Specialist diabetes clinical psychologist-surrey downs h&c

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Surrey Downs Health & Care Grade NHS AfC: Band 8a Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 15 hours per week (Monday and Tuesdays, but will consider flexibility for the right candidate) Job ref 343-SDH&C-7779439-B

Employer Surrey Downs Health and Care Employer type Public (Non NHS) Site Leatherhead Community Hospital Town Leatherhead Salary £59,798 - £67,020 Pro Rata Per Annum inc Fringe HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 18/06/2026 23:59

Surrey Downs Health and Care

Specialist Diabetes Clinical Psychologist—Surrey Downs H&C

NHS AfC: Band 8a

Job Overview

We are currently recruiting for a part-time Specialist Diabetes Psychologist within our Community Diabetes Team in Surrey Downs. This is an exciting opportunity to work jointly within a friendly multidisciplinary team of Consultants, Nurses, Dieticians and Podiatrists to offer specialist advice and input for complex and challenging problems, including high levels of distress, interpersonal difficulties and mental health issues for patients across Surrey Downs Health and Care.

Main Duties of the Job

To be responsible for the provision of a high-quality Clinical Psychology Service to the Diabetes Service, within the Surrey Downs community team aimed at reducing emotional distress and disability and promoting wellbeing, adherence to treatment and treatment outcomes in adults with diabetes. This will include providing highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on psychological aspects of diabetes to other health professionals and supporting clinical team members who provide psychosocial care. The postholder will be responsible for the delivery of the Clinical Psychology Service within the diabetes team and will work autonomously within recognised professional guidelines. The post holder will be expected to utilise knowledge of evidence‑based psychological interventions and research skills to implement audit, research and service development projects. The postholder will also be involved in the training and continuing professional development of clinical psychologists and other health professionals.

Working for Our Organisation

Surrey Downs Health and Care delivers care closer to people’s communities through our Primary Care Networks, Community Hospitals, Specialist Services and our innovative partnership of local NHS organisations.

Surrey Downs Health and Care has a track record of providing person‑centred care that goes beyond organisational boundaries to do what is best for the individual. This partnership includes:

• The three GP federations GP Health Partners, Dorking Health Care and Surrey Medical Network representing practices that operate in the Surrey Downs area
• Epsom and St Helier’s University Hospitals NHS Trust

Historically, there have been boundary lines between the organisations that provide care to people in their homes, in GP surgeries and in hospitals, but we have always been united in our mission to deliver great care to the people who need us.

It’s on those grounds that the Surrey Downs Health and Care was formed – we want local people to receive the care that they need in the right environment. By bringing together our expertise, we can improve patient care and enable local people to access the right support, care and treatment more easily than ever before.

We work to the same set of values that will translate into better care for our residents.

Detailed Job Description and Main Responsibilities

Clinical

• Provide a comprehensive, specialist assessment service for patients referred by Diabetes team members. Use appropriate interpretation and integration of complex data from psychological tests, self‑report measures, rating scales and semi‑structured interviews.
• Identify the nature, severity and complexity of the client’s problems and communicate information sensitively to the client, referrer and other health professionals.
• Evaluate and decide on treatment options, considering a range of theoretical models and complex factors including medical history and developmental processes, and liaise with local specialist services.
• Advise clients, family members and others on management of difficulties and arrange referrals to other services as needed.
• Implement psychological interventions with individuals, couples and families, continually adjusting formulations based on evidence of efficacy.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the efficiency of all aspects of the Clinical Psychology Service, including assessment, treatment and discharge.
• For patients with multiple needs, liaise with other local specialist services to enable effective case management and offer specialist advice to other health professionals.
• Develop educational materials for the Diabetes team to inform clients on psychological aspects of diabetes.
• Provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate effective and appropriate psychological care by all team members.
• Ensure that the Diabetes Centre team has access to a framework for understanding the range of psychosocial difficulties presented by clients through dissemination of psychological research and theory.

Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for more details.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post‑graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) accredited by the BPS, including models of two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
• Post‑doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.

Experience

• Significant experience working as a qualified clinical psychologist, with a substantial period at a highly specialist level with people with physical health problems.
• Experience of psychological assessment, intervention and management with a wide range of clinical presentations with complex, long‑term co‑morbid physical and mental health conditions, maintaining a high degree of professionalism in emotional and distressing situations.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multidisciplinary care.
• Experience working with people with diabetes.

Skills

• Well‑developed knowledge of the psychology of adjustment to illness, the role of distress in interfering with treatment and recovery, adherence decisions and lifestyle changes to improve health.
• Highly skilled in complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management requiring sustained concentration.
• Excellent communication skills, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, families, carers and professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to professional and non‑professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within clinical psychology.
• Well‑developed knowledge of theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies with complex client groups (e.g. people with long‑term physical and mental health problems).

Your Application

Ensure that you have read the job description and person specification and that your supporting statement reflects these, as your application will be assessed and scored against these criteria.

References

You will be required to provide 3 years of employment/educational history. Do not accept references from personal email addresses such as Hotmail or Gmail. Provide professional working email addresses within your application. If you are unable to provide professional email addresses and are invited to an interview, advise the interviewers; otherwise this may delay pre‑employment checks.

Closing Date

In order to streamline recruitment within our Trust, we reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications.

Shortlisting

You will only be contacted via e‑mail or SMS if you are successfully shortlisted. Check your Trac‑registered e‑mail regularly.

DBS

We are committed to safeguarding children and adults who are at risk of abuse. If this post will have access to children or vulnerable adults, an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check is required. All employees have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.

Employer Certification / Accreditation Badges

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 requires a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.