Principal Psychologist. Clinical Lead & Service Manager

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Job overview

Do you want to have a significant impact on the delivery of mental health services and psychological therapy to the people in Bury?

Do you want to be part of an exciting and challenging process of meaningful change in community mental health services?

Do you want to lead a team of committed, highly skilled and compassionate psychological therapists in this work?

We are really excited to advertise this permanent 8b Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical or Counselling) post to lead Bury Secondary Care Psychological Therapies Service (SCPTS). The SCPTS works alongside Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) colleagues and the Complex Emotional and Relational Needs (CERN) team in Bury.

The context of the role:

Community Mental Health Services are going through a process of transformation and there is real opportunity for you to support and be part of delivering the ambitions of 'The Community Mental Health Framework', particularly focusing upon the 'Psychological Therapies for Severe Mental Health Problems' (PT-SMHP) NHS-E paper.

There are five Secondary Care Psychology Services across the Pennine Care footprint, and you will work closely with and be supported by the Secondary Care Psychology pathway lead (Consultant Clinical Psychologist) and your peers across these teams.
The direction of travel is to embed collaborative and relational processes to support, empower and develop your leadership skills and those of your peers in your work as clinical leads and managers.

Main duties of the job

As a Principal Clinical Psychologist/ Principal Counselling Psychologist, you will be responsible for the provision of specialist expertise with complex and/or challenging cases within the secondary care adult Psychological Therapies Service. You will work with the clinical lead for the adult mental health secondary care pathway and the borough leadership group to ensure robust and effective care for service users who present with complex and/or severe mental health needs.

You will contribute to the development of effective psychological care with the multidisciplinary team. A key component of your role will be to provide consultation, support, and where appropriate, clinical & managerial supervision to other psychological therapy staff.
You will be part of supporting with the Community Transformation programme, embedding new psychological practitioner roles and meeting the ambitions of the 'Psychological Therapies for Severe Mental Health Problems 'PT-SMHP' NHS-E paper.

The roles and responsibilities of this post are in evolution in the context of the nationally-driven changes, and you will have the opportunity to be an important part of a collaborative process of defining and structuring your roles and relationships, with the support of the Secondary Care Psychological Therapies Clinical Lead and your peers in similar roles.

Working for our organisation

We are passionate about staff well-being and would encourage the postholder to be part of special interest groups, make peer supervision links and work closely with their community psychology colleagues. We are committed to staff development and have an extensive psychological therapies training programme.

We support staff to work flexibly and recognise and respect the roles our colleagues hold outside of their working hours. This focus helps us to retain staff and ensure people are happy in their place of work.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the top of our agenda. We believe that a diverse, inclusive and engaged culture is vital; that everyone's value should be recognised and respected.

Our trust values are:

Kindness

Fairness

Ingenuity

Determination

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and personal specification for additional information about the role.

What you will do:

Bring clinical leadership to the team to further develop the clinical delivery model.

Provide clinical leadership and supervision to colleagues.

Work as part of an MDT, offering consultation, reflective practice and supervision.

Ensure the provision of trauma-informed care.

Help the secondary care services in Bury to grow as a psychologically healthy system.

About you:

You are a highly skilled and compassionate Psychologist.

Enjoy working as part of the team.

Trained in and experience of offering different therapeutic modalities.

Excellent consultation and communication skills.

Have a desire to support and lead a team through change using a trauma-informed framework.

Person specification

Education & Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Doctorate level training in clinical or counselling psychology, including specific models of psychopathology, clinical, psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS. Or, a post-graduate doctorate in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996)
• Registration with the HCPC as a practitioner psychologist.
• Additional further training and qualifications in a range of therapeutic models (e.g. CAT, EMDR psycho-analytic therapies)
• Additional further training in the use of specific psychometric and / or neuro-psychological assessment tools.
• Training in supervision of trainee psychologists and other professionals within the MDT.

Desirable criteria

• MBA or other management / leadership qualification.
• Additional qualification in clinical supervision.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Significant experience of working as a qualified psychologist
• Demonstrable experience of working as a highly specialist psychologist with complex adults
• Experience of working with service users who are complex and challenging within a community and or acute care pathway
• Experience working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and full range of settings including community, inpatients and acute care settings, primary care, residential.
• Experience working within multi-disciplinary services within community and acute care pathways
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for psychological care and treatment as an autonomous practitioner with complexity within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multidisciplinary care.
• Experience in developing research and development programmes within psychological therapy services
• Experience in teaching and training qualified psychological therapy and of non-psychology staff
• Experience of the application of psychological therapy in diverse cultural and ethnic contexts.
• Experience in undertaking line management of psychological therapies staff.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including multivariate data analysis.
• Evidence of continual professional development as recommended by the appropriate professional body.
• Knowledge of contemporary legislation relating to the delivery of mental health and psychological services and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management.
• Knowledge of professional issues in psychology and psychological therapies.
• Knowledge and experience of the application of clinical governance and risk management policies and procedures for the maintenance and improvement of psychological services.

