Job summary
- Main area
- Adult Mental Health - Psychology
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 301-JC-24-6441725
- Employer
- Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- St Georges Hospital
- Town
- Stafford
- Salary
- £50,952 - £57,349 pa pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 31/07/2024 23:59
Employer heading
Counselling/Clinical Psychologist Band 8a-open to band 7 preceptorship
Band 8a
Job overview
Band 7 Preceptorship or 8a Counselling/Clinical/Forensic Psychologist
Due to an expansion of psychological provision within our Adult Mental Health inpatient wards, an exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical/Counselling/Forensic Psychologist to join our Psychology team at St George’s Hospital in Stafford. Applications are welcomed from both newly qualified and experienced Psychologists who are looking to use and develop their skills to make a difference.
Psychology is highly valued within our Trust and on our wards; and is an integral part of the MDT approach. Working alongside a Principal Psychologist 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, supervision, and service development to enable ward staff to feel skilled, confident, and supported in their work. 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.
As a University Trust, partnered with Keele University, we welcome and values research ideas and innovation.
Please note: If we receive a high number of applicants then this advert will be closed before the scheduled closing date
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.
- Working with families and carers
- Contributing towards the development, delivery, and evaluation of group interventions
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
Leadership Roles
- Working alongside the Leadership team and contributing ideas to help develop the strategic vision for psychological provision on the inpatient wards
- Contributing towards 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
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
- 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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
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 for particular patients to aid the formulation of their 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 on from 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 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 support 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.
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
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS including two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
- It is a condition of that the post-holder is registered with the health Council and is eligible for registration as a chartered clinical psychologist if applicable
- Current registration/accreditation with appropriate body with current practising certificate
Desirable criteria
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups across the whole life course
- 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 including outpatient, community, primary care, in- patient and residential care settings severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of assessing and treating clients across the full range of care settings.
- Experience of working with service users with psychosis
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Daniella Wickett
- Job title
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0300 790 7000
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