Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist, Head of P & P
Employer South West London & St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust Location London Salary £91,317 to £104,122 pro rata per annum inclusive of inner London HCAS Closing date 21 May 2024
An exciting opportunity has arisen for the role of Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy for NHS Talking Therapies, which sits within our adult community mental health services here at the trust.
We are looking for a highly experienced and motivated clinical or counselling psychologist with experience of clinical leadership within NHS Talking Therapies to deliver strategic and clinical leadership to our well established and high performing NHS Talking Therapies teams.
This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced clinical leader who is committed to driving continuous quality improvement within NHS Talking Therapies services and delivering on the NHS Talking Therapies agenda. The Adult Community service line delivers care to adult mental health clients across the five boroughs of the Trust, which includes an NHS Talking Therapies service per borough. Around 28,000 patients access treatment across the five NHS Talking Therapies services per year.
The postholder will provide professional, strategic and clinical leadership to our psychology and psychotherapy staff working across Trust NHS Talking Therapies teams and will be responsible for ensuring the systematic provision of high-quality, evidence-based and NICE compliant psychological therapies to clients accessing the services.
The postholder will work alongside the Operational Lead for NHS Talking Therapies to support services to flexibly respond to the changing demands encountered by NHS Talking Therapies services. They should also have a strong interest in supporting services to continue their work in addressing health inequalities in NHS Talking Therapies access and outcomes.
The postholder should be energetic, creative, flexible, hard-working and committed to this role. The role requires clinical expertise, knowledge of NHS Talking Therapies programme, confident and effective people management and excellent communication skills.
The postholder will report to the Clinical Director with a professional responsibility to the Trust Head of Psychology & Psychotherapies.
You will deliver clinical and professional supervison to senior psychological therapists and clinical leads across the Trust's NHS Talking Therapies teams. You will also deliver direct clinical work within one of the Trust's NHS Talking Therapies services.
We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.
We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.
We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.
We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.
We offer flexible working, career development and a variety ofbenefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.
To provide highly developed specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the clinical service 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 clients care.
To formulate plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
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.
To exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the treatment of and discharge of clients whose problems are managed as a psychologically based standard care plan, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.
To ensure that all members of the clinical team 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.
To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide both general and specialist advice for psychologists, psychotherapists and related professional groups and other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
To act as coordinator of care where appropriate, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the clients needs, coordinating the work of others involved with care, arranging clients care 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/agency interventions.
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.
To provide expertise and advice to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team.
To provide expert consultation about the psychological care of the client group to staff and agencies outside the Directorate and Trust.
Training & Qualification
Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology as accredited by the HCPC, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology (or its equivalent as accredited by the BPS for those trained prior to 1996)
Registered with the Health & Care Professions Council as a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist

Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialized areas of psychological practice


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 including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan
Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
Experience of multi- professional management of team or services within the designated specialty
Experience of representing the profession in local policy forums
Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
Experience of developing business cases/management reviews of services
Experience of clinical governing services.

Doctoral level knowledge of applied psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies
Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health
Evidence of continuing professional development
Formal training in supervision of other psychologists, psychotherapists and related professional groups

Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult totreat groups (e.g., personality disorder dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities and severely challenging behaviours etc.)
Root cause analysis skills

South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust
Springfield University Hospital