Principal Psychologist and Deputy Lead

Job overview

An exciting opportunity for a senior Practitioner Psychologist has arisen within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s well established Psycho-oncology team. The Psycho-oncology team provide specialist psychological support to people affected by cancer under the care of all cancer MDT across ICHT (Hammersmith, Charing Cross, St Mary’s and Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospitals).

We are seeking a deputy team lead to support psychological professionals working within cancer services to facilitate best practice within the cancer psychosocial care pathway, including supervision and training for cancer staff working within the Trust.

The team have established relationships with other psychology and support services within the Trust and long standing working relationships with other Psycho-oncology services across London. The successful applicant will have a strong track record in Clinical Health Psychology and Psycho-oncology.

Main duties of the job

To provide a high quality clinical health psychology service to patients accessing Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust cancer services as part of the Psycho-oncology and Clinical Health Psychology team, across all sectors of Cancer care, providing psychological expertise through input to patients, their carers, staff and management as required.

It is expected that the post holder will offer teaching, training, group facilitation and consultation to the MDT alongside highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy.

The postholder will support the Psycho-oncology lead but work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the required policies and procedures.

The postholder will be expected to utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and to support research within the area served by the team/service.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please review the attached Job description for more information about the role.

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1       Clinical and Client Care

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients accessing the Psycho-oncology service including the use of measures and interventions specific to the patient group and in conjunction with other members of the MDT as appropriate

To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.

To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

To develop, co-ordinate and ensure the systematic provision of a highly specialist psychology service to patients accessing cancer services at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities which make up the patients of the Psycho-oncology service, taking care to be proactive with under-served groups.

KR 2       Responsibilities for team or service clinical functioning

To deputise in the co-ordination and (and chairing) of meetings for the Psycho-oncology service to ensure effective functioning and review when appropriate

To deputise for the psycho-oncology lead in agreed specified areas and at agreed times, as required.

To co-lead in developing 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 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.

KR 3       Policy and service development

To implement policies and procedures in own area of work.

To identify any aspects of the Psycho-oncology service which could be improved and propose changes to practices or procedures in the Psycho-oncology service and in interactions with partner services.

To initiate and implement service development projects, as agreed with clinical/professional lead.

To attend wider Clinical Health Psychology department team meetings and contribute to the ongoing CPD programme and department initiatives

To participate in the ongoing implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines) across relevant services.

To lead 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.

KR 5       Management and supervision

To provide clinical leadership to more junior psychologists, psychotherapists and other professionals, as appropriate.

To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists

To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.

To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

KR 6       Teaching and Training

To offer teaching, training, group facilitation and consultation to staff working across cancer services at Imperial, including Level 2 psychological skills training and supervision.

To facilitate specialist clinical placements for trainee applied psychologists and psychotherapists in the Psycho-oncology service as part of the Clinical Health Psychology department’s processes for allocating and supporting trainees.

To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the Psycho-oncology service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in clinical psychology overall and by supporting the Psycho-oncology team in 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 ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post-holder has leadership responsibility.

KR 8       Research and development

To initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits

To initiate and carry out appropriate clinical research.

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 psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.

To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC ‘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 the HCPC ‘Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics’ and ‘Standards of Proficiency’, and ensure professional development in line with these.

To adhere to the BPS’s Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

To ensure that all psychology and psychotherapy staff for whom the post-holder has leadership responsibility, maintain professional standards and continuing professional development.

KR10      General

To travel to the different sites making up ICHT as appropriate and to CNWL sites 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 palliative care, unexpected death and serious errors and to support others involved in such situations.

To work flexibly where the needs of the Psycho-oncology service require which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or Saturday working, within the overall Job Plan.