Head of Psychology for Acute & Crisis Mental Health directorate

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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This role would work in partnership with the Directorate Management Team led by a supportive Service Director. Psychological Therapies is well respected within Oxleas and there is a collaborative and supportive professional network. Oxleas has a clear commitment to support and develop staff in their roles and so training and development is generally well supported. It is also committed to the provision of Psychological Therapies with the Director of Therapies, Neil Springham, being an Art Therapist and holding a Board level decision-making role so that psychological therapies remain central to the Trust's work. The Clinical Director, Peter De Backer is a Psychologist.

As this is just a taster of the role and organisational context for the role - please contact Acute & Crisis Directorate, Service Director Aisling.clifford@nhs.net or Clinical Director peter.de-backer@nhs.net to discuss.

You might also want to check out www.oxleas.nhs.uk to find out more about the Trust.

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Entry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession or equivalent and demonstrable practice in this field (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration. (A/I)
• Completed training course in clinical supervision and/or accredited to supervise qualified psychological practitioners in relevant discipline. (A/I/R)

Desirable criteria

• Post-graduate qualification in leadership/management

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of management of multi-psychological professions teams or services within the client group
• Experience of managing a budget
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings.
• Experience of teaching, training, and clinical supervision, as well as providing professional leadership.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of the full range of professional leadership responsibilities, including defining appropriate establishments, grading and recruitment procedures, performance, and appraisal.

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• A high level of ability to communicate effectively, at both a written and oral level complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS, maintaining empathy in the face of a variety of barriers to communication.
• Ability to communicate service-related information to senior colleagues.
• Ability to contribute to policy initiation, development and to the long term strategic development of the services within the speciality

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of models and/or strategies of management and leadership.

Other/Effort

Essential criteria

• Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery, and an ability to articulate the value added by psychology and psychological therapy services within the context of multi-disciplinary mental health services.
• Ability to pursue and implement a variety of service tasks simultaneously, withstanding frequent interruption so as to remain responsive to varying levels of service need and differing time frames.
• Willingness to travel between Trust bases on a regular basis.

Desirable criteria

• A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit and research.

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that welcomes and supports individuals of all abilities. Remember, if you meet the minimum criteria for this role and you have a disability, you can be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme - Please ensure you select this on your application form. We would encourage you to be open about your needs so we can work with you to design a comfortable and accessible interview experience. Any information you provide regarding a disability or a need for adjustments will be treated in confidence and will only be shared with colleagues who are supporting this request.

If you require any adjustments to participate fully in the interview process, please let us know by adding the relevant details when scheduling your preferred interview date and time. Please feel free to contact the appointing manager to discuss your needs.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• 277-6577884-AAC JD & PD (PDF, 456.4KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 600.5KB)
• Important Additional Information For Candidates (please read carefully) (PDF, 160.6KB)
• Privacy Notice for Staff (PDF, 268.6KB)
• Staff Benefits (PDF, 2.5MB)