Skip to main content
Please wait, loading

Job summary

Main area
Richmond Wellbeing Service
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 8c
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
294-COMM-6244289-JB
Employer
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
St John’s Health Centre
Town
Twickenham
Salary
£75,853 - £86,574 per annum inclusive of outer London HCAS
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
05/05/2024 23:59
Interview date
22/05/2024

Employer heading

South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust logo

Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist / Clinical Lead

NHS AfC: Band 8c

South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We provide a full range of local mental health services to the Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth London boroughs, as well as specialist forensic mental health services, including specialised services such as national deaf adults and CAMHS inpatients and OCD.

We are committed to providing high quality integrated health and social care for local people with mental health problems in South West London and more specialist mental health services for people throughout the UK. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ however we aim to be ‘outstanding’.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values; being consistent, compassionate, collaborative, respectful and open is at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is "making life better together".

When you join us, you’ll be part of something special – an innovative and rapidly growing organisation that is helping to redefine the Mental Health, education and social care landscape in the UK.

As a Trust, we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or CBT Therapist to join Richmond Talking Therapies team as Clinical Lead.  Richmond Talking Therapies is one of two teams that makes up Richmond Wellbeing Service, the other team being Richmond Primary Care Liaison (PCL), which is professionally led by a Consultant Psychiatrist. The two teams work together to deliver an integrated primary care service for residents of Richmond borough. NHS Richmond Talking Therapies has a strong reputation with consistently excellent performance on patient outcomes. It operates with a strong group model with a proven track record, whilst continuing to deliver evidence based individual therapies including CBT, EMDR, IPT and DIT where required. NHS Richmond Talking Therapies is a well-resourced service, which has been able to meet national access, recovery and waiting times targets for number of years, and which has a dedicated staff team who are proud of their strong reputation and committed to upholding it.

As Clinical Lead, you will deliver strong clinical and strategic leadership, ensuring ongoing provision of a high-quality, safe and effective NHS Talking Therapies Service. 

Main duties of the job

The postholder will:

  • deliver strong clinical and strategic leadership within Richmond Talking Therapies, ensuring provision of a high-quality, safe and effective NHS Talking Therapies Service
  • exercise responsibility for the governance of psychological therapy practice within Richmond Talking Therapies, ensuring adequate supervision and other governance structures are in place and adhered to
  • work collaboratively with clinical, operational and administrative colleagues to ensure provision of effective, evidence-based therapies
  • ensure ongoing achievement of key performance metrics, such as access, recovery and waiting times standards, maintaining the strong reputation that the service holds locally
  • carry a clinical caseload, offering diagnostic assessment, complex psychological formulations, psychological intervention and expert consultancy and advice to patients, families, carers and professionals
  • deliver good quality CBT supervision to senior clinicians within the service, and ensure appropriate accreditations and qualifications are worked towards, held and maintained by all clinicians within the service
  • undertake service audit and evaluation, and work with colleagues to design, implement and evaluate service improvements, whilst adhering to local and national strategic ambition and NHS Talking Therapies national guidance

Working for our organisation

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’.

This is a great time to join us. 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 inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. 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 of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

About our locations:

Richmond Wellbeing Service is based at St John’s Health Centre, which is in the centre of Twickenham, close to a vibrant high street and the river Thames with a range of shops, cafes and restaurants.  The centre is located a short walk from Twickenham train station.  Richmond Wellbeing Service are based on the first floor, with access to a range of rooms providing both office and consultation space.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

