Clinical/Counselling Psychologist - NHS
Job overview
Interview will be held on 28th Feb 2025
Are you looking for a new rewarding position working alongside a fantastically supportive team who consistently rate their job satisfaction highly?
We are looking for qualified psychologists to join our very well-established Children’s Eating Disorders Service on a fixed term basis to cover maternity leave for 9 to 12 months. We are hoping to recruit full time applicants, although part time will be considered.We are also very supportive of applicants who are about to complete their doctoral training and can provide excellent training and support in working with eating disorders.
As a Psychologist you will play an important role providing specialist psychological assessments, care planning and a range of evidence-based psychological interventions. You will work one to one with our patients as well as delivering group treatments.
This will be a varied role working as part of a multidisciplinary team and with professionals across agencies.
The working pattern for this role is Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 17:00pm. You will primarily be based at either Nicholsons House in Maidenhead or in our NHS site at the University of Reading campus. Both sites offer free (or paid but reclaimable) parking to staff.There is flexibility for some home working.
Main duties of the job- Assessing children and their families referred to Berkshire Eating Disorders Service.
- Creating care plans for patients referred to the service.
- Delivering a range of specialist psychological interventions for individuals and groups.
- Undertaking and reviewing risk assessments.
- Providing specialist advice to and liaising with other professionals.
- Maintaining up to date and accurate clinical records.
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 sites
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The “must haves” for this role:
- Compassion towards people struggling with eating disorders and mental health difficulties, and a heartfelt desire to help others;
- Resilience which enables you to work in a fast-paced and at times demanding NHS environment.
- Commitment to your colleagues and the ability to support each other, “muck in” and pull together as a team.
- Creativity and innovation as you will be a part of a team which prides itself on adapting quickly and innovatively to change and challenges.
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.
We’re committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award.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 contact Emma Regan via email: [email protected] who’ll 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
Essential criteria- For Clinical/Counselling Psychologist: 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)
- For Clinical/Counselling Psychologist: Registered and accredited with the Health Care Professional Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist
- 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
Essential criteria- 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.
Experience
Essential criteria- Demonstratable post qualification experience working as a qualified psychologist offering evidence-based therapies in area of specialism.
- Experience of working in evidence-based ways with services users (and their carers/families) presenting with the full range of clinical severity across a range of settings. Also having the ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of 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 environments.
- Experience of providing specialist advice and consultation to MDT and multi-agency colleagues to support the psychological care of service users.
- Experience of supervision (including of psychology roles) and ability to offer effective supervision to junior staff.
- Experience of line management of staff (including psychology roles).
- 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
Essential criteria- Demonstrable knowledge, skills and abilities in the practice of highly specialised 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
Essential criteria- Ability to travel across sites in Berkshire and beyond as required
- Able to work flexibly as required and to travel independently between locations 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.