Principal Psychologist

Job summary

Principal Psychologist Band 8b

Part Time WTE, other WTE considered*

Would you like to work creatively to meet the diverse needs of Children and Young People as part of a dynamic multidisciplinary team? Are you motivated by innovation and supportive of services that place Children and Young People at the centre of care? An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Principal Clinical Psychologist to work within the Darwin Centre, a Tier 4 general adolescent inpatient unit in Stoke-on-Trent.

The post-holder will lead on psychological service development and embedding psychological and trauma-informed approaches within the service. The role will involve direct clinical work with patients, clinical consultation, leadership and oversight of the psychology team within the Darwin Centre and the Intensive Support Hub, teaching and training. An experienced and competent supervisor is required to supervise clinical colleagues and trainee psychologists.

The post is available on a fixed-term 6-month contract or secondment while additional funding is sought to create a Consultant Psychologist position. This is an ideal opportunity for an experienced Principal Psychologist to gain leadership, strategic and managerial experience in preparation for application for the Consultant Psychologist post. There is service and directorate support for this post, therefore we are confident that it will be advertised before the end of the fixed-term post.

Main duties of the job

Accountable for own professional practice in the delivery of highly specialist psychological care to adolescent inpatients with highly complex and mental health conditions which may include challenging behaviours and possible risk of harm to self or others.

To be compassionate in meeting the needs of clients, their carers and families.

To provide clinical supervision and training to less experienced colleagues within the designated psychology service and to other members of the multidisciplinary team.

To undertake formal research as a major part of the job and act as field supervisor to doctoral trainees.

To be proactive in continual service improvement within own area.

To promote at all times a positive image of people with mental ill health or learning disabilities.

To promote at all times a positive image of the service and the wider Trust.

About us

Our Trust is on an incredible journey of innovation, and we would like you to be part of it. To excel you will be an enthusiastic, caring and compassionate individual who is looking to work within a Trust that is ambitious to perform well. We have been advised by the Care Quality Commission that it is the fastest improving Mental Health Trust in the Country.

Our vision is to be 'Outstanding' in all we do and how we do it and the way we do inclusion is no exception. As a Disability Confident Employer, we very much believe that inclusion is something that you feel when you work at the Trust, and we are continuously developing our culture of inclusion. Our teams pride themselves on compassion, teamwork, and resilience.

We welcome applications from everyone irrespective of ethnic origin, disability, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, marital status, social background, or trade union membership. As members of ethnicity minority groups and individuals with disabilities are currently under-represented, we would encourage applications from members of these groups.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Provides highly specialist psychological assessment of adolescent inpatients with highly complex conditions based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of data from a variety of sources.

Responsible for recognising the potential for or signs of client harm, abuse or neglect, including poor clinical practice, reporting all such concerns and taking all reasonable steps to protect the client. Responsible for identifying and reporting concerns regarding the safeguarding of children who may be at risk.

Undertakes risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and provides highly specialist advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management and the high physical risks inherent in the client group.

Formulates plans for highly specialist psychological therapy and/or management of clients mental health conditions based upon an appropriate conceptual framework and evidence-based practice. Negotiates the implementation of such plans with clients and/or their carers.

Implements a range of highly specialist psychological therapies for adolescents, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations as required.

Undertakes highly skilled evaluations and formulation and makes decisions about treatment options.

Provides highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other staff contributing directly to clients diagnosis, formulation and intervention plan.

Facilitates decision-making by planning and mapping processes/interventions with members of the team to determine the most appropriate treatment modality or service for clients.

Leads the multi-disciplinary care team in the development and implementation of formulation-driven care plans where appropriate. Monitors progress during the course of multidisciplinary interventions.

Communicates in a way which recognises difference and ensures that people feel included and their individual communication needs are met.

Communicates highly complex, highly sensitive and contentious information to adolescent during the course of psychological therapy where the atmosphere may be highly emotive, there may be barriers to understanding or the client may react in an antagonistic or hostile manner.

Shares information relating to psychological assessment and formulation with clients, carers and families in a responsive, empathic manner, taking into consideration the possible complexities of the familys circumstances and the highly sensitive nature of the information.

Communicates effectively with all professionals involved in the clients care including all members of the multidisciplinary team, general practitioners, Social Services, education providers, voluntary agencies, user/carer groups etc. to maximise the quality of service delivered to clients and their families and carers.

Analyses highly complex client information, derived 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 the client, family members and others involved in the clients care.

Adjusts and refines psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

Evaluates and makes 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.

Assesses, diagnoses and makes clinical judgements involving a range of highly complex factors in the context of inadequate or unavailable information, equivocal research/evidence or where expert opinion differs ( conflict between medical and psychological models).

The post holder may be required to work in locations other than those specified in the job description as required by service need.

Teaching, training and supervision:

Organises own workload on a day to day basis, prioritising work as appropriate.

Allocates work to whoever they are professionally responsible for.

Plans individual patient/client care and where appropriate co-ordinates care within the multidisciplinary team and external agencies.

Advises senior colleagues on those aspects of the service which may need addressing at a strategic level.

Provides clinical supervision to less experienced psychology staff and members of the wider multidisciplinary team.

Provides pre and post-qualification and doctoral teaching to highly specialist psychologists, psychologists and doctoral trainees in clinical/counselling psychology.

Provides specialist advice and training where appropriate to other staff within the designated service and members of the multidisciplinary team.

Provides clinical placements and contributes to competency assessment for trainee doctoral clinical/counselling psychologists, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills and experience to contribute effectively to psychological practice.

Professionally oversees the clinical work of applied psychologists including work allocation, checking record keeping and quality of care delivered and providing clinical guidance as required.

Participates in the recruitment and selection of psychology staff as appropriate.

Responsible for ensuring that all staff within area of responsibility adhere to professional practice guidelines and that mechanisms are in place to ensure that performance standards are met.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical / counselling psychology (or its equivalent prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.

Exxperience

Essential

Must have substantial experience of: Working as a qualified applied psychologist within CAMHS, including a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and a range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings.

Qualifications

Essential

HCPC Professional Registration

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