Stafford - Principal Clinical Psychologist - Perinatal Service
Job overview
The South Staffordshire Perinatal and Maternal Mental Service deliver care to expectant and new mothers who are experiencing moderate to severe and complex mental health problems within the perinatal period, or families who have mental health needs associated with loss and trauma occurring in the maternity and neonatal context.The Service is a part of MPFT Perinatal Services which includes Brockington Parent and Baby Unit and Shropshire Community Perinatal Mental Health Team.
We are seeking an experienced Clinical Psychologist to join our service to help shape the future of the service for families during this transitional time. If you are creative, motivated, with strong leadership skills, we would love to hear from you.
You will be closely integrated into and meet regularly with the multi-disciplinary teams across both the Perinatal and Lotus Maternal Mental Health pathways and will be joining a supportive and engaged Psychology team. You will receive regular supervision and CPD as well as informal support.Across MPFT Perinatal Services there is a strong psychological structure in place comprising of qualified clinical psychologists, psychological therapists and assistant psychologists, all supported by a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
Main duties of the job
As the Principal Clinical Psychologist, you will be responsible for the systemic provision of high quality highly specialist perinatal clinical psychology service to women, babies and families of the service teams, within the Perinatal and Lotus Maternal Mental Health Service.You will clinically lead psychological provision and contribute to the further development of the clinical psychology service. You will provide specialist assessment, treatment and consultancy services for individuals and their families with moderate to severe mental health difficulties during the perinatal period or because of their maternity experience.
A key part of your role will be to supervise and support the psychological assessment and therapy provided by other psychologists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care and treatment. You will work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systemic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.
The psychology team have close connections with other psychologists within the Children and Families Care Group, the Maternal Mental Health Service within the Shropshire care group, and perinatal services in North Staffordshire, alongside the local DClinPsy courses offering regular trainee placements, research opportunities and perinatal course teaching.
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
The service covers the entire South Staffordshire geographical region. There is an expectation for the successful post holder to be able to travel to meet the service need. The team continue to have a base at Brockington Parent and Baby Unit on the St George’s Hospital site, however we have adapted to new ways of working following the COVID-19 pandemic, and blended working developments continue to be in place.We welcome applications for flexible and hybrid working.
Clinical Psychologists play an integrative role in the MDT and are valued and well supported by colleagues. While this post will be primarily focused on the leadership of the psychological care within the service and the direct delivery of psychological support to individual families (both directly and by supervising and supporting MDT colleagues), there will also be scope for delivering training and consultation to partner agencies and being involved with service development.
For further information please contact Fiona Lovell, Team Leader [email protected] or Dr Chris Faram, Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Professional lead [email protected]
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 areas of specialised psychological practice directly relevant to perinatal mental health and MMH.
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional areas of specialised psychological treatment approaches for Parent-Infant Mental Health and attachment.
- Post qualification training for role of clinical supervisor to Doctorate trainees in clinical psychology.
- Eligible for chartered status with the British Psychological Society. Eligible for full membership of the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) and/or Division of Perinatal Psychology
- Currently registered with HCPC.
- Additional post graduate level training in one or more therapeutic treatment approaches e.g. cognitive therapy, systemic/family therapy, EMDR
- Registration with BPS
Experience
Essential criteria- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups across the whole life course; presenting with the full range of clinical severity across a range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings.
- Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist with substantial experience of working with people with perinatal and maternal mental health problems.
- Experience of adapting psychological therapy to the perinatal and maternity period.
- Experience of delivering psychological therapies working with mothers and infants together to support bonding and attachment.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client’s psychological care and treatment within the context of multidisciplinary care plans.
- Experience of teaching, training and providing professional/clinical supervision to others (including qualified psychologists and other professionals).
- Experience of providing supervision to qualified psychologists.
- Experience of leading and contributing to the development of services.
- Adult Mental Health Inpatient experience
- Experience of providing clinical consultation to other professional staff.
- Experience of working in the NHS.
- Experience of planning and/or implementing perinatal MH service developments in accordance with local and national policy objectives.
- Training in EMDR or Trauma Focused CBT
- Training in Video Interactive Guidance
- Experience of delivering attachment based interventions to support the promotion of Infant Mental Health.
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
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.