Senior Clinical Psychologist

Job overview

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and committed Band 8A Psychologist to join the Community Forensic Learning Disability Service (CFLDS). The service covers the Lancashire and South Cumbria footprint with an office/base in Leyland. We support people with learning disabilities (LD) who have complex needs associated with challenging or offending behaviour.

The operational hours are Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm at Alexander House in Leyland.

This is an exciting opportunity to support the transition of individuals with a Learning disability (LD) moving out of secure hospital /prison into the community. Also working to support individuals in the community to prevent admission to secure settings.

The successful applicant would join a well-established and well-respected team to provide evidence-based interventions to service users with LD who maybe experiencing complex mental health issues; have trauma histories; ASC/ADHD diagnoses in addition to offending/ risky behaviours. This post would suit someone with a keen interest in providing direct clinical input as well as working with wider systems (e.g., family and carers) and multidisciplinary and multi-agency working.

Main duties of the job

To apply and maintain those skills acquired through further specialist training and experience to monitor and ensure the systematic provision of highly specialised psychological services within the designated clinical service, to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within Psychological Services and delegated management responsibilities where appropriate. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research. To propose and implement policy changes within the clinical area. To supervise doctoral level trainee psychologists and assistant psychologists as required.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Principal responsibilities

Clinical

To provide specialist psychological assessments of service users referred to the clinical 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 service users , family members and others involved in the patient’s care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patient’s psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patient’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses where appropriate.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account relevant theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, developmental and systemic processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of service users whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.o provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals and/or carers, contributing directly to service users’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.

To ensure that all members of the clinical team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of service users, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual service users and to provide both general and specialist 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 service users under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni and multidisciplinary care.

To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team. Teaching, Training and Supervision

To provide post-qualification training (CPD) and clinical professional supervision to recently qualified HCPC registered psychologists attached to the team, where appropriate.

To provide advice, consultation, training and clinical supervision to other members of the team for the provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve service users functioning.

To provide pre- and post-qualification teaching of psychologists and/or other psychological services staff, and other disciplines as appropriate.

To develop and maintain skills in the area of professional pre- and post-graduate training.

To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the service user group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

To receive regular professional supervision from a senior psychologist in the team and where appropriate other senior colleagues.

To continue to gain wider post-qualification experience of psychology in line with HCPC, and where appropriate BPS, requirements.

To provide professional and clinical supervision to assistant psychologists and, as appropriate, supervise Doctoral level.

To contribute to the pre and post-qualification teaching of all relevant staff, as appropriate.

Management, Recruitment and Service Development

To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, both in the short-listing process and as a member of interview panels for assistant, trainees and qualified psychologists.

To participate as a senior clinician in the development of a high quality responsive and accessible service, including proposing and implementing changes within the psychological service.

To exercise delegated responsibility for managing psychology staff based within the psychology service.

Research and Service Evaluation

To contribute and where appropriate take a lead role, in the evaluation, monitoring and development of of service evaluation and audit

To Incorporate psychological frameworks for understanding and provision of high-quality care and the improvement of services for service users and their families.

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To undertake appropriate research as agreed with the line manager and Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist and provide research advice to team colleagues undertaking research.

To undertake a defined role in Service Governance structures if/when agreed with the service lead.

General

To ensure the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes and to provide evidence of CPD undertaken, e.g. in the form of CPD log book.

To ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychology within the service area and contribute across the service by exercising the skills of a reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical or forensic psychology and related disciplines.

To maintain and promulgate 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 HCPC, British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up-to-date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific service user group and area of care.

To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade which may be required by the Lead Consultant Psychologist or Head of Service

To maintain professional registration with the HCPC and to adhere to HCPC standards of proficiency. To adhere to the standards of conduct, performance and ethics as set out by the HCPC.

To be competent and make full use of IT packages available within the work area, for example, Microsoft Office, E-mail, Internet and statistical package