Principal Clinical Psychologist

Job summary

Forest House Adolescent Unit (FHAU) is looking to recruit a high calibre clinical psychologist. This person will work to strengthen the psychological assessment and treatment of young people during admissions to FHAU, thorough direct and indirect intervention with the young person, family, staff team and/or outside agencies. Whilst inpatient environments are hard places to work, the work is rewarding and necessary. A whole team approach to working, strong communication skills, and a robust approach to self-care will be essential to thriving in this role.

The success candidate will have a strong interest in delivering excellence in the care and treatment of young people in mental health crisis. They will have an understanding of inpatient admission and it's goals, and to be able to work cooperatively within a MDT to deliver this. They will have a good understand of clinical responsibility and accountability, and be able to guide others to fulfill requirements.

The successful candidate will be located within the Psychological Therapies Team, under the guidance of the Therapy Team Lead, but have a wider role within the Unit MDT working to bring trauma-informed approaches to the day-to-day activities on the front line. They will provide supervision to the practitioner psychologists and psychological therapists within the Psychological Therapy Team. They will receive supervision from the FHAU Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

Previous applicants need not apply.

Main duties of the job

To ensure the systematic provision of a highly specialist clinical psychology service to young people within the Tier 4 Inpatient Adolescent Unit, working collegiality within a multidisciplinary Therapies Team and UnitTo provide highly specialist psychological assessment and treatment at the same time as offering advice and consultation on young people's psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues, professionals from other agencies and to other non-professional carersTo provide case management around a subset of young people within the unit, ensuring safe, secure and joined up care and treatment within hospital, and between hospital, home and involved services / agencies, as directed by the Therapy Team lead / provide teaching and training to non-psychologist colleagues within the wider Inpatient MDTLead / progress CQI projects, as agreed with the Therapy Team Lead or Consultant Clinical PsychologistTo be responsible for the continued development of the specialist psychology resources within the inpatient setting, and for the work undertaken by them. And for providing clinical and professional supervision to less experienced practitioner psychologists including Youth Intensive Psychological Practitioners, Assistant Psychologists and Trainee Clinical Psychologists as agreed with the appropriate operational manager and Professional/Consultant Leads.

More details of additional duties are in the Job description attached

About us

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an exceptional organisation with big ambitions, our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

With a workforce of around 3,500 people and an annual income of some £330 million this year, the Trust provides integrated health and social care services through a network of community and inpatient settings, serving diverse communities across Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Norfolk. As a university NHS foundation trust, HPFT continues to develop strong links with the University of Hertfordshire, providing excellent learning and development opportunities, as well as strengthening our clinical research capability

Whilst it is a challenging period for the NHS, there has never been a more exciting time to join HPFT following our CQC rating of Outstanding awarded to us in April 2019. We are on our "Good to Great" journey as we continue to innovate, improve, transform and ultimately deliver the very highest standards of care to the service users and communities that we serve.

Part time working / compressed hours will be considered.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to attached job description that has a detailed information of how we support the service users to live their lives to their full potential by supporting them to keep mentally and physically well while at Forest House.Everything we do is aimed at providing consistently high quality, joined up care, support and treatment.

Person Specification

Knowledge, Training and Experience

Essential

Post-graduate doctorate in clinical Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, or fully completed training as a Counselling Psychologist At least four years full-time post-registration experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment with clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature Full registration with Health Professions Council under the Clinical or Counselling modality Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice Experience of independent administration and interpretation in cognitive assessment Training in supervision of clinical / counselling psychologists Experience of research, service development and audit

Desirable

Related academic qualifications to masters or doctorate level

Areas of Expertise and Knowledge

Essential

Assessed experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children/adolescents with a wide range of presentations of varying severity. Typically this would involve a minimum of four years' experience with 2 years at highly specialist level, or its equivalent demonstrated through CV and interview Experience of working with moderate to severe mental health problems with a wide range of client groups across the whole life course with presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity. Demonstrate further specialist clinical experience and training, through a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an agreed alternative Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment. Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision, including supervision of clinical psychology trainee(s) Experience working within a multi disciplinary therapy service ? Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, child and adolescent mental health and a range of therapeutic models Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for clinical practice in relation to children and young people

Desirable

Experience of working within a multi-cultural framework Experience of working as a senior member of a multi-disciplinary team and/or Herts-wide CAMHS service and/or with wider professional networks and agencies

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