For further information on the advertised role, please refer to the job description located under the Supporting Documents heading. The full person specification can be accessed under the ‘About You’ Section of the document.
Person specification
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria- Doctoral level training in Clinical Psychology (or equivalent), including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS, or Doctoral level training in Counselling Psychology (or equivalent - masters level plus completed post qualification training).
- HCPC registration, if a practitioner psychologist
- Substantial post-qualification experience of working in an mental health, providing NICE compliant interventions
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of physical and mental health conditions and across care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, particularly trauma.
- Experience of supervising other psychological therapist practitioners within a clinical mental health service.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision of staff from a range of clinical backgrounds.
- Experience of working with severe and complex mental health difficulties.
- Experience of risk assessment and risk management strategies and their application to practice.
- Experience of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working across primary, secondary, tertiary and non-statutory organisations.
- Experience of the applications of psychological interventions in different contexts.
Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria- Broad knowledge of specialist mental health services and the wider network of mental health services in the NHS.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professionals colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessments, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
- To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
Important Information
Applications will be transferred to the TRAC system, by completing an application you are giving authorisation for the transfer of your data. In submitting an application form, you authorise us to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process.Including factual reference, occupational health clearance and statutory and mandatory training records
Correspondence regarding your application will be sent to you via a TRAC system account.
Please submit your application as soon as possible; due to the high volumes of applications we receive we reserve the right to close any adverts before the closing date once we have received sufficient applications.
We are an equal opportunities employer, which aims to employ a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons from all backgrounds.
At NHFT we support many of our colleagues to work flexibly and we will consider requests for flexible working from day one. For this role, we are open to discussing a range of options including flexible hours, agile/home working, compressed hours and part time hours.Please have a conversation with the recruiting manager about the flexibility you need and we will promise to explore what is possible with you.
Applicants who have a disability and meet the essential criteria for the job will be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme. If you require a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process please make the recruitment services team aware as soon as possible.
All posts that are engaged in a regulated activity will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and a DBS re-check on a three yearly basis whilst employed in such a role. Staff employed in these posts will therefore be asked to register with the DBS Automatic Update Service upon receipt of their DBS certificate and must update yearly , the annual fee will be reimbursed subject to Trust policy.For further information please visit: DBS Update Service: applicant guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Please note if a DBS is applicable for the position then a charge will be deducted from your first salary or upfront cost if a staff bank position.
Please note that all new starters to the trust are subject to a probationary period.