Specialist Clinical Psychologist for mental health hospital

We are looking for an experienced and dedicated Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join the Kingston Psychology & Psychotherapies service based in the North Kingston Integrated Recovery Hub, which is one of two adult community mental health teams in the Royal Borough of Kingston.


It is an exciting time to join our trust, as we are well underway with our community transformation plans in line with the Community Mental Health Framework, to improve access and provision for clients with severe mental health difficulties. Our transformation has placed a lot more emphasis on lived experience and peer support, working in partnership with primary care and developing new links with the voluntary sector.


This new post offers a great opportunity for service development and working closely with primary care mental health teams to provide consultation/supervision and bridge the gap between primary care and secondary care mental health. Relocation Package may be possible (T& Cs apply)*


~ Career Progression pathways and development opportunities:


We offer a number of opportunities for further training and development.


The trust supports staff to access HEE funded training in EMDR, CBT and Family Interventions for psychosis, as well as opportunities to train in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and to co-facilitate DBT skills groups.
The successful applicant will be committed to MDT working and to advancing trauma informed care across the trust. You will contribute to the delivery of evidence-based psychological therapies for severe and enduring mental health conditions, including psychosis & bipolar affective disorder, personality disorders, and complex mood, anxiety disorders & PTSD. The role is dynamic and will require you to attend multidisciplinary meetings and to offer supervision, consultation, and training to clinicians within the wider MDT team.


You will utilise your research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.


For this role, there will be further opportunities to provide input into our Single Point of Access (Assessment Team) and Primary Care Mental Health service, to shape the way service-users access mental health services in Kingston. In doing so, there is scope to develop your own ideas, and can include training, supervision, consultation, QI projects, service-user and carer involvement, group work etc.


~ Agile and flexible working:


This post is established at 8a level but we welcome applications from final year Trainee Clinical Psychologists, and from Clinical / Counselling Psychologists with less than 18 months post qualification experience, who could progress from a Band 7 preceptorship to a Band 8a in this post.
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.


Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.


~ Our community hub is based at Tolworth Hospital in the Royal Borough of Kingston close to a number of shops and with good transport links close to the A3 and a bus ride away from Surbiton station, which has fast connections to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo.
To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team 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 and implement 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 evaluate and make 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 autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.


~ To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving this client group of people with severe and enduring mental health problems.


~ To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.


~ To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.


~ To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care, integrating the contribution of other professionals on the basis of client need.


~ To effectively draw on a variety of sources to establish care plans and treatment formulations in a context in which much data may be unavailable because of the clients inability to express themselves and because of the loss of much historical information, when early life has been extremely disrupted.


~ To provide a service that operates in a range of community settings individual homes and hostels, community houses, inpatient units and team base requiring particular attention to issues of risk and confidentiality.


~ Training and Qualifications
Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology (for Clinical Psychologists), two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology OR alternative training outside of the UK that is recognised by the Health & Care Professions Council leading to registration in the UK as a Clinical or Counselling psychologist
Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS
Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
To be registered with the Health & Care Professions Council under the appropriate domain specific title

Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology


Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
Experience of working with people who experience severe, complex and long-term mental health problems
Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision while working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Director of Psychology

Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS
Formal training in the supervision of doctoral level trainee clinical psychologists

Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. dual diagnosis including people experiencing psychosis with personality disorder, substance misuse, learning disability, neurological dysfunction, additional disabilities etc)
High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
Knowledge of recent policy and legislation in relation to people with severe and enduring mental health problems specifically and concerning mental health in general

South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust
Tolworth Hospital