Clinical Psychologist

The Kent Clinical Neuropsychology Service is one of the largest Neuropsychology Departments in the country. We provide neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation across Kent, working with a variety of health and social services teams to support the needs of adults with acquired brain injury and those with long-term neurological conditions.

The post is based in the cosmopolitan and vibrant city of Canterbury, which boasts excellent high-speed (one hour) links to London. You will be based within the East Kent Neurorehabilitation Unit at Kent & Canterbury Hospital. A key aspect of this role will be to provide specialist neuropsychological assessment and cognitive rehabilitation, and to offer psychological therapy to people during their inpatient neurorehabilitation journey.

The wider Neuropsychology service has a strong rehabilitation ethos and members of the service have interests in a range of different therapeutic approaches, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, Narrative therapy, mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and systemic approaches.

In this role, you will:

• Support people who have sustained acquired brain injuries and long-term neurological conditions in an inpatient setting.
• Work collaboratively towards helping people achieve meaningful goals.
• Identify the psychological needs of patients and provide psychological therapy.
• Provide neuropsychological assessments and cognitive rehabilitation.
• Undertake consultative and advisory interventions on the unit.
• Liaise with colleagues across the NHS, Social Care, and voluntary agencies.
• Undertake research and service development projects.
• Contribute to continuing professional development events.

Many of our department members are actively involved in teaching and research. There are ample opportunities to teach allied health professionals and in the Salomons Clinical Psychology doctorate. Members of our service receive regular clinical, management and peer supervision and there is a commitment to ongoing training and professional development.

We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway. Our teams support adults with a wide range of mental health needs. Because we cover the whole county and both hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the 1.8 million people of Kent and Medway. Rated 'Good' by the CQC, we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 in the community each year.

Our vision is simple: We are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It’s why we’re passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. And everything we do is guided by our values caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Join us - if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that’s doing well together.

At Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, we are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles.

Please see the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities of the role.

Training, Qualifications and Registration

• Post-graduate Doctorate in Clinical Psychology accredited by the BPS / HCPC.
• Registration as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
• Additional training in clinical neuropsychology.
• Additional training in a psychological therapy model (e.g. CBT, CFT, ACT, narrative therapy).

Experience

• 3 years experience as Doctoral level postgraduate Clinical Trainee and minimum of previous one year as graduate Assistant Psychologist (or equivalent).
• Experience of working in a range of clinical settings with a range of levels of disability and full range of age groups as specified by BPS competencies for Clinical Psychologists.
• Experience of working with people with acquired brain injuries and/or health conditions.
• Experience of working with clients presenting with challenging behaviour.
• Experience of working in an inpatient setting.
• Experience of conducting standardised neuropsychological assessments.

Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to comprehend and communicate verbally and in writing highly complex and sensitive information in a manner appropriate to a range of settings and audiences, including complex highly emotive situations and those with significantly impaired communication capacities.
• Ability to analyse and manage complex multi-factorial information from a range of sources both clinical and organisational, integrate and formulate it from a variety of psychological perspectives and make an expert professional judgement about appropriate options for action in a public service context.
• Ability to plan, organise and flexibly manage own workload, adapting to the changing priorities of a complex organisational environment and co-ordinating the work of professional colleagues.
• Adequate keyboard skills and sound understanding of I.T. packages.
• Has knowledge of administering psychometric test materials.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Evidence of continuing professional development in the area of Clinical Neuropsychology and/or Health Psychology.
• Ability to work within Professional Guidelines.
• Knowledge of acquired brain injuries and neurological disorders.
• Knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
• Advanced keyboard skills.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.

Location: EKNRU, Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury

Salary: £47,810 to £54,710 a year per annum pro rata

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Part-time

Reference number: 380-FR0607-A