Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

1.     To provide psychological and cognitive assessment, formulation and intervention tailored to the needs of the individual and the context and ongoing evaluation of the outcomes of the intervention.

2.     To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s condition, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s difficulties, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings. This will include individual and group psychological intervention. 

3.     To evaluate and make specialist decisions about psychological treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes. 

4.     To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients/patients.

5.     To undertake work in outpatient settings depending on the level of service need.

6.     To undertake work in Long Covid workshops such as “Fatigue, Anxiety and Breathlessness” workshops / peer support groups supporting Long Covid patients.

7.     To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

8.     To communicate highly complex and potentially highly contentious information in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, in situations with clients who may be highly emotional, requiring the highest level of communication skills.

9.     To identify, provide and promote appropriate interventions / means of support for carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours.

10.  To carry individual accountability for all clinical decisions and exercise responsibility and autonomy for the treatment and discharge of patients, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and treatment, communicating with the referral agent, members of the multidisciplinary team and others involved with the patients’ care.

11.  To provide highly specialist psychological guidance and consultation to carers and families of the client and MDT who are directly involved with the care of individuals. 

12.  To give explanations of a condition or difficulty when clients/patients are antagonistic to the opinions offered.

Professional Duties 

1.     To implement departmental and Trust wide/departmental policies, procedures and guidelines. 

2.     To work as a senior psychologist in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Care Group in own post and as part of the Psychological Professions Group

3.     Uphold the privacy and dignity of the patient and respect the equality of patients at all times.

4.     To maintain registration with the Health and Care Professions Council as a Clinical Psychologist.

5.     To work within the Code of Ethics and the relevant professional practice guidelines of the HCPC, and the professional guidance framework of the Trust.

6.     To seek and maintain regular formal supervision.

7.     To seek high quality learning opportunities to meet continuing professional development requirements.

8.     To work within the framework of the policies and procedures of the Trust.

9.     To be responsible for relevant data collection on work activities, as required, and to maintain a high standard of clinical record keeping, providing regular and timely information on work undertaken and on service activity to allow accurate reporting of the overall service to their manager.

10.  To participate fully in supporting the activities of the Psychology profession within the Trust, including attending relevant meetings. 

11.  To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the Health and Care Professions Council, British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.

12.  To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to the patient group, mental health, clinical psychology and health psychology in general.

13.  To undertake other duties as required for the effective delivery of the Service. To carry out such other duties as the Clinical Lead for the Clinical Health Psychology Service may reasonably request.

Managerial Duties 

1.     To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, both in the short-listing process and as a member of interview panels for assistants, trainees and less experienced qualified clinical psychologists. 

2.     To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team, specialty and department operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit. 

3.     To advise both the service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing. 

4.     To carry out duties in relation to local, regional and national initiatives in developing services in the specialist area as opportunities arise.