Consultant Counselling, Clinical, or Health Psychologist, Band 8c

at  Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

We wish to recruit a new a Band 8c Practitioner Psychologist. The postholder will be the clinical lead for our Pain Self Management Team, and lead and expand our Psychology services within Chronic Illness, where there is lots of scope for development. The job is full time, but we would consider appointing between 0.8-1.0wte.
The post holder would be part of the Clinical Health Psychology department and sit on the dept leadership team. We wish to recruit someone who relishes MDT working, someone who wants to be present and involved in all aspects of the service, and someone who really values team cohesion and wellbeing.
We are looking for someone with a wide range of experience, and this may include previous work in physical health or working in mental health or with clients with complex needs. A background in physical health is not essential.
We would love to hear from you if you are interested - please do get in touch.
The central role of this Psychology post is to be the clinical lead for the Pain Self-Management Team, and lead for psychology in chronic illness. Day to day, the job involves a mix of clinical work and leadership, with plenty of autonomy.
The Pain Self Management team is part of wider Chronic Pain Services in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, and we work with nine supportive Chronic Pain Consultants in our two local Trusts. Our MDT includes Physio and Prescribing Nurses and a great admin team. As clinical lead, you will set the direction of the service, working with the wider pain management service and in collaboration with operational managers for pain.
The Psychologist will also lead and develop our Psychology services within Chronic Illness, where there is lots of scope for development. There are many services within the Trust that have no Psychology input, including Cardiology, Gastroenterology and Respiratory.
The Clinical Health Psychology Department has a wide range of services, and about 25 Clinical, Counselling, and Health psychology colleagues mostly based in the same building as Pain Management. That gives the post a base in the MDT and in the Psychology service, with lots of opportunities for linking across services. Clinical supervision is valued and there is good support for development and training, including access to a training budget.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is the largest employer in the county and with over 8,000 staff, we are one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK. We offer a generous annual leave allowance, excellent bank rates, access to the excellent NHS Pension Scheme, discounts for local shops, restaurants and services, access to our health and well-being hub, access to our two on-site nurseries, flexible working options, discounted public transport, reward and recognition schemes, exercise and activity classes and membership to our popular hospital choir.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience Required

• Post-graduate doctorate in Counselling, Clinical or Health Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and be eligible for chartered status. Registered with the Health Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist.
• Experience of working as a qualified Counselling, Clinical or Health Psychologist in the NHS, including substantial post qualification experience within psychological aspects of healthcare, and psychological intervention in group and individual settings.
• Experience of leadership and management of other staff within complex organisational structures such as the NHS
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practised within the field of Counselling, Clinical or Health Psychology. Experience of applying audit methodology to bring about service improvement.
• Training in, and experience of, providing clinical supervision for doctoral Counselling, Clinical and Health Psychology trainees, qualified Psychologists and other health care professionals.
• Highest level of communication, interpersonal and therapeutic skills, sufficient to effectively and tactfully communicate highly complex, sensitive and contentious information to distressed or vulnerable patients, family and colleagues, or those with communication difficulties (e.g. cognitive deficits, head injury, deafness).
• Have experience of applying current evidence-based therapeutic skills to treating people individually, in couples and in groups, to include assessing, providing formulations of the highest level of complexity, developing and implementing treatments in a highly specialist area.
• Ability to demonstrate highly developed specialist knowledge regarding psychological responses to a wide range of health conditions and mental health problems including complex trauma.
• Ability to demonstrate experience and skills of working with adults and children, couples and families facing serious, adverse life conditions. Experience of working with a wide range of client groups including children, people with learning difficulty, people with neurodiversity, or cognitive impairment. Experience of working as a psychologist within different health care settings including mental health.
• Have experience in multi-disciplinary working, consultancy, teaching and staff training, being able to teach, train and present good practice and research findings at both local and national levels.
• Experience of working within NHS policies and procedures, and understanding and improving patient pathways.
• Ability to make highly complex judgements and decisions in relation to providing sound psychological care.
• Ability to prioritise in highly complex and difficult situations.
• The communication, organisational, problem solving and judgement skills necessary to manage, develop and evaluate multidisciplinary services.
• Competence and keyboard skills required in the use of basic IT and productivity software (e.g. word processor, spreadsheets and statistical analysis software).
• Knowledge of national initiatives, guidance and legislation, and their implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Evidence of working to appropriate Trust and professional guidelines, for example continuing professional development.
• The emotional robustness and capacity for concentration to cope and work effectively with the stress (in self and others) of frequent, intense work with people who are in highly distressing situations (e.g. management of chronic disease, brain injury, trauma).
• Be accountable for own professional actions and the interpretation of agreed guidelines, Government frameworks, Trust and BPS guidelines and policies, taking responsibility for the maintenance and development of own professional skills base.

