Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

Band 8a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist opportunity in Older Adult Acute MH Services, Part-time post (18.75 – 22.5 hours)

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to work on the Older Adult dementia ward in the Older Adults MH Inpatients Psychology Team at Prospect Park Hospital in Reading. This role would suit a candidate who is keen to apply a broad range of psychological skills, which would include consultation, formulation, behavioural support, neuropsychological assessment, therapeutic interventions, and contribution to service development.

We welcome applications for this band 8a Specialist Psychologist role. There are opportunities for flexible working patterns which would include face-to-face clinical work as well as home working. We are also flexible in accommodating requests for part-time working days.

You will be part of the Inpatients Psychology team, supervise the Assistant Psychologist on your ward, and also receive peer support from the other ward Clinical/Counselling Psychologists. You will contribute to and/or lead on service development projects.

• Work on allocated wards – predominantly older adults (dementia)
• Offer psychological consultation to community and hospital staff (e.g. team formulation, teaching sessions, joint working, supervision and staff support groups).
• Supervise Assistant Psychologist.
• Clinical work with service users and carers involving assessment (including neuropsychological assessments and behavioural support assessments), formulation and interventions with varied and complex mental health and cognitive presentations.
• Contribute to service improvement initiatives in a ward/community team, as well as contributing to projects arising from the Inpatients Psychology Team.

Working for our organisation

Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health and community health services trust. Rated ‘outstanding’ by the CQC, we’re committed to providing the best possible care to people across Berkshire. As an employer, we’re committed to offering an inclusive and compassionate environment where our people share in a sense of belonging and are supported to flourish.

Our values at Berkshire Healthcare are:

• Caring for and about you is our top priority
• Committed to providing good quality, safe services
• Working Together with you to develop innovative solutions

Your wellbeing is important to us. Some of the benefits of working for us include:

• Flexible working options to support work-life balance
• 27 days’ annual leave rising with service + opportunity to buy and sell
• Generous NHS pension scheme
• Excellent learning and career development opportunities
• ‘Cycle to Work’ and car leasing scheme including electric vehicles
• Access to a range of wellbeing tools and services
• Discounts at hundreds of popular retailers and restaurants
• Staff networks for race, diversity, disabilities, the environment and armed forces community to support equality
• Generous maternity, paternity, adoption and special leave
• Free parking across Trust site

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The 5 “must haves” for you to be considered for this role:

1. Postgraduate doctoral qualification in Clinical or Counselling Psychology (or equivalent)
2. You will have experience working with adults and/or older adults with complex mental health problems, dementia or other disabilities and have excellent therapeutic and management skills.
3. You will enjoy working in teams and providing psychological consultation, teaching and supervision.
4. Calm, confident and assertive in emotionally demanding situations, you will be astute at setting and maintaining professional boundaries and will be efficient at dealing with distressing or hostile situations and behaviour.
5. Self-motivated and confident, you will show initiative and a determination to support clients and their families through creative engagement. This includes an ability to work integratively in your clinical work.

Interviews are due to be held on 28 February 2025.

Inpatients Psychology Team overview: There are currently 14 Psychologists and an art therapist working across the hospital, where we support people experiencing a mental health crisis across seven wards: adult acute, older adult acute, older adult dementia and Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification.

We strongly encourage you to review how you meet the criteria in the person specification and write about this point-by-point in your supporting statement for the best chance of being shortlisted.

Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.

We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please don’t hesitate to call: Dr Claudia Kustner on 01189605257 or email: [email protected] who will be delighted to help.

Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications/Training

• Post graduate doctoral qualification in clinical or counselling psychology (or equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996 or for those who completed their training overseas) which provides eligibility for Chartered Membership of British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Registered and accredited with Health Care Professional Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist

Education/Qualifications/Training For All

• Additional training/ accreditations (willingness to undertake or working towards these) to reflect post qualification specialism (e.g. Health Psychology, Neuropsychology, BABCP, UKCP, ACAT, EMDR-UK, BPS,).

Continuous Professional Development

• Evidence of post-qualification training and expert knowledge in multiple psychological models and therapeutic approaches relevant to the service area. Having a robust awareness of the current evidence-base and new developments within the area of specialism.
• Training in clinical supervision.
• Commitment to continuing professional development as recommended by the relevant accrediting body.

Experience

• Experience of working in evidence-based ways with services users (and their carers/families) presenting with dementia and/or cognitive difficulties, as well as the full range of clinical severity across the range of settings, maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Experience of dealing with highly distressing or emotional circumstances, such as serious mental illness, child and sexual abuse, exploitation, and complex family dynamics
• Experience of delivering interventions across different modalities (e.g. individual, group and systemic-based approaches).
• Experience of working effectively in a multi-disciplinary team and multi-agency environment
• Experience of providing specialist advice and consultation to MDT and multi-agency colleagues to support the psychological care of service users.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision, mentoring, or providing structured guidance to other staff
• Experience of developing and delivering teaching to a range of staff groups
• Experience of service development and carrying out clinical audit, evaluative research and applying the findings
• Experience of service evaluation and implementing change from a national and local health or social care change agenda that impacts across services and professions.
• Experience of working with, and addressing issues of diversity, including experience of working with diversity, multiculturalism, and equality of access to service.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Demonstrable knowledge, skills and abilities in the practice of psychological/neuropsychological or psychotherapeutic assessment, formulation and intervention, relevant to the service area.
• Knowledge of evidence base, research, policy and legislation in relation to the service area
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
• Well-developed verbal and written communication skills enabling the sensitive communication of complex, technical and/or sensitive information to multiple stakeholders both within and outside the NHS.
• Well-developed interpersonal skills, with the ability to support, influence and engage with clinicians, stakeholders and service users to create change and improvement
• The ability and skills to act as an advocate for the service, to engage and foster good professional relationships with all health professionals in promoting the good integration of this service with the wider health care system.
• Advanced IT skills and the ability to navigate various systems and software packages (such as RiO, Outlook, databases, MS office/Teams, One Consultation and the internet).

Additional Requirements

• Able to work flexibly around working patterns as required, and ability to travel independently between locations in Berkshire to fulfil the requirements and duties of the position

These are the values that we live by at Berkshire Healthcare:

• Caring for and about you is our top priority
• Committed to providing good quality, safe services
• working Together with you to develop innovative solutions

We welcome people who share these values to come and work for us.

Please find attached the behaviour framework that underpins these values for this job role.

At Berkshire Healthcare, we foster an inclusive workplace where everyone belongs.

Watch our careers video to learn more.

We welcome talent from all backgrounds and offer guaranteed interviews to disabled applicants and armed forces community members who meet the minimum criteria.

Please note we may close positions before the advertised date.

If you need help with your application, please contact us on [email protected]

Once you have applied, please check your email regularly for updates. All appointments are subject to NHS Employment Checks, and false information may result in withdrawal of offers. For information on how we store your information, please review our privacy statement.

No agencies, please.