Clinical 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
We currently have an exciting opportunity in City & Hackney EQUIP Team for a clinical or counselling psychologist who is interested in Early Intervention in Psychosis (full-time).
EQUIP provides an assertive and responsive service to adults aged 18 – 65 for up to 3 years during their recovery from a first episode of psychosis. The service covers the City of London and London Borough of Hackney. Emphasis is placed on maximising wellbeing and on social, psychological, physical and educational/vocational recovery.The team works to standards set for early intervention in psychosis teams and participates in the annual National Clinical Audit on Psychosis.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will work alongside clinical psychologists already in post to support individuals and their families in line with NICE guidelines for psychosis and schizophrenia. The post holder will be part of the EQUIP Team and will receive support from senior psychologists within the team as well as the wider City and Hackney psychology department.
Working for our organisation
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. 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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To provide a specialist clinical/counselling psychology service to EQUIP patients, providing psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice, supervision, training and consultation on patients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other workers; working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the service/team.
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential criteria- Doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology
- Registered with HCPC as a psychologist
Experience
Essential criteria- Experience of working with a wide variety of patient groups across the whole life course and presenting problems which reflect the full range of clinical severity.
- Experience of work in a multi-cultural setting, including working with interpreters.
- 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 delivering CBT-based psychological assessment and intervention with clients experiencing a range of complex needs, within the context of at-risk mental state and/or early intervention for psychosis
- Experience of working with families and carers, and of delivering family therapy following a theoretical model
- Experience of working with people experiencing psychosis
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria- Highly developed skills in the effective communication of highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to a wide variety of recipients in a range of settings within and outside the NHS, including the ability to produce comprehensive and coherent letters, reports and associated documentation.
- Skills in working in multidisciplinary settings
- Ability to provide a culturally competent and non-stigmatising service including an awareness of the potential impact of discrimination and disadvantage on mental health
- Knowledge of legislation in relation mental health
- Highly-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies – preferably CBT and one other
Other
Essential criteria- Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours
- Demonstrably respectful approach to patients, carers, colleagues, other professional contacts. Willingness to negotiate and ability to handle confrontation effectively and professionally.
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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