Senior Psychologist / Psychotherapist

Job overview

At South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, we believe in providing excellent care which is delivered with pride and compassion. Everything we do is to improve the lives of the people and communities we serve and to promote mental health and wellbeing for all.

• To provide a highly specialist psychology service to the Lewisham Early Intervention Service including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
• To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
• To provide clinical supervision (Band 7 Psychological Therapists, Band 7 Family Intervention therapists, Trainee clinical psychologists, Assistant Psychologists) and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a lead specialist in Early Intervention in Psychosis.
• To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.
• To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct and guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
• To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.

Main duties of the job

• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the Lewisham Early Intervention Service, including assessing and working with psychosis at levels expected of a psychological therapist who has achieved the equivalent of a Postgraduate Diploma level of post-qualification specialist development.
• 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 ensure that the views of service users and carers are sought and incorporated into all care delivered.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
• To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
• To provide clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychological therapists, family intervention therapists, trainee psychological therapists, and other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.
• To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychological therapists and family intervention therapists, as appropriate.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychological therapists, as appropriate.
• To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychological therapists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the Lewisham Early Intervention Service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and Early Intervention in Psychosis and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• 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.
• To travel to home visits, community placements, psychology meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations and to support others involved in such situations.
• To work flexibly, which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics 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.