Leadership and management
Lead and manage the multi-disciplinary Pain Self Management service across two counties (Gloucestershire and Herefordshire) and be responsible for the strategic direction of psychological services for chronic illness services, working in collaboration with community services.
To be accountable for the delivery of a psychologically informed service to chronic pain.
To line manage the psychologists working with adults with chronic illness.
Work in collaboration with the Lead Consultant and General Manager to develop strategy for the Chronic Pain Service in Gloucestershire. Contribute to the work of the Living Well with Pain Clinical Programme Group within the Gloucestershire Integrated Care System and on service level agreement to Herefordshire.
Maintain excellent communication with the Wye Valley Trust Chronic Pain Consultants and the Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB to ensure the delivery a co-ordinated and consistent service for Herefordshire patients across organisational boundaries. To operationally manage Physiotherapy, and Nursing staff in the Pain Self Management Team. Line management to these professionals is provided within their own discipline.
Line manage a member of staff who delivers ME/CFS under a service level agreement with a neighbouring trust.
To undertake responsibility for the small non pay Pain Self Management budget.
Work with the Trust, and other health and social care providers, providing advice on psychological aspects of ill health and develop healthcare services for people with chronic disease (for example respiratory, gynaecology, gastroenterology), in order that their decisions are informed by accurate and up to date information to maximise the psychological appropriateness of care. Interpret local and national policies to shape service development.
Lead and manage the development of new services which require decisions and actions made in the context of constant change, conflicting demands and personal and organisational uncertainty. The post holder will be responsible for the ongoing planning and organisation to establish and maintain funding, effective service delivery and quality of staff working lives.
Planning, organising and delivering complex multi-professional care of individuals families or groups with psychological needs associated with chronic disease.
This role is a key part of the Clinical Health Psychology Department leadership, and leadership within psychological services for GHT. Contribute to the leadership and management of the Clinical Health Psychology department, including service developments, new initiatives, and liaison with the wider acute trust and beyond. Contribute to the day to day management of the department, including the Health and Safety procedures within the department on behalf of the Head of Department.
Education and training
To be responsible for delivering psychology teaching/training (including supervising) trainee Counselling, Clinical and Health Psychologists and other health professionals, including disseminating the highest level of specialist knowledge on the management of chronic illness to health professionals nationally, in order to increase the skill level of the workforce and improve patient care.
Improving quality and developing practice
Responsible for co-ordinating and implementing applied research and audit programmes relevant to chronic disease (including use of diverse research methodologies) to develop the appropriate evidence base for good practice, monitor and shape future development of the service. Supervise research projects of Doctoral Psychology trainees and other professionals where psychological factors are pertinent to their research. Undertake work of publishable quality and disseminate the findings locally and nationally. Create databases and spreadsheets using computerised systems to support clinical governance and research work.

Physical, Mental & Emotional Effort & Working Conditions

• Job requires sitting in a restricted position for a substantial proportion of the time during clinical interviews, supervision etc. (50% of time).
• Job requires frequent exposure to highly distressing and/or highly emotional circumstances
• Occasional exposure to verbal aggression.
• Frequent requirement for low level physical effort, for example moving exercise equipment
• Frequent requirement for intense concentration needed for precision and multi-tasking (eg during assessment attending to and assessing both the content of the clients responses and their non-verbal behaviour, levels of attention, concentration etc.

Extra Contact Details
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Dr Polly Ashworth
pollyashworth@nhs.ne

Please refer the Job description for details