Consultant Clinical Psychologist

at  Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our multidisciplinary team in OHWB and lead our Psychological Therapies Team (PTS) in delivering high quality and effective psychological therapies to our Merseycare NHS Trust colleagues.
Following our recent organisational re-structure, new opportunities and roles have been developed. We are keen to employ an enthusiastic, dynamic and experienced senior clinician who will be responsible for the provision of clinical psychological leadership within OHWB.
The successful candidate will ensure the systematic provision of high-quality psychological assessments and the implementation of a range of evidence-based group and individual psychological interventions and therapies.
The successful candidate will be responsible in ensuring that systems are in place and working effectively for the clinical and professional supervision and support of all psychological services staff within OHWB, including clear systems for effective recruitment, professional appraisal, and the identification of CPD needs.
The successful candidate will be responsible for audit, policy and service development and research activities and/or programmes as required by the Psychological Therapy Service in OHWB.
Prior experience of working at 8C level would be desirable.
If you are interested in joining our team, please apply now!
To provide clinical psychological leadership for the provision and further development of psychological care within the Occupational Health & Wellbeing Service (OHWS). To ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist psychology service to clients of the clinical team to which the post holder is attached. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within OHWS and to ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for the clinical and professional supervision and support of all psychological services staff within the service for which the post holder has designated professional responsibility, including clear systems for effective recruitment, professional appraisal, and the identification of CPD needs. To be responsible for audit, policy and service development and research activities and/or programmes as required by the service.
To propose and implement policy and service development changes within the area served. A workplan will be developed with the postholder which will be reviewed on a yearly basis depending on the needs of the service.
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Clinical
1. To provide highly developed specialist psychological assessments of clients accessing the OHWS, 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 clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals/ and/or groups employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, or group.
5. To exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the psychological treatment of and discharge of clients whose problems are managed as a psychologically based care plan, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.
6. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals, contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan in an appropriate specialist area.
7. To ensure that all relevant staff have access to a psychologically based framework for the understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation
and the dissemination of psychological knowledge, research and theory in an appropriate specialist area.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual clients and to provide both general and specialist advice for on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
9. To act as care co-ordinator, only where it is clearly appropriate for this role to be undertaken by a psychologist, in which case, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the client’s needs, co-ordinating the work of others involved with care, taking responsibility for arranging client’s CPA reviews as required and communicating effectively with the client, his/her family and all others involved in care; and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.
10. To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
11. To provide expertise and advice to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all relevant staff.
12. To provide clinical psychological leadership within the Occupational Health & Wellbeing Service that serves the population of staff employed by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and its commissioned contracts to bolster the health and wellbeing offer and provide specialist training, supervision, consultation and reflective practice when required, including supporting the development of workforce resilience.
13. To provide consultation about the psychological care of the client group to staff and managers in an appropriate specialist area. Time spent on clinical activities as defined above will be no less than 50% of the post holder’s time.
Teaching, Training and Supervision
14. To ensure appropriate systems for the clinical and professional supervision of qualified and unqualified psychological services staff across the service.
15. To provide clinical and professional supervision to qualified and assistant psychological services staff working in the service.
16. To provide specialist clinical placements for trainee clinical psychologists and/or other trainee professionals from psychological services where appropriate. To ensure that they acquire the necessary clinical and/or research skills to doctoral level where appropriate and achieve competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good psychological practice. To contribute to the assessment and evaluation of those competencies.
17. To provide specialist advice, consultation and training and (where agreed locally) clinical supervision to other members of staff for their provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve clients’ functioning.
18. To provide pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical psychologist and/or other trainee professionals from psychological services as appropriate.
19. To continue to develop expertise in the area of professional pre- and post-graduate training and clinical supervision.
Management, Recruitment, Policy and Service Development
20. To take specific line management responsibility for all psychological services staff within OHWS as determined by the Assistant Director for OHWS.
21. This will include recruitment, PACE and implementing service governance principles and Trust policies as applied to staff management.
22. As line manager, to attend relevant meetings as determined by the Strategic OHWS Lead.
23. To participate as a senior clinician in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service for staff, including advising both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
24. To exercise delegated responsibility for managing the psychological resources available to the service both in terms of psychological staff and psychological materials employed in clinical assessment and treatment.
25. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service, including maintaining systematic records of appraisals, clinical record keeping standards and the transcribing of minutes and records of appropriate professional meetings.
26. To initiate and implement service developments and projects within the service.
IT Responsibilities
27. To use email and local electronic patient information systems, in accordance with Department and Trust requirements adhering to confidentiality guidelines, to enable effective communication, recording and data collection.
Research and Service Governance
28. To be the Consultant Psychology lead, as a senior clinician, in planning and implementing systems for the evaluation, monitoring and development of the service, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit and ensuring incorporation of psychological frameworks for understanding and provision of high-quality care.
29. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work, work with other team members and across the service.
30. To undertake research as appropriate and as agreed with the Strategic OHW Lead and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research within the service.
31. To initiate and implement project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service to help develop and improve services to clients and their families.
32. To undertake a defined role in Divisional governance structures as agreed.
General
33. 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 form of CPD logbook.
34. To ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychological services 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 psychology and related disciplines.
35. To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance and/or in accordance with professional codes of practice of the Health and Care Professions Council, British Psychological Society, other professional bodies and Trust policies and procedures.
36. To contribute with other consultant psychologists and other consultant staff and heads of service to the development and articulation of best practice for the delivery of psychological interventions for those referred into service.
37. To ensure that all psychological services staff within the service maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and the area of clinical specialty.
38. To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade, which may be required by the Divisional Lead Psychologist

Please refer the Job description for details