Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job overview

We are seeking an enthusiastic psychologist passionate about improving the quality of care and support we deliver to people with mental health problems & Learning Disabilities. You will be thoughtful and resilient in the way you work in a multidisciplinary staff team within a busy learning disability health care setting with exciting challenges. You will be interested in working with external partners to develop supportive networks and have energy, drive and enthusiasm for working with complex and challenging cases which require clear communication across agencies.

You will be expected to provide psychological assessments and interventions with people who have a learning disability and mental health problems and/or behavioural difficulties, across a variety of community settings, with individuals, groups, families and staff teams.

You will be part of a service that strives for clinical excellence and aims to support its staff to feel valued, provides opportunities for training and development and encourages active participation relevant service developments.

Main duties of the job

To be responsible for providing a highly specialist clinical psychology service to adults with learning disabilities, including those with mental health needs and challenging behaviour, within the multidisciplinary team in Wandsworth. To work as an independent, autonomous practitioner with full responsibility for highly complex clinical work and to be accountable for all clinical decisions. To work autonomously within professional guidelines (including local Child and Adult Safeguarding policies), team and trust guidelines, policies and procedures. To adhere to guidelines and policies set out by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and HCPC, including those on ongoing clinical supervision. To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy to clients. This will involve undertaking direct assessment and intervention with the client or indirect assessment, monitoring and intervention with staff or carers. To offer psychological consultation, advice and expertise to non-psychologist colleagues and to care staff or family carers.

The post holder will be required to contribute to the effective running of the Wandsworth Learning Disability Healthcare Team, delivering, or advising on the delivery of, high quality care and ensuring consistently high standards of practice. They will be required to contribute to effective multidisciplinary team working ensuring that care is delivered in a holistic way which involves service users and carers.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To work within the community service providing highly specialist psychological assessments of clients 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 client’s care, all in the context of multidisciplinary working.

To work as an independent, autonomous practitioner with full responsibility for highly complex clinical work and to be accountable for all clinical decisions.

To formulate and evaluate plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems and / or behaviour which challenges based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for implementing a range of highly specialist psychological interventions, across outpatient, community and in-patient settings, for individuals, carers, families and groups, employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining several provisional hypotheses.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, developmental, and systemic processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the treatment of and discharge of clients whose problems are managed as a psychologically based standard care plan, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.

To receive regular clinical supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.

To lead on aspects of the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit and as agreed with psychology service lead.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in job applications

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Please remember, your application is your opportunity to tell us about your skills, experience and motivation for the role. We encourage applicants to complete their application and supporting statement in their own words wherever possible. We recognise that AI tools can be helpful in supporting accessibility, and for improving spelling, grammar and structure.

Applications that rely heavily on AI-generated content can become generic and fail to accurately reflect an applicant's individual experience. Applications that clearly demonstrate your own voice, reflections and experiences are often the most effective and help us better understand your suitability for the role.

Please be aware that information provided in your application and supporting statement may be explored further during the selection process. It is important that all applications accurately represent your own knowledge, skills and experience.