Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Job summary

We are looking for a highly skilled, motivated and committed Consultant Clinical Psychologist to join the Bexley MSK Pain Psychology service at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.

We welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds and support flexible and agile working arrangements.

Psychological professions are highly valued within Oxleas, and the successful candidate can expect an inclusive and supportive context within which to develop your career and contribute to the development of our pain psychology offer.

The Consultant Clinical Psychologist post for Bexley MSK is responsible for professional leadership for Psychology across the service. The post is based clinically within the Bexley MSK Team, receiving referrals from King's Pain Team and Bexley MSK.

Oxleas provides KCH pain clinic's specialist physiotherapist and psychological support to their MDT pain clinic. Therefore the post holder is part of the senior leadership group for Bexley MSK and liaising across the Trusts. There is also scope for the post holder to support the head of psychological therapies in the physical health directorate as SLT level.

Main duties of the job

To lead on the provision of a high-quality Psychology service within Bexley MSK. To provide Clinical Psychology leadership and expertise within the Bexley MSK. To develop the pain psychology service provision alongside KCH pain clinic. To contribute to clinical, professional and service developments across MSK. To be responsible for good clinical governance, quality, and appropriateness of the work of Psychologists across Bexley MSK To ensure the conduct of research, audits, quality improvement and service evaluation relevant to the provision of psychological care across the service. To lead on the development of the Psychology workforce within Bexley MSK

About us

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

We're Kind We're We Listen We Care Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Task and Responsibilities

To lead on the provision and development of a high-quality Psychology service within Bexley MSK

To provide psychological therapies leadership and expertise within Bexley MSK

To contribute to clinical, professional and service developments within Bexley MSK

To be responsible for good clinical governance, quality, and appropriateness of the work of Psychologists within the MSK Psychology team and also to support the Head of Psychological Therapies in ACPHS as regards governance across the directorate.

To ensure the conduct of research, audits, quality improvement and service evaluation relevant to the provision of psychological care across the service.

To support the Head of Psychological Therapies in ACPHS and actively contribute to relevant pieces of work across the directorate, working in close collaboration with Head of Psychological Therapies and other lead clinicians and managers.

Leadership

To take responsibility for the professional leadership of Psychology provision in Bexley MSK, and to be accountable for the delivery of high quality psychological service within Bexley MSK.

To ensure that Psychology provision across the service is fit for purpose; in terms of workforce, clinical practice, and effectiveness.

To exercise responsibility for the systematic clinical and professional governance of Psychology within the service.

To be professionally accountable to the Head of Psychological Therapies for Adult Community Physical Health. To be operationally accountable to the Bexley MSK Service Manager.

To jointly lead the pain management programme with the Kings Pain Clinic, as well as liaising closely with other care services and teams as appropriate.

To lead effectively across service and organisational boundaries, liaising with others in clinical, operational, and corporate roles as relevant to the role

Contribute to the leadership and management of the Psychological Therapies team in ACPHS in collaboration with the Head of Psychological Therapies for ACPHS.

To be responsible for planning, organising, and the delivery of teaching and training of pre- and post- qualification psychological practitioners and specialist training to other professions.

Management responsibilities

To take responsibility for ensuring that the management of Psychology staff adheres to all organisational HR policies and procedures.

To deputise when appropriate for the Head of Psychological Therapies in the Directorate.

To be responsible for ensuring appropriate arrangements are in place for the management of all psychological therapy staff members within the MSK Pain Management Service, including allocation and review of work, job planning, review of performance, sickness management and initial stages of grievance or disciplinary action.

To be responsible for ensuring appropriate arrangements are in place to provide professional, clinical and management supervision to all Psychology staff members within Bexley MSK.

To lead on and ensure arrangements are in place for the appraisals of, and personal development plans for all Psychology staff members within the Bexley MSK.

To provide specialist clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that they acquire the necessary clinical and research skills to doctoral level where appropriate, and competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good psychological practice, and contributing to the assessment and evaluation of those competencies.

To participate as a senior clinician in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service for clients, their carers and families within MSK Services including advising both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To exercise responsibility for managing the psychological resources available to the designated areas of MSK Services both in terms of psychological staff and psychological materials employed in the assessment and the treatment of patients.

To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within designated areas of MSK Services

To initiate and implement service developments and projects within designated areas of MSK Services

To advise and participate in appropriate professional psychology recruitment within MSK Services

Clinical

To undertake direct and indirect clinical work within Bexley MSK

To ensure the provision of highly developed specialist psychological assessments, based on the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological (and neuropsychological) tests, self-report measures, clinical interviews, direct and indirect observations and engagement with people and their support systems.

