Band 7 Central Bristol Crisis Team - Bristol

Job overview

We are seeking an enthusiastic, experienced Clinical or Counselling Psychologist, Psychotherapist, or Arts Psychotherapist to join our established Complex Psychological Interventions Service in Bristol. This role includes working two days per week with the Central Bristol Crisis Team, supporting people experiencing acute mental health crises through rapid assessment, intervention, and treatment in their homes or community settings.

The Bristol Crisis Services operates across North, South, and Central Bristol. This post is based in the central crises team and offers an excellent opportunity to work psychologically with individuals in acute distress, using brief intervention approaches, assessment, formulation, risk management, and crisis-focused treatment.

In addition to direct clinical work, the role involves providing consultation, facilitating clinical supervision and reflective practice, and helping develop a psychologically informed service. The successful applicant will also support senior practitioners in training and developing the wider staff team. Right to Work in the UK: This position is not eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants must already hold the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application, as the organisation is unable to support sponsorship for this post.

Main duties of the job

Working psychologically with people experiencing acute mental health crises. Offering brief models of intervention, assessment and formulation of people in high levels of distress. Provide consultation in case discussions, offer clinical supervision groups and facilitate reflective practice sessions. Working to enhance the team’s understanding of the dynamics created within crises and ensure the development of a psychologically informed service. Supporting and working the senior practitioner with training and developing the staff group as a whole. Bringing empathy knowledge and skill working with the team and this client group.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job Summary

• To fulfil a comprehensive role as a Psychological Practitioner within the Central Crisis Team.
• To assess and treat a specialist workload of clients and maintain associated records.
• To participate in Continued Professional Development and other developmental activities.
• To undertake Research and Development and clinical audit.
• To clinically supervise trainees, assistants and team members as appropriate to level of experience.
• To offer training to staff in the crisis team and other staff where appropriate.
• To offer consultation for staff in the crisis team and other staff where appropriate.

CLINICAL:

• To provide a psychologically informed service to the Central Crisis team including assessment and specialist formulation for individuals and carers as appropriate.
• To provide specialist consultation and supervision for the Crisis team and other agencies providing care for the client group.
• To liaise with the team and identify appropriate care pathways for patients with complex needs within secondary services.
• To work jointly with colleagues within secondary services offering consultation, case management and case-based discussion and providing expert advice.
• To participate in CPI referral processes and meetings.
• To participate in generic team duties as agreed by the team leader and CPI Lead, as appropriate to the needs of the service.
• To participate in acute review meetings with the Central Bristol Crisis Team.
• To participate in clinical and caseload supervision arrangements provided by the Complex Psychological Interventions Service.
• To maintain accurate records and to monitor clinical workload using agreed systems.
• To support the full implementation of the Personal wellbeing Plan (PWP) model.

PROFESSIONAL:

• To be accountable for own professional actions and to fully observe the relevant Code of Conduct for your professional body;
• To be aware of, adhere to, and where appropriate, contribute to the formulation and review of Trust, Area and Complex Psychological Interventions Service policies and procedures;
• To participate in local Complex Psychological Interventions meetings and Trust-wide meetings as appropriate;
• To maintain and develop high standards of practice by engaging in continuing professional development and co-operative working/networking with colleagues from the same profession;
• To participate in an annual performance appraisal.

SERVICE GOVERNANCE:

• To participate in service governance processes in the profession and in the LDU to maintain a safe, effective service which responds to Service User feedback.
• To support and participate in multidisciplinary clinical audit.
• To liaise with other disciplines and agencies to ensure that best practice is shared.
• To promote the use of effective interventions in the service.

TRAINING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT:

• To provide training, supervision and consultation in psychological approaches to staff in the Crisis team. This to include joint assessment with Crisis team staff, formulation of complex mental health problems and planning of interventions to be implemented by other team members with service users.
• To provide training, supervision and reflective practice to assistants, trainees and team members as appropriate to experience level.
• To collaborate with colleagues to develop and offer training courses, workshops and supervision groups to develop skills in psychological interventions and related approaches for staff in the locality.
• To contribute to the teaching of students and trainees in psychology, medicine, nursing and other health care disciplines.
• To agree a plan of personal development with the CPI and the team line manager.

PERFORMANCE AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT:

• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the agreed key performance indicators for your service, particularly relating to outcomes and essential standards to be met.
• Ensure that you and your team understand data quality standards and that all the necessary records for your service are maintained and reported.
• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the clinical and business action plans relevant to your services.
• Ensure that you and your team understand all of the monitoring, auditing and reporting systems relevant to your services.

SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING:

• Actively seek opportunities for improvement for the services which you and your team provide by identifying research evidence and best practice elsewhere, interpreting/translating and facilitating adaptation for AWP.
• Analyse and interpret data to inform the strategic direction of the services which you and your team provide
• Ensure multidisciplinary involvement and the use of quality improvement (QI) techniques in service improvement, by negotiating shared solutions, facilitating the resolution of complex or contentious issues and managing any conflict into constructive outcomes.
• Ensure effective risk identification, analysis, mitigation and management within your services, encouraging all members of your team to be aware of and to manage risks.

GOVERNANCE AND POLICY:

• Ensure that you understand all of the key governance requirements, policies and standards for your services and that these are communicated to your team; make sure your team understand the importance of good governance.
• Support the development of policies relevant to your services, including your team in this work.

SERVICE/POLICY DEVELOPMENT:

• To collaborate with specialist staff and other agencies in the LDU to extend the range of specialist psychological individual, family and group interventions available across the area.
• To propose changes to policies and procedures in multidisciplinary teams as appropriate.
• To advise managers of service developments.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT:

• To engage in research relevant to service priorities as appropriate.
• To participate in audit and service evaluation activities examining the effectiveness of current service delivery and informing the development of services relevant to client needs.
• To provide advice, support and consultation to colleagues from other disciplines undertaking research in the area.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.