Lead Practitioner Psychologist

Job summary

Are you a highly qualified psychologist or psychotherapist with a passion for restorative justice and trauma informed practice?

Would you like to be part of an exciting new initiative supporting sexual safety in the workplace?

We are looking for a compassionate, creative and highly motivated psychologist / psychotherapist to join the UCLH Staff Psychology & Welfare Service (SPWS). SPWS is well-established within the Trust and the post-holder will join a friendly and diverse multi-disciplinary team of clinical and counselling psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, conflict coaches and mediators. This is an exciting and critically important time to work in this area, helping to support our diverse hospital workforce to cope with the impact of, and recover from the pandemic as well as the on-going nature of healthcare work in acute hospital settings. The successful candidate will work directly to implement the sexual safety charter launched by NHS England in 2023.

This role within the service requires the post-holder to be confident to work independently within their own team as well as closely with multi-disciplinary teams across the Trust. They should be able to bring a high level of expertise on trauma informed practice. The right person will be organised, self-motivated, self-aware, robust and show a commitment to working with the staff and services that provide support to our staff members in a compassionate manner.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will work closely with the HR Sexual Safety Project Manager in Workforce, and other stakeholders, to ensure a robust and supportive pathway for any staff reporting issues related to unwanted behaviours and sexual safety is embedded into the organisational pathways. They will support all parties involved in investigations and will offer therapeutic support to them in conjunction with another more junior sexual safety psychologist within the team. The successful candidate will develop strong sustainable links to external services and referral pathways beyond the SPWS service. As the lead for this pathway, the successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring the successful absorption of the work into the current service provision. It will also run groups and create training to support cultural change across the organisation.

About us

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is one of the most complex NHS trusts in the UK, serving a large and diverse population. We provide academically led acute and specialist services, to people from the local area, from throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. Our vision is to deliver top-quality patient care, excellent education, and world-class research.

We provide first-class acute and specialist services across eight sites:

University College Hospital (incorporating the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing)

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals

University College Hospital Grafton Way Building

Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine

University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases

University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street

We are dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of many complex illnesses. UCLH specialises in women's health and the treatment of cancer, infection, neurological, gastrointestinal and oral disease. It has world class support services including critical care, imaging, nuclear medicine and pathology.

We are committed to sustainability and have pledged to become a carbon net zero health service, embedding sustainable practice throughout UCLH. We have set an ambitious target of net zero for our direct emissions by 2031 and indirect emissions by 2040.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Lead Practitioner Psychologist / Psychotherapist for Staff Wellbeing- Supporting Sexual Safety and Trauma pathway.

For the full Person Specification and more information regarding the main responsibilities of this role, please refer to the attached Job Description.

The main responsibilities of the post: To assess and support Acute Health NHS Staff who report sexual safety issues and any mental health problems in the self-management of their recovery. To assess and support those reported for sexual safety issues and are under investigation. To assist with the provision of information/self-help material and support for self-help groups. To provide therapeutic interventions suitable to this client groups needs. To develop training packages for staff teams in trauma informed practice. To attend multidisciplinary meetings about referrals or clients in treatment To be involved in mapping demand, lead in monitoring outcomes for staff support work and its evaluation. To complete all requirements relating to data collection within the service. To ensure the systematic provision of a high quality specialist psychological and welfare service to clients of the service, and to personally provide expert psychology input as appropriate. This will include direct assessment, formulation and intervention, as well as training into the organisation, consultation and case discussion with HR / ER and safeguarding colleagues, as well as hearing panels. Evaluation of the impact of the pathway and dissemination of what is learned from it will also be an integral part of the role. To support the Clinical Lead on the development and implementation of this and other trust-wide strategic projects developing a trauma informed culture with sustainable organisational support programmes. To develop appropriate resources and training programmes as well as work closely with and advise our Communications team and leadership on staff communications. To work with our Staff Networks, staff partner and freedom to speak up guardians to ensure equitable representation from vulnerable staff groups and ensure appropriate consideration of intersectionality is included in all aspects of the pathway. To support the development of champions and allies in line with our internal Wellbeing Champions Programme already in place. Ensure the work can be absorbed into the current services to sustain support and reporting for the Trust long term. To develop strong relationships with external providers and specialists in sexual trauma and embed a robust referral pathway outside of UCLH and SPWS is embedded into the organisational pathway for these incidents for staff.

SPWS accepts self-referrals and referrals by staff managers, and the service provides specialist psychological assessments and brief interventions within a multidisciplinary team. The service is also involved in the wider systems support for staff as the pandemics impact continues to produce additional work pressures and stressors.

We offer excellent clinical supervision and support with line management by the Clinical Lead / Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

Supportive and high quality systemic supervision and line management will be given to the successful candidate to support them in this work. This will help to ensure the successful candidate can provide systematic provision of a high quality specialist psychological and welfare service to clients of the service, and to personally provide expert psychology input as appropriate on the charter itself. This will include direct assessment, formulation and intervention, as well as training into the organisation, consultation and case discussion with HR / ER and safeguarding colleagues, as well as hearing panels. Evaluation of the impact of the pathway and dissemination of what is learned from it will also be an integral part of the role. Training and accreditation in EMDR is highly desirable and a clear knowledge and experience of trauma work will be needed to undertake the work involved in this role.

