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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Task and Responsibilities

Clinical and Client Care

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions to women and birthing people who experience moderate-severe mental health problems in the context of their maternity journey. This may include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following childbirth, tokophobia, and mental health problems that develop following perinatal loss.
To deliver highly specialist Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and other evidence based psychological therapies in the context of trauma and loss.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, intervention, and discharge of clients.
To consider the impact of loss and trauma in maternity on partners and family members and include this in assessment and treatment planning as appropriate.
To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with women/birthing people and families.
To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients' formulation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
To be prepared to work flexible hours to meet the needs of service users and the service itself.

Contributing to team or service clinical functioning:

To contribute to the effective working of the team and to support a trauma-informed culture within the service and the wider maternity system.
To contribute to the team's delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
To advise other professionals and agencies on specialist psychological care of clients.
To liaise with midwives, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in relation to referrals and developing treatment plans.
To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice when delivering direct and indirect clinical care.

Policy and service development:

To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

Care or management of resources:

To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust's equipment and physical resources.
To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

Management and supervision:

To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists with support from a more senior psychologist.
To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.
To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
To provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

Teaching and Training:

To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre- and post- qualification psychologists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.
To maintain an active awareness of current developments in psychology and perinatal mental health and implementing knowledge gained in practice.
To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

Record-keeping and Information Governance:

To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

Research and development:

To initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits.
To initiate and carry out appropriate research (NB: not a major job requirement [major = 20% or more of job]).
To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to the development of the new Maternal Mental Health Services.
To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development:

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.
To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC 'Standards for Continuing Professional Development'.
To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
To comply with the HCPC 'Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics' and 'Standards of Proficiency', and ensure professional development in line with these.
To adhere to the BPS's Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

General

To travel to meetings as appropriate and across the Trust and in the community when required.
To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group and follow trust policies relating to its management.
To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations such as perinatal loss or domestic violence, and to support others involved in such situations.

To be noted: This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the postholder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with the manager.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications

Essential criteria

Clinical psychologist: Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent; OR Doctorate in Counselling psychologist; OR Postgraduate diploma in CBT and BABCP accredited as a CBT psychotherapist.
Completed training course in clinical supervision.
Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC, if applicable.
Training in psychological interventions that may be applied in the context of trauma or loss (e.g., EMDR, IPT).

Desirable criteria

Training in or experience of providing couple interventions.
Training in or experience of parent-infant interventions.

Experience

Essential criteria

Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in secondary care mental health services.
Experience of specialist psychological assessment and the delivery of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and other evidence-based interventions with service users who have a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in the perinatal period.
Experience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training.
Post-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities.
Experience of carrying out (post-doctoral) research, audit or service evaluation projects.

Desirable criteria

Pre or post qualification experience of working in a specialist perinatal mental health service or mental health service in maternity.
Experience of the co-production of services and/or working alongside peer support workers.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for women presenting with mental health difficulties in the perinatal period.
Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment.
Advanced knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics.
Knowledge of the psychological and physical context of pregnancy and childbirth and the impact of these on mental health.

Desirable criteria

Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.

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.

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, 197.4KB)
Important Additional Information For Candidates (please read carefully) (PDF, 160.6KB)
Privacy Notice for Staff (PDF, 268.6KB)
Staff Benefits (PDF, 2.5MB)

Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/CBT Therapist

Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/CBT Therapist

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