[ref. d56003817] Lead Psychologist - Milton Keynes

Job overview

This is a 12 months Secondment maternity cover. 30 hours per week.

We are looking for highly motivated and enthusiastic psychologists who are committed to delivering patient-focused care and treatment. The successful applicant will work closely with service users who are hard to engage, with complex trauma histories, and predominantly diagnosed with psychosis or personality disorders.

We are keen to invest in the development of new practitioners joining our service to enhance their knowledge, skills, clinical practice, leadership and confidence in working in this area. We are therefore looking for applicants who have experience of working in an inpatient setting with adults and older adults and an interest to develop in this area.

In CNWL, psychological professions have a strong sense of leadership and a distinct professional identity. There is an emphasis on Continuing Professional Development and developing your skills in line with your career progression goals.

Applicants must have a HCPC registration.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work alongside the senior inpatient team such as the service manager, ward matron, the MDT and other clinical leads, and lead the provision of psychology within the inpatient wards. They will be responsible for the psychological aspect of care and service developments within the inpatient service.

We prioritize collaboration within our team and with our community partnerships, so we are looking for a motivated and committed psychologist who is passionate about leading the development of our psychological therapies pathway and is able to effectively collaborate with external agencies.

It is important for the post holder to have a range of clinical training and experience, including supervision, and teaching and training, and be committed to providing highly specialist, trauma-informed, compassion focused and recovery oriented psychological care that is integrated across Milton Keynes Mental Health services.

Working for our organisation

Click here to find out more about working at CNWL in Milton Keynes! Welcome to Psychological Therapies at Milton Keynes Mental Health Services :: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (cnwl.nhs.uk)

Hear directly from our leaders and their vision for psychological professions in the Trust here.

Here at CNWL we encourage our psychological professions staff to pursue leadership opportunities in senior roles. There will be opportunities to lead on trust wide projects and work across a range of specialities. You will have a chance to further your leadership skills through tailored CPD training whilst also honing your clinical skills in your area of interest.

What we can offer you:

With us, you will get -

A Trust committed to staff personal development, with a trust wide culture change and leadership programme that has staff wellbeing at its core.

An opportunity to work for one of the top 10 NHS employers

Flexible working

Variety of work

Access to a variety of CPD opportunities

We encourage staff input and ideas in relation to moving services forward, improving care pathways and meeting the client group’s needs.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To provide, oversee and develop specialist psychological assessment and formulation for service users admitted to the inpatient wards, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of clients’ mental health problems based upon appropriate conceptual framework of the problems and employing methods based on evidence of efficacy.

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups by adjusting and refining psychological formulations, drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To be able to make reasonable adaptations to assessment and intervention processes to accommodate service users with diverse needs such as autism or related to cultural needs.

To be responsible for leading new methods of service delivery, in order to encourage optimal opportunities for access to service for vulnerable client groups.

Person specification

Training and Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology or its equivalent, including specifically models of mental health, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS.

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
• Post qualification training in a specialist psychological therapy / family / systemic therapy

Experience

• Significant post qualification experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users across the full range of care settings, including; community, primary care and inpatient settings.
• Substantial experience in clinical psychology in the of complex mental health including assessment, formulation and interventions, drawing on a range of psychological models and knowledge, and including work with service users including psychosis, trauma and personality disorder. This must include a minimum of 50 hours’ supervised practice over an 18-month period.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups, across the whole life course, presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including service users with complex emotional needs and trauma, maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a clinical psychologist, or an alternative agreed by the Trust Chief Psychologist.

• Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• Substantial experience of conducting and providing supervision for staff facilitating therapeutic groups

Knowledge and Skills

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. complex emotional needs, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc). High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the service user group and mental health.

• Knowledge and skills in working with people with lived experience.
• Knowledge and skills in relation to critical incident stress debriefing.

CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run.

We’re proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

We are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ only the best people, and our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries.

We offer a generous relocation package (subject to eligibility assessment) and flexible working options, including bank assignments for most roles. For more information on these and other benefits of working for us, see our Benefits, Reward and Wellbeing page

Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others.

CNWL NHS Foundation Trust are committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.

Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.

If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.