Principal Psychologist Cambridge

We have an exciting opportunity for someone with a passion for working with people who have experienced severe mental illness. This is an excellent career development opportunity for someone who is looking to lead a team of psychologists and psychological practitioners. The psychology team works as part of a larger multi-disciplinary service, with a wide range of professionals contributing to the excellent care of the people that we support. The well-established service is located in the vibrant University city of Cambridge. There is significant scope for the strategic development of models of service delivery, supporting the development and delivery of evidence-based psychological interventions to this client group. You will have a clinical caseload as well as clear management and supervisory components to your role. You will also oversee a psychologically informed wider workforce in the MDT. This will also involve proactive engagement with third sector stakeholders to expand on strong pre-existing relationships. There are ample training opportunities, and the team has benefitted from recent training in CBTp, EMDR, the modular 'Feeling safe programme' for persecutory delusions and 'family interventions' in psychosis.

Main duties of the job

• The provision of clinical leadership and line management related responsibilities, including strategic thinking and monitoring of service delivery, to the psychology staff in CALT.
• Providing specialist psychological assessment and direct and/or indirect intervention in accordance with the NICE guidelines.
• Offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to MDT colleagues and carers.
• Liaising with external care providers and statutory agencies to support people and their families on their journey to wellbeing.
• Training and ongoing supervision for staff.
• Working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.
• Utilising research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

Supporting and developing psychologists within the team is of utmost importance to us. CPFT fully supports professional clinical supervision requirements. Supervision will be provided by colleagues with expertise and experience of working with a variety of mental health problems.

About us

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives. Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development. To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly underrepresented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities. All appointments are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.

Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications. Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.

Job responsibilities

• To provide clinical leadership and line management related responsibilities to the psychological professions in CALT.
• To provide psychological assessments of clients referred to the locality 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 clients care.
• To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence and which incorporates interpersonal, societal, cultural and biological factors.
• To use psychological formulations to develop and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client's mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, and to use these plans to inform and lead the work of non-psychology members of the team.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, and manage and maintain a caseload in line with service guidelines and under the overall coordination of a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures.
• To communicate, in a skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care.
• To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications

• Essential: Doctorate level training in clinical / counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical, psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS and HCPC. Undertaken training in the supervision of trainee clinical psychologists. Registered with Health and Care Professions Council as a practitioner psychologist.
• Desirable: Chartered Psychologist. Undertaken relevant post-doctoral training in working with clients with complex psychological needs. Undertaken post-qualification further training in a specialised area of psychological practice e.g. neuropsychology, CBT, CBTp, CAT, DBT, solution focused therapy, analytical therapy, systemic / family work etc.

Experience

• Essential: Substantial experience of working as a qualified clinical/counselling psychologist at post-qualification and specialist level. Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across the full range of adult mental health 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 exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care-plan. Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different contexts. Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision. Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Desirable: Experience of delivering supervision to non-psychology MDT staff. Experience of leading teams. Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.

Skills and Abilities

• Essential: Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, psychological formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgement skills. Skills in individual and group work and in programme planning. Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. Skills in self-management, including time-management. High standard of report writing for communication with professionals from NHS, Local Authority and other agencies, parents/carers and clients. Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS. Good understanding of other professionals' theoretical perspectives of the adult group.
• Desirable: Formal training in supervision of other psychologists. High-level knowledge and skills in specialist neuropsychological assessment of adults. High-level knowledge and skills in working with carers.

Knowledge and Understanding

• Essential: Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, psychological aspects of physical health difficulties, and two or more distinct psychological therapies. Knowledge concerning the management of qualified psychologists, including recruitment and retention, appraisals, and other HR policies and processes. Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of psychological medicine. Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the patient group and mental health. Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by BPS. An interest in models of service delivery, and an ability to articulate the value added by psychology services within the context of multi-disciplinary services.
• Desirable: Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups. High-level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies. Understanding of relevant National policies and their implications for service development.

Physical Requirements

• Essential: Physical effort - ability to exert moderate physical effort during a session. Ability to sit for extended periods.

Other

• Essential: Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours. Ability to articulate clearly the role of the profession of clinical psychology based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy. Demonstrates enthusiasm for service initiatives. Has a commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the service area. Ability to exercise appropriate levels of self-care and monitor own state, recognising when it is necessary to take active steps to maintain fitness to practice.
• Desirable: Record of having published in either peer-reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books.

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.