Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist - Adult Acute Inpatients

apartmentMidlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust placeStafford business_center£62,215 - £72,293/year calendar_month 

Job overview

Due to an expansion of psychological provision within our Adult Mental Health inpatient wards, an exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join our Psychology team at St George’s Hospital in Stafford. Applications are welcomed experienced Psychologists who are looking to use their advanced clinical skills to make a difference; and to further develop their leadership skills.

Psychology is highly valued within our Trust and on our wards; and is an integral part of the MDT approach. Working alongside another Principal Psychologist across the wards and a small team of Assistant Psychologists, the successful applicant will be well-supported to work both directly with patients and with staff teams to promote psychological thinking and trauma-informed approaches to enhance the quality of care that we deliver on the wards.
There will be opportunities for teaching, training, delivering supervision, to enable ward staff to feel skilled, confident, and supported in their work, as well as offering placements for trainee clinical psychologists. There are also currently a number of exciting opportunities to be involved in nationally supported quality improvement and service development work, and research to positively influence the ‘Culture of Care’.

This role offers considerable scope for working flexibly and creatively; and to use and develop a wide range of approaches, as well as clinical and leadership skills.

Main duties of the job

Direct clinical work
  • Working flexibly and creatively with a dynamic caseload offering brief assessments; developing and sharing formulations; and delivering brief psychological interventions for patients with complex mental health difficulties and high levels of risk to self and/or others.
  • Working with families and carers
  • Contributing towards the development, delivery, and evaluation of group interventions, where appropriate
Indirect Work
  • Working alongside as integral member of the inpatient MDT to deliver joint work; and to promote psychological thinking and approaches; and contribute to care and risk management plans.
  • Offering group and individual debriefs to staff following incidents on the ward
  • Supporting staff well-being and offering reflective practice sessions
  • Facilitating team formulation sessions
  • Oversight for the development, delivery, and evaluation of psychologically informed group interventions offered by other staff
Leadership Roles
  • Working alongside the Senior Leadership team and contributing to the development of the strategic vision for psychological provision on the inpatient wards
  • Leading on service evaluation and service development initiatives
  • Providing teaching and training
  • Supporting or leading on research projects on the wards
  • Supervision of Assistant Psychologists and ward staff
  • Placement supervisor for Trainee Clinical Psychologists

Working for our organisation

By joining Team MPFT, you will be helping your communities and in return for this, we will support you by:

  • Supporting your career development and progression.
  • Excellent NHS Pension scheme
  • Generous maternity, paternity, adoption leave
  • Options for flexible working
  • Up to 27 days annual leave (increasing with service up to 33 days) and the opportunity to purchase additional annual leave.
  • Extensive Health and Wellbeing support and resources
  • If you work in our community teams, we pay for your time travelling between patients.
  • Lease car if you complete more than 500 business miles per annum, fully insured and maintained (including tyres), mileage paid at lease car rate
  • Salary sacrifice car – fully insured and maintained (including tyres), your gross pay is reduced by the cost of the vehicle before tax, NI and pension deductions are calculated, mileage paid at business rates
  • Salary sacrifice bikes up to £2k
  • Free car parking at all trust sites
  • Free flu vaccination every year
  • Attractive relocation package
  • Citizens Advice support linked with a Hardship Fund for one off additional support up to £250 (if the criteria is met)

And more. We are proud to be a diverse and inclusive organisation and there is a choice of staff networks that help you meet like-minded people.

Please note, we may be required to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please check out the below videos showcasing why MPFT is a great place to work and to grow your career:

Why Work for Mental Health Services at MPFT - YouTube

Development and Progression Within Mental Health Services at MPFT - YouTube

To support the psychological provision for the Acute Adult Mental Health Inpatient wards and Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at St. George’s Hospital in Stafford.

Given the pace of work and often relatively brief nature of admissions on the inpatient wards, the post requires the ability to work flexibly and creatively. This will include: undertaking psychological assessments, working jointly alongside other professionals within the MDT, and working with families and/or carers to inform the assessment process.
Psychometric testing when this is required to aid the formulation of a patients’ difficulties and distress. Highly developed skills in the formulation of complex clinical presentations are essential, as a key element of the role will involve creating and sharing psychological formulations both through direct work with patients, and through consultation and supervision with the MDT.

The ability to offer timely, formulation-driven therapeutic interventions; and to support the development, delivery, and evaluation of psychologically informed therapeutic groups, which are a core part of the psychological work currently being offered on the wards, are also essential skills required in the role.

A significant element of the role will be providing support to ward staff to promote psychologically-informed and trauma-informed ways of working, and to enhance staff well-being. This is likely to be achieved through facilitating supervision groups, reflective practice sessions, and providing teaching/training for staff; and offering formal and informal debriefs following serious or challenging incidents on the ward.

The ability to contain and manage one’s emotional responses in highly stressful and unpredictable situations, and to support others to recognise, manage and contain their own emotional responses is therefore also an essential skill. The successful applicant would need to be skilled in risk assessment, risk formulation, and risk management; and managing safeguarding concerns.

A key role will be supporting the wider inpatient team with decisions pertaining to clinical care for patients. When planning for post-discharge care, the post holder will need to liaise with a range of NHS and tertiary care services in the community to support the implementation of intervention and management plans; and it may be necessary to work jointly with external professionals to determine how best to support a patient and what support may be available.

There are opportunities to develop and utilise leadership skills; supporting the Senior Leadership team to inform or implement creative and innovative ideas, to contribute towards the strategic vision for psychological provision, and the improvement of the quality of care and outcomes in inpatient services.

There will also be opportunities to supervise placements for Psychologists in training; and to support or lead on research in collaboration with the Trust Research Department and local partner universities. The post holder will have a role in supporting and supervising the Assistant Psychologists on the ward, who are involved in the delivery of psychologically informed group-based and individual interventions.

As a University Trust, partnered with Keele University, we welcome and values research ideas and innovation.

Psychology Team Structure:

Currently, we have 3 Assistant Psychologists and a Principal Counselling Psychologist covering 3 Acute Wards and a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in our growing psychology team. We also have a Consultant Clinical Psychologist that works across the Acute and Urgent Care Pathway.

Person specification

Training

Essential criteria
  • Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology (or its equivalent prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology
  • Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice or therapeutic intervention as required for specific clinical post
  • HPC registration as a clinical/counselling psychologist with eligibility for Chartered Status
  • Trained in Clinical supervision and the supervision of doctoral trainees
Desirable criteria
  • Registration with BPS

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Substantial experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist at a highly specialist level.
  • Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings
  • Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
Desirable criteria
  • Considerable experience of working with people with complex and challenging mental health problems, those who present with high risk and significant suicidal intent and those who have experienced trauma and attachment difficulties

Skills & Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Skills in the use of complex methods of Psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
  • Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside of the NHS.
  • Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
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