Specialist Clinical Psychologist in Learning Disabilities

Clinical Psychologist Specializing in Adults with Learning Disabilities - Band 7 Post - Permanent, Enfield Integrated Learning Disabilities Service. This position is a full time (37.5 hrs) post. Part-time will be considered (minimum 3 days per week). Want to make a difference in the lives of people with learning disabilities? Want to work in an excellent service, that was proud to win Team of the Year 2024 in their NHS Trust Awards? We are seeking candidates with a commitment to evidence-based practice, service development, client and carer participation and utilising outcome measures. Strong engagement skills and the ability to work creatively with a culturally diverse population are essential.

The newly appointed Clinical Psychologist will be joining a large friendly community-based integrated and multi-disciplinary service. This consists of clinical psychologists, social workers, community nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, art therapists, physiotherapists, psychiatrists and a specialist employment service. The Psychology team consists of 4 qualified psychologists and 3 assistant psychologists, some of whom form a Positive Behaviour Support team, alongside an occupational therapist.

Main duties of the job:

• The post holder will be responsible for implementing a range of psychological assessments and therapeutic interventions for adults with learning disabilities, individually and in groups and involving their family carers, support staff and liaising with others involved in their lives, as appropriate.

KEY RESULT AREAS Clinical:

• To provide specialist psychological assessments and interventions of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, 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 assessment and intervention/treatment and/or management of a client’s challenging behaviours, mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about intervention/treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of users whose problems are managed by psychologically based assessments/interventions.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and intervention/treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding, assessments and interventions to the benefit of all users of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual users and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
• To communicate highly complex and potentially highly contentious information in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, in situations with users who may be expressing extreme hostility or highly emotional reactions, requiring the highest level of communication skills.

Teaching, training, and supervision:

• To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
• To continue to gain wider post-qualification experience and skills relevant to clinical psychology and/or the service (as agreed with the professional psychology manager).
• To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staff’s psychological work, as appropriate.
• To provide professional and clinical supervision of assistant/graduate psychologists and, as appropriate, to contribute to the supervision of individual cases for trainee clinical psychologists.
• To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or counselling psychology, as appropriate.
• To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.
• To carry out duties in relation to local, regional and national initiatives in developing services in the specialist area as opportunities arise.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development:

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the services’ operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
• To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
• To manage the workloads of assistant and graduate psychologists, within the framework of the team/service’s policies and procedures.
• To be involved, as appropriate, in the short listing and interviewing of assistant/graduate psychologists.

IT responsibilities:

• To use computers to write reports and record data, including the use of statistical packages as part of psychological testing, research and assessment when needed.

Research and service evaluation:

• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
• To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.
• To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.

General:

• To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holder’s professional and service manager(s).
• To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical and counselling psychology and related disciplines.
• 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 British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.
• To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.

Person specification:

• Qualifications: Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS, or registered for, and actively pursuing, the Statement of Equivalence in Clinical Psychology. Registration with the Health Professions Council Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
• Experience: Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings. Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical 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. Experience of work with people with significant learning disabilities in community and in-patient settings. Experience of working with people with autism and/or severe learning disabilities. Experience of working with people whose behaviour challenges. Experience of receiving and providing supervision. Experience of the application of clinical or counselling psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Knowledge: Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups. High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies. Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practised within the clinical fields of psychology. Ability to contain, explore and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision of other staff. Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health. Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).