  1. Oversee clinical caseload of all clinical staff in NHS Richmond Talking Therapies and ensure safe and clinically effective case management of all patients. Oversee clinical outcomes and adjust delivery of clinical services to ensure that patients’ needs are met by the least intrusive intervention necessary to alleviate their conditions according to stepped care model of service delivery in line with NHS Talking Therapies guidance.
  2. To provide highly developed specialist psychological assessments of clients based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, and where appropriate, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
  3. To diagnose, formulate and implement plans for the psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
  1. To be responsible for implementing a range of highly specialist psychological interventions for depression and anxiety for individuals, carers, families and groups, reflecting the current evidence base for the treatment and management of mental health needs, and as outlined by NICE and NHS Talking Therapies manual guidance, employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations, drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
  2. To make highly skilled evaluations and 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.
  1. To exercise full responsibility and autonomy for providing interventions and/or treating and discharging clients, according to service guidelines and agreed care pathways, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions are communicated with the patient, the referral agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.
  2. To undertake suitable risk assessment and risk management for all clients, ensure that all staff undertake suitable risk assessment and risk management for all clients and that systems are in place to ensure safe working practices. To provide both general and specialist advice for psychologists and other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
  3. To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of clients’ contact with the service.
  4. Ensure all psychological wellbeing practitioners (PWPs) and High Intensity Therapists (HITs) adhere to standardised protocols and supervision standards to produce clinically safe triage assessments, enhanced assessments and interventions.
  5. Advise the Service Manager and Operational Lead for NHS Talking Therapies on the development of clinically safe practice policies and protocols. Ensure staff adhere to agreed protocols.

Person specification

Training and Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • 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 (for Clinical Psychologists) neuropsychology, 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 or Post-graduate level training in an evidence based psychological therapy from a formally accredited course recognised by NHS Talking Therapies
  • Accredited as a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist by the British Association of Cognitive & Behavioural Psychotherapies (BABCP) for a minimum period of 5 years.
Desirable criteria
  • Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
  • Training and/or Accredited in another NHS Talking Therapies approved evidence based psychological therapy(i.e., EMDR, BCT, IPT, DIT, PCE-CfD, NET)
  • BABCP Supervisor’s accreditation
  • Formal qualification as a clinical supervisor in an NHS Talking Therapies approved evidence based therapy (i.e. EMDR, BCT, IPT, DIT, PCE-CfD, NET)

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical or counselling psychologist or accredited CBT therapist for a minimum of six years, including at least 3 years post qualification experience within the designated specialty where the post is located
  • Experience of working with a wide variety of clinical presentations. This will include a wide variety of severity across different care settings including outpatient, community and primary care.
  • Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment, both including within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan
  • Experience of working in an effective time-limited manner with adults, including the use of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and/or other evidence based therapies
  • Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
  • The ability to meet agreed/specified service targets.
  • A proven ability to communicate clearly in difficult and complex situations
  • Experience of developing and implementing service policies and procedures
Desirable criteria
  • Experience of representing psychological therapies within the context of multi-disciplinary care
  • Experience of assessing and treating clients across a range of care settings, including primary care.
  • Experience of training others in CBT and/or other NHS Talking Therapies approved modalities
  • Experience of managing psychological therapy and other support staff
  • Experience of service development.
  • Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualification applied psychologists
  • Experience of multiprofessional management of teams or services.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential criteria
  • Knowledge and skills of the application of CBT within adult populations.
  • Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
  • The ability to demonstrate leadership and management skills including knowledge and skills gained in managing qualified and unqualified psychological therapists
  • Ability to manage, supervise and co-ordinate the work of psychological therapists and other staff within the service.
  • Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
  • Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
  • Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
  • Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
  • Enthusiasm for developing psychological therapy in a broad range of settings and addressing the opportunities of integration
Desirable criteria
  • Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialized psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
  • Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of psychological therapy.
  • Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies
  • Knowledge of models and/or strategies of management and leadership.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

NHS Pastoral Care Quality AwardLondon Healthy workplaceTrust IDNo smoking policyAge positiveHSJ Best places to workCare quality commission - GoodMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Stonewall Silver 2022Disability confident employerStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Armed Forces Covenant Bronze AwardHappy to Talk Flexible Working

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Yvonne Hemmings
Job title
Clinical Lead IAPT and Primary Care
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
020 3513 3809
Apply online nowAlert me to similar vacancies