The Staff Psychology & Welfare service has been in place for over 20 years at UCLH with this post a recent addition to enhance the service. The covid-19 pandemic has further increased the need for individual and team level staff support and The Staff Psychology & Welfare Service continues to address these needs, offering prompt access to highly specialist assessment and a range of evidence-based psychological interventions for staff. It is also part of the wider recovery programme and long term health and wellbeing agenda at UCLH. We work closely with our workforce colleagues in Staff Experience, Learning & Development and alongside our Staff Networks to encourage long term and sustainable cultural change within the organisation. This will be particularly important for the successful candidate as they will be working across the Trust with the HR Project Manager for Sexual safety to embed the charter and new reporting and intervention pathways. Our team aims to represent the diverse workforce we support and is dedicated to promoting equity and embracing inclusion as core values. We aim to reduce stigma, increase engagement in self-care, and organisational support to help our staff thrive at work and in their personal lives.

Our team was expanded in response to the growing psychosocial needs of staff emerging during the coronavirus pandemic and will aim to support the recovery of the organisation and staff following the pandemic based on our trauma informed stepped-care approach. The post holder will be joining a large supportive service with good levels of supervision. The post holder will undertake clinical work under the supervision of a qualified Consultant Clinical Psychologist and be the responsible pathway lead for the sexual safety charter therapeutic input, treatment and training aspects of the initiative. The successful candidate will represent the Clinical Lead in Sexual Safety arenas and working groups as the work progresses. It will also offer support and supervision to other colleagues working to embed this charter into the organisation. Other duties include development of self-help and training packages (with a particular focus on trauma informed practices and restorative justice) and supporting clinicians with service development work streams and initiatives.

The SPWS team is a well established and respected service. We are friendly team that works closely together to meet the support needs of our colleagues in the Trust, their teams and the organisation as a whole. The team has grown significantly to meet these needs and we continue to welcome new members to our service. This post would suit someone with a wide range of skills who has experience of undertaking this work in the NHS or large organisations. The successful candidate will be well supported but expected to work proactively, autonomously with a diverse population of staff from all areas of the Trust. The role has some flexibility for hybrid working.

UCLH is now working to increase the visibility of the charter to enhance reporting of these behaviours and to take action against them. The post holder will be part of this cultural change working with HR colleagues and other stakeholders to ensure safe reporting is enabled and leading on appropriate follow up care and support, as well as trauma informed training across the organisation to support the cultural sustainability of this initiative.

This vacancy has been advertised in accordance with the new NHS pay rate which will take effect from autumn 2024. Please note if your employment starts before the 24/25 pay scales are implemented you will be paid under the 23/24 pay scales and any backpay will be adjusted accordingly. Further information can be found at

Person Specification

Knowledge and Qualifications

Essential

Honours degree or higher in psychology with graduate membership of the British Psychological Society and the Graduate Basis for Registration. Doctoral level (or equivalent Post MSc) postgraduate clinical / counselling psychology degree. Training course to be accredited with the British Psychological Society HCPC Registered Clinical / Counselling Psychologist and BPS Chartered Clinical / Counselling Psychologist British Psychological Society qualifications in psychometric testing Working to code of ethics of The British Psychological Society A highly developed knowledge of a wide range of mental health interventions and their application sufficient to engage appropriately with colleagues, make comprehensive assessments of client situations and recommend treatment options Knowledge of working with serious mental health problems Knowledge of developmental and mental health issues A high level of knowledge of Cognitive Behavioural & Systemic therapeutic interventions Up to date knowledge of relevant legislation and ethical issues, together with their implications for ethical practice and professional management Up to date knowledge of strategic frameworks and relevant legislation A good understanding of the issues facing employers in healthcare and their staff in relation to staff development and retention in the workplace

Desirable

Accredited EMDR practitioner

Experience

Essential

Significant post qualification experience working in adult mental health at a highly specialist level and with colleagues from other disciplines departments on sensitive and intensive projects to completion. 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 severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse. Breadth and depth of experience of delivering Cognitive Behavioural therapeutic interventions as a core working model with experience of using other transdiagnostic & Systemic models Experience of delivering psycho-education and training to groups of clients and other professionals Experience of working in the NHS Ability to form good relationships within a multidisciplinary team including occupational health and other staff services professionals Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment Experience of supervising trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists

Desirable

Completion of further post-qualification specialist relevant training in supervision of trainee clinical/counselling psychologists Experience of working in organisations in a human resources, welfare, occupational health, training and development or organisational consultancy role

Communication

Essential

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the preparation of highly complex clinical reports and assessments Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate complex, sensitive and potentially contentious information to clients and other professionals and the ability to communicate complex and specialist information in everyday language Ability to keep accurate, succinct and appropriate records that are up to date Effective formal presentation skills Builds and maintains useful networks and able to influence stakeholders effectively

Personal and People Development

Essential

Experience of supervising the work of trainee counselling/ clinical psychologists and experienced professionals to the psychological aspects of their work Experience of managing staff and ability to show leadership skills.

Quality and service improvement

Essential

An ability to work autonomously, setting appropriate goals, in accordance with professional ethical guidelines and Trust policies Participates in clinical supervision and appraisal / Continuing Professional Development processes in accordance with Trust policies and the requirements of the BPS/HCPC

Information processing (IT skills)

Essential

Competent in use of email, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook Calendar and electronic records database entry Fast and accurate computer keyboard skills

Equality and Diversity

Essential

Knowledge, understanding and experience of working with clients from diverse ethnic, economic and cultural backgrounds

Desirable

Knowledge of organisational cultural competenancy

Specific Requirements

Essential

Confident, enthusiastic and able to take initiative Demonstrates sensitivity and self-awareness Reliable and able to work under pressure Ability to manage working in situations of conflict and with multiple sources of stress Adaptable and responsive to service needs Able to work 2 days a week (days maybe specified. Flexibility needed) There may be an occasional requirement for working before 8 am or early evening to accommodate provision of services to teams of staff on night duty Sitting for up to 6x 50 minute sessions per day Walking between and around Trust sites and travel to other organisations' premises

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