Desirable criteria

• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies.
• Familiarity with computing technology including spreadsheets and databases.
• Knowledge of SPSS or other statistical software packages.

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Highly developed skills and experience of working with complex, sensitive or contentious information.
• Ability to communicate effectively in a highly emotive, antagonistic or hostile atmosphere and to overcome barriers to acceptance / psychological resistance to potentially threatening information.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Highly developed skills in providing consultation to other professionals including medical staff and non-professional groups.
• High level skills in providing complex clinical and professional supervision including medical staff.
• Keyboard skills and skills in using word-processing, e mail and internet software
• Ability to work independently on a day today basis and use own initiative.
• Ability to set and work towards agreed goals, reviewed regularly in management supervision.
• Commitment to quality improvement in psychological services through multi-professional evaluation and audit of psychological services
• Ability to engage a range of professional and non - professional groups in co - production and cooperative working .
• Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others
• Ability to sit in constrained position for client therapy and for computer work.
• Ability to manage frequent periods of prolonged concentration in service users' sessions, meetings and during computing tasks.
• Ability to move equipment (including casefiles, self -help materials, audio -visual equipment) between office base and other work settings.
• Ability to work face to face with (potentially aggressive) service users in isolated settings (including domiciliary visits) without other team members being nearby and in accordance with the Trust Lone Worker Policy .
• Ability to work to professional guidelines

Desirable criteria

• Record of having published research / review academic, or professional journals and / or books

Work related circumstances

Essential criteria

• Use of a car or access to a means of mobility to travel across the Trust footprint in line with service needs
• Willing to carry out all duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with the Trust's Equal Opportunities and Equality and Diversity policies
• Appointments to regulated and controlled activities require an enhanced DBS disclosure.

A hints and tips document is attached below for guidance on completing your application form.

Sponsorship - We are an approved sponsoring organisation. Applications will be considered from applicants requiring sponsorship alongside all other applications. Please be aware, not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible role and requirements on the government website.

What happens after your application has been received?

You will be informed about the progress of your application following shortlisting via email. Only applicants who clearly demonstrate the criteria listed in the person specification will be shortlisted for interview. Interview invites will be sent out via email.

What happens if I am offered the position after interview?

The hiring manager will make contact with you to verbally offer you the position. The hiring manager will then inform Recruitment of the decision and provide relevant paperwork. You will be sent a formal conditional offer via email.

What pre-employment checks will I need to complete?

By conducting pre-employment checks, the recruitment team will verify that you meet the pre-conditions of the role you have been offered. Pre-employment checks will be carried out according to NHS Employment Check Standards. The checks are:

• Identity verification
• Right to work check
• Disclosure and barring service (DBS)/Criminal record check (dependent on role)
• Professional registration and/or qualification check
• Occupational health assessment
• Employment history and reference validation

All applicants external to NHS will be required to provide HMRC employment history to cover the most recent three years. This information will used to validate employment history and references as part of pre-employment checks.

If you are offer a position with is and you require sponsorship to support your right to work, we will review your eligibility in line with government guidance. If the role you have been offer is not eligible for sponsorship, and you are not able to evidence your right to work, your conditional offer could be withdrawn.

What happens when pre-employment checks are complete?

Recruitment will liaise with you and the hiring manager to arrange a start date for your new position. You will then be booked on to a Trust Welcome Session and be sent your Pennine Care NHS Terms and Conditions.

Other important information

• We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and recognise the importance of ensuring our diverse service user population is reflected within our workforce. Unfortunately, we know that, at present, there is underrepresentation of our communities in our workforce. We welcome applications from people from diverse communities to help us grow, learn, be better and consider brilliant innovation diverse people bring.
• If you would like to be considered under the disability confident scheme, you will be guaranteed an interview if you meet the essential criteria on the person specification for the post.
• If you require reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process please phone us on 0161 716 3181 at the earliest opportunity. We will support you to complete your application.
• Unfortunately we are not able to guarantee the transfer of lease cars, or cover the costs of early termination charges.
• We have a strict policy on unsolicited contact from recruitment agencies. Please do not contact our hiring managers directly.

We reserve the right to close a vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date if a sufficient number of applications have been received. To ensure you application is considered, please submit at the earliest opportunity.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Documents to download

• Job Description (PDF, 120.1KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 136.1KB)
• Policy Statement on Recruitment of Ex-Offenders (PDF, 117.0KB)
• Applicant Information pack (PDF, 505.6KB)
• Hints and tips for your application (PDF, 128.7KB)