The Havens Clinical/Counselling Psychologist in City of Westminster

The post holder will work as part of a multidisciplinary team and within the Havens Psychology and Counselling team, with responsibility to ensure the systematic provision of a high quality specialist therapeutic and liaison service to adults who have experienced sexual assault and/or rape across all sectors of care and alongside external statutory and non‑statutory agencies. You will have clinical responsibility for managing your caseload, waitlists, safeguarding responsibilities, report and letter writing, collection and collation of outcome measures and activity.

The post holder will help develop the Havens Psychology and Counselling service and ensure the development of strong inter‑agency relationships is established. The post holder will also work closely with other psychologists, counsellors, doctors, nurses and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs). The successful candidate will utilise doctoral level psychological knowledge in contributing to the development, implementation and review of services for patients and staff. You will provide a consultation service to staff to promote psychosocial knowledge and service development relevant to patient care in a highly specialist forensic medical area. The post holder will work closely with and advise the lead psychologist and Head of Therapies service on aspects of service delivery. A requirement of evening work (up to 20:00) and the occasional Saturday is expected.

Responsibilities

• Manage the psychology waiting list and the psychology provision at one of the Havens' sites, which offers medical care and other follow‑up services including counselling and psychology, to those who have been raped and sexually assaulted.
• Provide specialist psychological assessments of patients referred to the Havens, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources.
• Formulate plans for psychological treatment and/or management, drawing upon an appropriate conceptual framework and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
• Implement a range of psychological interventions for individuals as appropriate for problems such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, impulsive behaviour, relationship difficulties, sexual dysfunction and other psychological sequelae of sexual assault.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients from the Havens Psychology Service, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, and communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the patient's care, including the MPS and CPS on a regular basis.
• Provide crisis intervention for those suffering severe emotional and psychological reactions to sexual assault and those who are expressing suicidal thoughts or harm related to others or themselves; provide appropriate psychological therapy and support to ‘cold case’ clients referred by the Sapphire Team.
• Undertake risk identification and management for relevant individual patients and provide both general and specialist advice on psychological aspects of risk identification and management to the clinical team.
• Communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of patients and monitor and evaluate progress.
• Provide an environment that is non‑judgemental, sensitive and confidential and ensure the integrity of the psychologist/client relationship by being a member of a professional organisation such as HCPC, abiding by their Code of Ethics.
• Attend regular clinical supervision.
• Maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self‑governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the relevant professional body, e.g. HCPC and Trust policies and procedures.
• Maintain confidentiality about clients, staff and other health service business in accordance with the Code of Confidentiality or Personal Health Data, the professional body Code of Conduct and Trust Policy.
• Maintain accurate statistics and record action in the client's medical record.
• Contribute to the maintenance and update of Haven protocols, where appropriate.
• Continue to gain post‑qualification experience of clinical/counselling psychology, including specialist experience and skills relevant to sexual assault, sexual health, risk and trauma, as agreed with the Lead Clinical Psychologist.
• Participate in the teaching of other health professionals, students and new members of staff, and in public education (e.g. GPs, medical students, postgraduate doctors, universities, community‑based groups and other professional bodies).
• Provide professional and clinical supervision of trainee and assistant psychologists and, as appropriate, contribute to the supervision of individual cases for trainee clinical psychologists.
• Maintain up‑to‑date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues related to the specific client group.
• Ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychology within the service area and contribute across the service by exercising the skills of a reflexive and reflective practitioner and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of psychology and related disciplines.
• Represent the Psychology and Counselling team at Havens Operational Group Meetings and other meetings when required.
• Ensure that the Havens and King's College Hospital NHS Trust policies are adhered to at all times.
• Carry out the role in accordance with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) Code of Ethics.
• Ensure the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes.
• Take part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintain an active engagement with current developments in the field of counselling and related disciplines.
• Maintain confidentiality about clients, staff and other health service business in accordance with the Code of Confidentiality or Personal Health Data and Trust policy.

Qualifications

We are looking for an enthusiastic and committed Clinical/Counselling Psychologist with experience of working with adults. The post holder will need to have post‑qualified experience of working with sexual trauma; relevant experience in providing psychological assessment and intervention to adults in one‑to‑one therapy as well as groups and workshops; experience of assessing and managing risk in the context of mental health and safeguarding; and experience of providing short to medium‑term therapy. The successful candidate will have experience in a comprehensive range of psychological therapies (including CBT and EMDR), risk assessment, consultation and training. The ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team is essential.

About the Trust

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1.8 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King's College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley. King's is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone's contribution is required to meet these goals. King's College Hospital is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King's College London, and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.