Practitioner Psychologist, Psychotherapist, or Psychological Therapist

Job overview

Join our expanding Psychology and Psychotherapy team and help shape the future of inpatient mental health care in Croydon. We are recruiting a Band 7 Psychological Practitioner to work across our inpatient services at the Royal Bethlem Hospital. This rewarding role offers a rare blend of direct therapeutic work, service innovation and workforce development. You will provide individual and group interventions, support psychologically informed ward environments, and contribute to staff wellbeing through reflective practice, formulation and training. Working within a diverse and supportive team, you will have opportunities to supervise trainees, lead service improvement initiatives and develop specialist skills in acute and crisis care. Applications are welcomed from newly qualified practitioners as well as those due to qualify this year

Please get in touch for further information. Will be be co-ordinating site visits, where possible, for any shortlisted candidates.

Main duties of the job

• Evidence-based assessment, formulation and interventions for individuals and families who experience mental health difficulties
• Offer the provision of staff support and case formulation, developing the therapeutic milieu across inpatient wards. Including working part of the MDT and provide indirect support and consultation for colleagues.
• Provide supervision for psychological therapists, as needed and would be encouraged to support trainee clinical psychology placements.
• Croydon is a diverse borough and the postholder will work to engage with the local community and take their needs into consideration to provide an accessible service.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

• To provide specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients (individuals, couples, families and social networks where the identified client has complex mental health needs) according to discipline in the service.
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological or psychotherapeutic interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To provide reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, in order to inform referrers and, where appropriate, service users and their families.
• To select and deliver evidence-based specialist therapeutic interventions, drawing from a spectrum of ideas and models, monitoring outcome and modifying and adapting interventions as necessary, based on the highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, couple, family or group.
• To promote psychological support for carers (or families as appropriate) of referred clients.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically/psychotherapeutically informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological/psychotherapeutic care of clients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
• To liaise with the service/s MDT and other professionals.

KR 3 Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
• To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

• To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
• To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.
• To ensure the cleanliness and safe functioning and use of equipment that will be used by clients or other persons.
• To monitor and advise clients on the safe use of materials and processes.
• To ensure adequate confidential and safe storage for artefacts produced during the therapy process in line with professional guidelines.
• To be responsible for obtaining, storing and maintaining all materials and equipment for the provision of therapy in work setting within budgetary constraints.

KR 5 Management and supervision

• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychological practitioners with support from a more senior practitioner.
• To supervise trainee psychological practitioners within own area of specialism having completed the relevant Supervision Training.
• To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychological practitioners as appropriate.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychological practitioners as appropriate.
• To provide supervision for the psychological and/or psychotherapeutic work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

• To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychological practitioners, and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

KR 8 Research and development

• To initiate/undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits.
• To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychological therapist according to professional body and Trust guidelines.
• To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with professional body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and professional Standards for Continuing Professional Development.
• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
• To comply with professional body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.

KR10 General

• To travel to (e.g. home visits, community placements, meetings) as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations (such as challenging behaviour, abuse etc) and to support others involved in such situations through Trust-wide approaches including Critical Incident Staff Support and Reflect-Support-Resolve.
• To work flexibly within the overall Job Plan.

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.