Psychologist/Psychological Therapist DBT/Trainee DBT Therapist

Bedfordshire and Luton Complex Needs Service is excited to be able to advertise a Band 7 Psychologist/DBT Therapist/Trainee DBT Therapist post. The successful applicant will be joining our supportive team in working towards improving access to evidence-based treatment for people with complex emotional needs (associated with a diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’)., The successful candidate will be committed to working collaboratively with service users, carers, and colleagues to create a psychologically safe environment that enables the delivery of effective treatment. The post holder will be required to actively participate in weekly team consultation meetings, and will offer specialist advice, supervision, training, and consultation to other professionals and teams to support effective and efficient psychologically-informed care and treatment across Bedfordshire and Luton. We would particularly welcome interest from candidates who are committed to co-producing the development of the care pathway through participation in clinical research, audit and/or quality improvement projects., This post will be based within ELFT’s Bedfordshire and Luton Complex Needs Service. The multi-disciplinary team includes: a Medical Psychotherapist; Clinical Psychologists; Psychological Therapists; a Lived Experience KUF Development Lead; a Clinical Associate in Psychology; a Peer Support Worker; and an Assistant Psychologist. The team operates as a hub, in reaching to community mental health services in Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton to provide specialist advice, training, consultation and supervision to other professionals and colleagues. The team also offers assessments and evidence-based interventions to a caseload of service users who have complex emotional needs and engage in self-harming and suicidal behavior., Please see attached job descriptions for details of main responsibilities of both the Band 7 Psychological Therapist and Band 6 Trainee Psychological Therapist roles.

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rate ‘Outstanding’ in 2021.. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other reasons to apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

Candidates for the Band 7 post must have completed an accredited training in either Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). However, the service would consider appointing senior mental health professionals (e.g. Community Social Workers, Community Psychiatric Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Art Therapists) with highly developed clinical skills and interest and enthusiasm for working with people with complex emotional needs, to a Band 6 Trainee DBT Therapist role. To be considered for this trainee role, applicants would have to be willing to undertake concurrent training in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and would need to maintain satisfactory progress in this training in order to continue working in this role. On successful completion of the accredited training and supervised practice within a two-year period, the banding of this post would change to Band 7 Psychological Therapist.

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