Highly Specialist Psychologist in Sickle Cell Disorder

The role is to provide inpatient and outpatient specialist psychologist support to adults with sickle cell disorder within the red cell haematology service at Central Middlesex and Northwick Park hospitals and provide support for staff caring for this service user group.

Main duties of the job

• Job Purpose: To provide a qualified clinical health psychology service to adult service users of London North West University Hospital Trust (LNWHT) receiving care for sickle cell disorder, including highly specialist psychological assessment, treatment, planning, implementation, and monitoring of outcomes.
• To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
• To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a specialist in psychological services for sickle cell disorder.
• To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.
• To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct and guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
• To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

• To provide specialist psychological assessments and formulation of service users referred to or by the sickle cell service, 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 service users, family members and others involved in the service user’s care.
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred service users when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To act as care coordinator, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the service user’s needs, coordinating the work of others involved with care, tasking responsibility for arranging CPA reviews as required and communicating effectively with the service user, their family and all others involved in the network of care, and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of service users.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with service users to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

KR 3 Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
• To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

• To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
• To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Management and supervision

• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists with support from a more senior psychologist.
• To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.
• To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
• To provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

• To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post-qualification psychologists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the sickle cell service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and sickle cell disorder and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

KR 8 Research and development

• To initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits.
• To initiate and carry out appropriate research which will contribute to the well-being of the patient group, directly or indirectly.
• To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to the sickle cell service.
• To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.
• To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC ‘Standards for Continuing Professional Development’.
• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
• To comply with the HCPC ‘Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics’ and ‘Standards of Proficiency’, and ensure professional development in line with these.
• To adhere to the BPS’s Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

KR10 General

• To travel to community events and other meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the service user group and follow trust policies relating to its management.
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations (such as challenging behaviour, abuse etc) and to support others involved in such situations.

Person specification

• Qualifications: Entry-level qualification in Applied Psychology (Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent) that has been accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration. Additional training or substantial experience in Clinical Health Psychology through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses, or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice–based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma. Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC. Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
• Experience: Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in a range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings. Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature. Experience of carrying out post-doctoral research, audit or service evaluation projects. Experience of teaching or training others. Experience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training. Post-qualification experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. Experience of working in a hospital setting. Experience working in organ or stem cell transplant services.
• Knowledge: Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for people with chronic health problems including persistent pain. Knowledge of legislation in relation to people with protected characteristics, including disabilities, mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities. Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis. Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care. Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder / complex trauma, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc.). High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Skills: To deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences. To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources. To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with service users, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information. To plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual service users and groups and carers, and for meetings such as CPAs and case reviews. To plan allocation of tasks to assistant psychologists. Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups. To be skilled in the administration of psychometric and neuropsychological tests, including those that require complex manipulation of test materials. Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data.
• Abilities: Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles. Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate. Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings. Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these. Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour. Ability to manage verbal aggression and hostility directed at self.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

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. Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system. 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.

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.