About this role
Job summary
Provide a service for people with learning disabilities in the London Borough of Harrow within the Harrow Community Learning Disabilities Service. This is an integrated health and social care multidisciplinary service.
The service also works collaboratively with extended local health and social care provider services that work with adults with learning disabilities who also access mainstream services, to ensure that health outcomes are met.
The post holder will provide specialist clinical psychology services to adults with learning disabilities and their families/carers, including assessment and the development and implementation of specialist psychological interventions.
The post holder will play a key role and contribute to the continuing development of the overall psychology service within the team.
The post holder will manage their individual defined caseload, including complex cases, independently, demonstrating problem-solving and clinical reasoning skills in line with evidence-based and person-centred principles. Furthermore, provide clinical supervision to assistant psychologists and other staff as deemed appropriate.
The post holder will be given an opportunity to be involved in clinical research and development.
Main duties of the job
- Ensure a high standard of clinical care for the clients and those of more junior staff, providing a comprehensive and appropriate psychology service to clients, families and carers
- Play a key role in the advanced assessment and treatment of clients who may have acute, chronic or complex presentations and determine the clinical diagnosis and intervention required
- Assess clients' needs and direct them to other services as appropriate
- Maintain records as an autonomous practitioner
- Communicate effectively with health and social care professionals and outside agencies regarding client care and progress
- Communicate with other members of the MDT regarding policies, service development and management plans
- Undertake a significant clinical caseload, working under supervision in collaboration with other agencies and health and social care professionals
About us
Trust Values: COMPASSION contribute to a caring environment
RESPECT people's differences
EMPOWER by supporting others
PARTNERSHIP recognise other external services
Care Quality Commission (CQC): Comply with all standards.
Clinical Leadership: The responsibilities attached Job Description and Person Specification.
Professional registration: You are expected to registar with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) .
Safeguarding: Be aware of local safeguarding procedures and whom to contact and report concern.
Infection Control: All duties must be carried out in accordance with the infection control policies and procedures.
Data Protection, Confidentiality and Access to Health Records: All information concerning patients/clients and other staff members must be treated as confidential and adhere to policies.
Promoting Equality and
Diversity
No job applicant and employee will receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital/partnership status, race, religion, age, colour, ethnic origin, disability, part time working status and diagnosed or suspected HIV/AIDS status.
Health and Safety and Risk management: You must be aware of the responsibilities placed on you under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and relevant policies.
Trust is committed to ensuring you achieve a good work/life balance, access to a wide range of support including flexible working options, childcare support and development opportunities.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Clinical Direct
- Responsible for offering comprehensive specialist assessments to adults with learning disabilities, their families and paid carers when the need for psychological assessment is indicated, and using these assessments as the basis for establishing and evaluating therapeutic interventions. This includes carrying out specialist cognitive psychometric assessments as necessary
- Interpret the results of these assessments to make appropriate psychological formulations, judgements, and recommendations for interventions. This process involves careful consideration, drawing on specialist psychological knowledge of theories and models to make sense of complex facts or situations.
- Work autonomously in a variety of contexts, including in the community, which may at times involve working with clients with complex needs in their own homes. This includes face-to-face sessions with individual clients and families.
- Work effectively and reflectively, maintaining sustained attention and concentration for considerable periods of time.
- Verbally communicate highly complex and sensitive information, often requiring empathy and reassurance, in potentially hostile or highly emotive environments.
- Be accountable for ones own professional actions and work within the clinical psychology code of practice and ethics, and Trust policies and procedures.
- Communicate complex information and formulations to a range of people, including families, carers, service users and professionals from psychology and other disciplines, both within the team and outside agencies.
- Adapt verbal and non-verbal communication to facilitate clients understanding.
- Liaise appropriately with all agencies involved and keep them informed of relevant information and recommended guidelines necessary to provide high standards of care for clients, within the recommended limits of confidentiality.
- Provide a clinical service to clients from a range of minority ethnic populations, using an appropriate specialist person-centred approach to care that considers language, religion, cultural beliefs and customs, and adapt assessment, formulation and intervention as appropriate.
- Communicate across language and cultural barriers, jointly working with and offering debriefing and/or supervision to interpreters as required.
