Clinical/Counselling Psychologist Milton Keynes

We are looking for a highly motivated and innovative Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join our friendly established multi-disciplinary Team for 4 days a week. Previous applicants within the last 3 months to a Band 7 or 8a role with us need not apply. Must be able to work a Tuesday and a Friday for operational requirements.

At CNWL we encourage our psychological professions staff to pursue leadership opportunities in senior roles. Various prominent leadership roles within the Trust are currently held by Psychologists including: Director of Strategy and Integration, Chief Information Officer, & Clinical Directors. We facilitate the development of our psychological professions staff across all areas. The professional group is led by our Director of Therapies and our Chief Psychologist, both Consultant Clinical Psychologists.

We are looking for applications from highly motivated and enthusiastic psychologists who are committed to delivering patient-focused care and treatment. We are looking for well-rounded and experienced practitioners. Alongside delivering therapy interventions this role will also include ample opportunity to develop leadership skills. This will involve supervision of either Assistant Psychologists and Clinical Associates in Psychology or junior colleagues. The Therapies pathway works closely with colleagues across the wider MDT and therefore, this role would involve consultation, training, and liaison across the Hub.

The Community Mental Health Hub in Milton Keynes is a formed amalgamation of a number of smaller teams brought together to offer a more accessible service to people with mental health problems. The service is needs-led, offering medical, social and psychological interventions to all on a stepped care model. Therapists work with people with complex mood problems, trauma and PTSD presentations, psychosis, and complex emotional needs delivering a range of evidence-based interventions as recommended by NICE Guidance, predominately MBT, DBT, CBT, CBTp, CFT and EMDR within a Trauma Informed ethos. You will be required to work with clients individually and in groups, and with carers and families as required. Liaising and developing effective collaborative relationships with other key services and with lived experience practitioners is an important part of this role.

You will need an excellent understanding of the needs of people with complex mental health difficulties and comorbid health problems. Experience of working with complex trauma presentations would be valuable.

CNWL is recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ in line with our values, our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries.

With us, you will get:

• A Trust committed to staff personal development, with a trust wide culture change and leadership programme that has staff wellbeing at its core.
• An opportunity to work for one of the top 10 NHS employers.
• Flexible working.
• Variety of work.
• Access to a variety of CPD opportunities.

We encourage staff input and ideas in relation to moving services forward, improving care pathways and meeting the client group's needs. As a Trust we are committed to investing in our staff through a range of initiatives, both profession-specific and organisation wide. Psychological professions staff are able to access a range of trust-wide CPD initiatives. We have partnered with Bespoke and Contextual Consulting to provide some of the profession specific CPD, alongside additional CPD sessions we commission as part of CNWL CPD programme for Psychological Professions. CNWL also has seven established staff networks supporting a range of individual needs.

Job responsibilities:

• To provide specialist psychological/therapeutic assessments of service-users referred to the Therapies pathway upon appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources. This will include the use of routine psychometric assessments and measures, observations and interviews where appropriate.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the formulation and implementation of plans for the formal psychological treatment and or management of a client's problems based upon an appropriate conceptual understanding of the service-users problems in the context of the family and wider system.
• To receive regular specialist supervision from the principal clinical psychologist and where appropriate other senior professional colleagues.
• To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision.

Qualifications:

Essential:

• Doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuro psychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies development psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• Must have passed preceptorship and will need to provide evidence of preceptorship project and tasks.
• To be registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) or equivalent i.e., BACP.
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

Experience:

Essential:

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and formulation of complex mental health presentations including Trauma presentations.
• Experience of working psychologically with people who have complex mental health problems, including trauma and personality disorder.
• Experience of teaching, training and supervision.
• Experience of skills in group work.
• Experience of work with care-givers/families.
• To be able to conduct routine assessments of IQ and memory screening.
• 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 working in an NHS community mental health settings in secondary and tertiary care.
• Experience of working in MDT settings in particular the demonstrated ability to work jointly in assessment interventions with multidisciplinary team members.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Experience in the use of risk assessment and the management of risk and crisis.

Knowledge:

Essential:

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Knowledge of legislation and NICE guidance in relation to this client group.
• Knowledge of clinical caseload management within a team setting.
• Skills in providing consultation and supervision to other professional and non-professional groups and assistants.
• Knowledge of current developments and policies relevant to mental health services.

Desirable:

• Well developed skills in the ability to work and communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and to other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessment and intervention for people with mental health presentations.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.