Lead Counsellor

Job overview

To provide clinical supervision, training, operational and management expertise to the service. To lead on service developments in Brent Talking Therapies Service and work alongside other lead clinicians and support the Clinical Lead and Deputy Clinical Lead in their role.

Main duties of the job

To provide clinical and operational management for staff in the counselling team and manage the daily operations of the service. To support the Service Lead to meet commissioned targets and to work within the framework of IAPT national requirements, particularly in the delivery of brief focused counselling.

The postholder will be involved in recruiting, supporting and managing a team of Band 6 and 7 counsellors and psychotherapists and other qualified IAPT staff as appropriate.  The postholder will also undertake senior duties delegated by the Clinical Lead such as providing senior clinician cover for the service, supervision of duty and triage systems and other tasks as appropriate.

The post holder will contribute to the development of Brent Talking Therapies Service, including forthcoming plans for service expansion, developing community links and in developing liaison links with stakeholders such as GPs and other healthcare providers and improving self-referral processes.  The postholder will support the Clinical & Deputy Clinical Leads to ensure that national guidelines are adhered to in line with the national programme, targets are achieved and that the clinical governance arrangements are in place.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical:

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the Service 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

• To formulate 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, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions, employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To integrate with the psychological formulation specialist knowledge of complex mental health disorders.
• To understand the role of physical treatments for complex mental health disorders, and to offer appropriate advice to the patient, carers and clinicians in the light of such understanding.
• To provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• 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.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
• To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the Brent Talking Therapies Service, where appropriate.
• To assist in the coordination and management of Treatment Waiting Lists.

Teaching, training, and supervision

• To receive regular clinical professional supervision from senior colleagues.
• To gain additional highly specialist experience and skills relevant to the post, as agreed with the Clinical & Deputy Clinical Leads.  To gain additional highly specialist experience and skills relevant to IAPT psychological treatments, as agreed with the IAPT Clinical & Deputy Clinical Leads.
• To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision.
• To provide ad hoc clinical supervision to staff as required from the PWP and CBT teams, also ensuring that these two teams have access to an independent structure for routine clinical supervision.
• To provide clinical placements for trainees and others as appropriate, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good mental health care and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.
• To provide professional oversight and clinical advice to trainee therapists on 12 month fixed term contracts in the service.  Trainees will also have a named supervisor from the Band 7 workforce.
• To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

• To offer line management to all members of the Counselling Team
• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the Brent Talking Therapies Service, Service operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit
• To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing
• To be involved in the management of the workloads IAPT practitioners within the framework of the current Service policies and procedures
• To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of IAPT staff and be responsible for the recruitment of counselling staff at band 6 and 7
• The post holder will be required to attend and contribute to the regular professional meetings of Service and other IAPT meetings locally and Trustwide as appropriate.

Research and service evaluation

• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other CNWL IAPT Service staff members.

• To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.
• To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.
• The post holder will be expected to work with the Clinical & Deputy Clinical Leads and other appropriate staff on any such projects the service undertakes.

IT responsibilities (other than those used for research)

• The postholder will input and maintain, appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data and provide this to the Service Lead / Clinical & Deputy Clinical Leads where appropriate.
• The postholder will engage in relevant computer and IT training as required.
• The postholder will be responsible for ensuring that those staff they are responsible for and supervise engage in relevant computer and IT training as required and will input and maintain, appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data.

General

• To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the postholder’s professional and service manager(s)
• To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in Counselling and relevant disciplines within the meetings of the Brent Talking Therapies Service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of CBT or clinical/counselling psychology and related disciplines
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society and other relevant bodies, as well as Trust policies and procedures
• To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health
• To ensure that all relevant policies are adhered to
• To represent the Service Clinical or Deputy Clinical Lead when required to do so.
• To work flexibly and respond to service needs accordingly e.g. with regard to cover Service Level Agreement arrangements

Please Note:

• This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the postholder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with the manager.
• This job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.
• The post holder is expected to comply with all relevant Trust policies, procedures and guidelines, including those relating to Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety and Confidentiality of Information, clinical governance including research governance.