CLINICAL Indirect
- Use a broad theoretical knowledge base and specialist clinical skills to develop and support the psychological skills of other staff members, professionals, and paid and unpaid carers through teaching, training, supervision, support and consultation.
- Offer specialised advice, guidance and support, both formally and informally, to staff in the joint community team for people with learning disabilities, staff teams in statutory and voluntary organisations, and families and carers of people with learning disabilities.
- Provide a psychological perspective and expertise for service or team activities, including clinical care, team or service dynamics and organisation, in a range of settings, e.g. case discussions and team meetings
- Responsible for developing and maintaining knowledge of local resources and developing working relationships with relevant statutory, voluntary and community groups and organisations.
- Receive regular clinical management supervision in accordance with good practice guidelines to ensure high-quality work, engage in the Individual Performance Review process and continuing professional development, and work within a clinical governance framework.
Administration
- Plan and prioritise own clinical workload and work with multidisciplinary colleagues on complex cases in the setting most appropriate to the clients and/or services needs.
- Record, monitor and report on clinical work, and communicate complex clinical information to a variety of recipients (e.g. service users, families, carers, other professionals, and statutory and voluntary organisations) orally, in writing and electronically, as specified by the service.
- Maintain client records as an autonomous practitioner.
Management
- Contribute, as a member of relevant working groups, to the development, implementation and evaluation of the team. Implement Trust and local policies.
- Organise own day-to-day activities, and plan and prioritise own clinical and non-clinical workload
- Identify, propose and lead changes to work practices and procedures in own area of work, and join working groups leading service-wide and specialist developments as appropriate
Human Resources
- Supervise the work of assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists where applicable
- Responsibility for clinical supervision of trainee clinical psychologists (once appropriate post-qualification experience has been gained and with appropriate training), teaching and training of staff from other disciplines in the wider team and in other statutory and voluntary sector agencies in the wider community.
- To participate in Trust appraisal and be committed to ongoing continuing professional development, including participation in further specialist training as agreed with supervisor/head of department.
- Develop and deliver, jointly with other psychologists where appropriate, teaching activities for clinical psychology doctoral training programmes and in-service training programmes within the team and the Trust.
Person Specification
Education/ Qualification/ Training
Essential
- oPostgraduate Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS oClinical supervision training for Doctoral trainees oEligibility for graduate membership of BPS oHCPC registration
Desirable
- oRelevant specialist training or qualifications e.g. CBT, systemic therapies, neuropsychology, etc.
Experience
Essential
- oRelevant experience working as a qualified Clinical Psychologist in learning disability settings oExperience of delivering clinical supervision oExperience of delivering teaching and training oExperience of assessing and treating the mental health needs of people with learning disability across the full range of care settings oWork in a multi-cultural setting, including working with interpreters
Desirable
- oExperience of working with people with behaviours considered to be complex or challenging and/or forensic history
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- oAble to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information in a highly emotive and sometimes hostile atmosphere, in a range of relationships and settings oAble to use highly specialist skills of empathy to overcome barriers to understanding and acceptance oAble to compare and select from a range of treatment options, based on formulation oWell-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for people with learning disabilities who have complex needs oSkills in the use of highly complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management in relation to people with learning disabilities. oAble to analyse highly complex outcome data from a number of sources and provide clear advice to colleagues supporting the understanding and application of such analyses oAble to plan, organise and prioritise own clinical workload oKnowledge of psychological research, national policy and legislation relevant to learning disability oAble to record and report on as required clinical information
Desirable
- oDoctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis oAble to provide a culturally competent service oAble to innovate on the basis of theoretical knowledge
Clinical Other
Essential
- oAble to concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact,teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc. oRespectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals. Willing to negotiate and can handle confrontation effectively and professionally oAble to work to professional guidelines and must be capable of accountability for own work, of autonomous clinical practice, of being guided by precedent and of working towards defined results oNon-judgmental
Desirable
- oCalm manner and positive and supportive approach oWilling to learn and develop in a changing environment oWarmth and flexibility oSensitive to views & needs of service users & carers from all backgrounds
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Harrow Community Learning Disabilities Team Northwick Park Mental Health Unit
Watford Road
Harrow
HA1 3UJ
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/work (Opens in a new tab)