Job overview
Band 8a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or Psychological Therapist
Are you a clinician passionate about working with service users with psychosis?
Do you enjoy working with carers and families?
Are you an independent practitioner who can promote psychology in a small team?
We are looking for applications from highly motivated and enthusiastic Senior Psychologists or Psychological Therapists who are committed to delivering patient-focused care and treatment to our service users for a 12 month interim period.
We are looking for a clinician with experience working in psychosis who can be relatively autonomous, pick up the job quickly and be flexible and adaptable to the team's needs.
The role involves delivering specialist psychological assessment and treatment to service users who are experiencing first episode psychosis. The post holder will be able to offer supervision, advice, consultation and training to other staff about psychological care for service users and carers. There will be a mix of individual and group interventions.
There is a strong sense of camaraderie within the Milton Keynes EIP team, and a strong partnership between operational and clinical staff. You will be working with our CBT for psychosis therapist and with other colleagues across Milton Keynes services.
Main duties of the job
The Milton Keynes Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) Service is a multi-disciplinary team providing treatment and support for people who are experiencing symptoms of psychosis for the first time, and during the first three years following a first episode of psychosis. With new monies and investment, the service is expanding with a focus on providing psychological inventions alongside care-coordination, help, advice and support. The team helps service users make sense of their experiences, provides treatment and interventions to enable them to get back to, or continue to, work or study, whilst liaising with other services and agencies to sort out benefits and finances, and help solve any housing problems.
A key part of the role will be acting as liaison and Principal Investigator for research trials (e.g. virtual reality CBT) from different universities.
We are looking for well-rounded and experienced practitioners. Our staff work pro-actively with confidence and motivation, showing initiative which has contributed to the development of numerous award-winning services. We find that they are often flexible, robust and resourceful and able to manage the challenges of working in an environment that can be demanding.
Working for our organisation
Click here to find out more about working at CNWL!
Hear directly from our leaders and their vision for psychological professions in the Trust .
Learn more about working in Milton Keynes by following the link below.
Here at CNWL we encourage our psychological professions staff to pursue leadership opportunities in senior roles. Various prominent leadership roles within the Trust are currently held by Psychologists including: Director of Strategy and Integration, Chief Information Officer, 3 Clinical Directors. We try to facilitate the development of our psychological professions staff across all areas.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We prioritize collaboration within our team and with our community partnerships, so we are hoping to find candidates who have the required communication and interpersonal skills that will allow them to thrive when working within their own team and with external partner organizations, in order to provide a meaningful service to the diverse populations we serve.
We also hope to attract therapists with broad training and experience. Additional support and training may be provided for clinicians to gain supervision experience and qualification within the relevant framework and commissioned funding.
If your application is successful, you will receive regular supervision and support from the Clinical Service Lead as well as benefit from support and guidance from other team members. You will also be linked in with Trust – Wide psychological professions initiatives and events.
1. To ensure the systematic provision of high-quality specialist psychological interventions to service users of the Early Intervention in Psychosis team.
2. To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy in line with Government targets and NICE guidance.
3. In addition the post holder will offer supervision, advice, consultation and training on service user’s psychological care and treatment to other team members.
4. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures.
5. To utilise research skills for audit, policy development and, service evaluation and development within the team and service.
Vaccination
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
6. Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.
7. Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the
8. Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.