Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.
The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.
Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video
Job overview
We are recruiting qualified Clinical Associates in Psychology (CAPs) to our adult mental health services in North East London. The positions are full time and open to individuals who have completed the MSc Clinical Associate in Psychology course with an associated University.
You will be employed full time as a CAP, working within one of our mental health and wellbeing teams in Barking and Dagenham.
Successful applicants will undertake assessment, formulation and evidence based psychological interventions with people experiencing complex mental health issues from diverse backgrounds, as well as developing meaningful links between our service users and community-based resources which support social inclusion in our London Boroughs. You will have a key role within the development of greater integration of psychological professionals within MDTs and in developing more accessible and coherent pathways into psychological therapy.
You will work under the supervision of an experienced Clinical or Counselling Psychologist, and be a part of our supportive and skilled Community of Psychological Professions.
Applicants must have completed and passed the MSc CAP training and show a commitment to working within the NHS as a CAP to support improvement in access to psychological therapies.
Main duties of the job
• Provide psychological assessment, formulation and evidence-based individual and group interventions to people living with complex mental health issues, under the supervision of a qualified Practitioner Psychologist (clinical or counselling psychologist).
• To communicate constructively with a range of healthcare professionals in a variety of services including nurses, social workers, allied health professionals (AHPs) and medical colleagues as part of a multidisciplinary team (MDT).
• Build relationships with key stakeholders, which include Service Users, people who care for and about service users, Lived Experience Representatives, Local Operational Leads, Psychological Therapies Lead/supervisor, Qualified, trainee and assistant psychologist & psychological therapists, Multidisciplinary colleagues working in community and Primary Care Networks, Local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Organisations and other community assets, Key stakeholders in the wider health and social care system.
• Work as part of a multidisciplinary community team and liaise with relevant external agencies to facilitate and enable psychological interventions.
• Communicate new learning approaches and provide constructive feedback to challenge and overcome barriers to implementation of best psychological practice
• Communicate to others the core concepts of psychological theory, research and practice in order to enhance their delivery of psychological interventions.
Working for our organisation
Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).
Starting with NELFT
NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focussing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.
High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London
This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,551 to a maximum of £5,735 pro rata for part time).
Use of AI
Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical
• All clinical duties will be carried out under the supervision and direction of a qualified Practitioner Psychologist. The post-holder has a responsibility to perform all tasks within the spirit and the policies of the North East London NHS Foundation Trust.
• Use a range of psychological assessment methods within applied clinical practice to underpin formulation, including (but not limited to) clinical interviews, developmental history, semi-structured interview and psychometric measures.
• Carry out risk assessments in relation to psychological distress and to ensure that risk formulations are integrated with interventions understanding contingency management and the use of risk indicators in mitigating against crises.
• Critically appraise and integrate a range of psychological theories to produce a coherent formulation which informs an evidence based psychological treatment plan.
·Agree upon evidence based psychological interventions based on a clear psychological formulation of presenting issues in collaboration with service users and those supporting them.
·Communicate effectively the rationale behind the treatment plan to clients, those in their support networks and other healthcare professionals to support engagement
• Provision of formulation-driven psychological interventions, under supervision of a Practitioner Psychologist, with individuals and groups with complex mental health issues within a variety of settings including clinics, community team bases and local community based facilities
• Collaborative goal-setting and ongoing measurement of progress against these agreed goals.
• Act as a psychological resource providing support and guidance using psychological models to the wider health or social care teams
• To hold in mind the impact of social exclusion and stigma, arising from the experience of having complex mental health issues, on engagement with health care professionals, services and effective psychological interventions, and to be able to creatively consider approaches to mitigate this.
• Implement appropriate crisis interventions that are safe, effective and compassionate and follow a rights-based approach consistent with service standards.
• Apply psychological theory and research to address emotive and challenging situations, taking account of conflicting and contradictory information from carers and other healthcare professionals
• To spend sustained amounts of time with service users whose behaviour may be aggressive and hostile, who may have poor verbal communication skills and self-care and special physical and/or mental needs.
• To understand of the needs and assets of individuals and families from a wide range of racial, cultural, sexual, religious and social backgrounds. To join with service users and colleagues, co-produce innovative ways of communicating and working across language and cultural differences.
If you are an overseas qualified nurse and wanting to start your journey to becoming a UK based registered nurse with the NMC, you can check whether you are eligible to be supported through NEU Professionals - Https://. Whilst NELFT is happy to welcome overseas nurses we are unable to consider your application directly. You should submit your interest and apply through the Capital Nurse London group.
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for some job roles, and this will be identified through filtering questions at the start of any job application on the Trac recruitment system.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. Undergraduate degree in psychology (with graduate basis for registration with BPS)
2. MCAP qualification from an accredited CAP training provider
Experience
Essential criteria
3. Experience of work in the NHS with adults with complex mental health needs.
4. Delivering evidence based psychological interventions with individuals and groups presenting with severe and/or complex mental health problems
5. Working in MDTs
6. Audit, evaluation or research.
7. Work in multi-cultural settings
8. Work with community, voluntary & social enterprise organisations.
9. Conducting service-related research
Desirable criteria
10. Work with behaviours that challenge services
11. Lived experience of mental health issues or psychological problems as a service user or carer
12. Work with community, voluntary & social enterprise organisations
Knowledge
Essential criteria
13. An awareness of NHS priorities
14. Sound knowledge of theoretical underpinnings of at least one evidence based psychological therapy, and ability to apply this in practice
15. Sound understanding of health care systems and structures: staffing, roles and responsibilities, the role of hospitals, primary care and community care
16. Master’s level knowledge of research design and methodology
17. Up to date knowledge of psychological research and national guidance relevant to the client group.
18. Awareness of the potential impact of discrimination & disadvantage on mental health
19. Ability to draw upon a specific theoretical knowledge base in the analysis of facts or situations to arrive at appropriate formulations, under clinical supervision
20. Coherent understanding of how adverse experiences and environment impact on mental health and well-being
Desirable criteria
21. An awareness of NHS Plan, NSF and clinical governance priorities
22. Understanding of ‘Population Health’ strategy
Skills
Essential criteria
23. Strong ability to engage with a variety of services and community partners and stakeholders, and to expand existing networks
24. To nurture and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders
25. Demonstrate excellent interpersonal, communication and active listening skills with service users, carers, staff and community partners
26. Work with people from a wide range of backgrounds
27. Contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others
28. Manage effectively exposure to distressing/highly emotional circumstances.
29. Manage effectively verbal aggression from service users, families, etc. and the risk of physical aggression
30. Respectful and collaborative approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals
31. Able to negotiate and ability to handle confrontation effectively and professionally.
32. Ability to use supervision appropriately and effectively.
33. Provide & receive sensitive information in a highly emotive and sometimes hostile atmosphere, in a defined setting.
34. Be flexible and adapt approach according to need
35. Concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact, teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc.
36. Use IT packages – word processing, e-mail and internet, SPSS, Excel and Access.
37. Ability to use or learn NHS clinical systems such as RIO.
Benefits
We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:
38. A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
39. A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
40. Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
41. Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.