To ensure the clinical formulation of service users presenting concerns, drawing on relevant psychological models and practices.

To formulate plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of chronic pain / physical health problems, based on relevant evidence-based theoretical frameworks and best practice guidance, across the whole range of ACPHS care settings.

To lead on the implementation of a range of highly specialist psychological interventions as part of the intervention offer within the MSK team, synthesising, adjusting and reformulating care; drawing on a range of models and integration of psychological care within a wider MDT context.

To draw upon clinical expertise and experience specifically in the field of adult community physical health, with reference to psychological models of care relevant to this client group; including the application of CBT, ACT, EMDR as well as other approaches.

To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options, taking into account a specialist psychological knowledge and skill base, alongside highly complex factors impacting on the psychological impacts of a physical health condition

To exercise full clinical responsibility and autonomy for the treatment of clients, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation, and interventions, communicating effectively with referrers and others involved in their care.

To provide clinical supervision, and to oversee the overall provision of clinical supervision for both Psychologists and others providing psychological assessments and interventions within Bexley MSK.

To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals within and outside the service, contributing directly to clients engagement, formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan, including clinical risk assessment and management.

To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services, within Psychology and across ACPH.

To contribute to the provision of Reflective Practice groups for ACPHS staff across the directorate

Research

To take the psychology lead, as a senior clinician, in planning and implementing systems for the evaluation, monitoring and development of the designated areas within MSK Service.

To actively seek out and engage in research opportunities relevant to the development and delivery of evidence-based psychological practice within ACPH.

To deploy professional skills in research, evaluation and audit; contributing to the evidence-based or understanding and provision of high quality psychological care within ACPH

To utilise psychological theory and research to inform the delivery of evidence-based practice in clinical work; service and pathway developments, team-working and the development of the Psychology workforce.

Alongside other senior clinicians and managers, to oversee the implementation, and interpretation of ACPHS clinical outcomes monitoring, analysis, and reporting.

To provide research advice and supervision to other staff (including trainees) within Oxleas ACPHS

To initiate and implement projects informed by research methods; including complex audits and service evaluations; working with others within and outside ACPH to help develop and improve MSK services.

Communication

To develop and maintain key working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, by communicating effectively with service users, Psychology colleagues and others; within and beyond ACPH

To effectively and sensitively communicate highly complex and emotionally significant information, often in clinically and organisationally challenging contexts.

To develop, maintain and uphold professional standards, making an active contribution to Continuing Professional Development, training, and service development programmes.

To ensure psychology staff maintain up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation, national and local policies, and that all qualified Psychology staff maintain HCPC registration, via effective dissemination of expectations and relevant guidance.

To articulate and promote best practice within Psychology and evidence-based psychological, providing advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care across the service.

To exercise the skills of a reflective and reflexive practitioner, including taking part in professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments

To adhere to and ensure the highest standards of record-keeping and report-writing, in accordance with professional codes of practice and local clinical practice standards for ACPH.

General - see attached job description

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Post-graduate Doctoral level training and qualification in Clinical Psychology, as accredited by the BPS and recognised by HCPC Professional registration with HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist Completed training in clinical supervision Completed training/CPD in clinical leadership Evidence of continuing professional development as required by professional bodies for Clinical Psychology, relevant to the post

Desirable

Further training in at least one specialised area of psychological practice relevant to chronic pain / long-term conditions, through formal qualification (post-graduate diploma or equivalent) OR a combination of specialist short courses/an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice in specialism

Experience

Essential

Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist in pain management services Experience of undertaking leadership roles Experience of providing clinical supervision qualified and non-qualified Psychologists, and clinicians from other disciplines Experience of carrying out post-qualification research, quality improvement and/or audit and service evaluation projects Experience of participation in workforce development and recruitment Experience of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working, including provision of professional consultation

Desirable

Experience of providing teaching and training to psychological professionals and others Experience of proposing and implementing service development projects that impact beyond own service area Experience that supports working within diverse local communities

Skills/Abilities/Knowledge

Essential

Advanced theoretical knowledge of the psychological impacts associated with long term health conditions and the evidence base for relevant interventions. Knowledge of relevant assessment procedures and clinical psychometrics, including advanced knowledge and experience in the administration of assessments with children and adolescents. Skills to deliver psychological care across cultural and other differences Knowledge of the theory and practice of clinical leadership. Advanced knowledge of the theory of relevant psychological practice/processes and their therapeutic application to working with people with long term health conditions

Desirable

Knowledge of psychological research methodology quality improvement and audit/service evaluation methodologies.

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