Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is growing and changing. We provide specialist mental health, learning disability and community services across Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, and we’re hiring people who want to shape what comes next. Formed on 1 April 2020 through the merger of Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, we’re now focused on the future with a new Trust Strategy and our Best for the Black Country programme. What we do · Adult and older adult mental health · Children and young people’s mental health · Specialist learning disability services · Community healthcare for children, young people and families in Dudley Why join now · We’ve got real momentum right now. New strategy, clear priorities and our Best for the Black Country work mean things are moving in the right way, fast. · Our values aren’t just posters. People are genuinely compassionate, take responsibility, treat you with respect and help you feel confident and empowered. · You’ll be looked after. Flexible working, family-friendly policies, supportive teams, proper wellbeing support and chances to learn with coaching and development. · There’s room to grow. Loads of services to explore and real space to try ideas and be heard. · It’s a good place to live. Friendly diverse communities, easy transport, good schools and colleges, shopping, food, lots to do, plenty of green space and a lower cost of living than many other city regions. What it’s like to work here You’ll join friendly, skilled teams who look out for each other. We plan together, share caseload pressures, and celebrate wins. New starters get a warm welcome and clear induction; early careers colleagues have preceptorship and buddying; experienced staff can lead, teach and innovate. You’ll have space to do good work, speak up, and see the difference you make. Who we are We’re 4,000 colleagues from many backgrounds, committed to improving health and wellbeing for our communities and for each other. If you’re excited about the role but don’t tick every box, please apply. We value potential and transferable experience. Job overview The Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHFT) is delighted to be advertising various full-time and part-time Psychological Therapies opportunities for AFC qualified Band 7, 8a and 8b roles in Adult Secondary Care Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs). Please note, the roles will be required to work across any or all of our four vibrant localities depending on need; Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall. Psychology is a vital and influential field, represented at every level in our Trust, including the roles of our Chief Therapies Officer, and also our Chief Clinical Information Officer who are both Consultant Clinical Psychologists. In the CMHTS, we are a combination of Practitioner Psychologists, CBT Therapists and DBT Therapists offering a range of group and individual therapies in line with recovery models of care and trauma-informed practice. We welcome applications from practitioner psychologists, and qualified therapists across a range of modalities such as CBT, DBT, EMDR and CAT. Applications from those with interest, further training or specialism in Psychosis and/or Personality Disorder are particularly welcomed. Advert There are opportunities to apply and develop your time limited psychological skills in CBT, DBT, EMDR, ACT, CFT and CAT. We treat clients with a range of complex mental health problems including CPTSD, personality disorders, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and moderate to severe presentations of depression and anxiety including OCD, health anxiety, social anxiety with comorbidities. There are ample opportunities to develop leadership skills, supervision skills and further clinical competencies in all these roles. All the CMHTs have a strong multi-disciplinary ethos, with good links with staff from Tier 1 (Primary Care and Talking Therapies), our Recovery College and VCSE partners. Specialist services which include psychological therapists also support the CMHTs: Complex Emotional Needs; Eating Disorders; Perinatal; 18-25s Transitions Team; Early Intervention in Psychosis; Clinical Health Psychology. Working for our organisation All our psychological staff are keenly supported to access further training by utilising NHS England’s continuing PT-SMHPs strategy and we fully invest in staff support and wellbeing. Staff have regular supervision, reflective practice and access to CPD to support professional growth. Whilst Operational managers provide our line management, Consultant Clinical and Counselling Psychologists provide supportive professional leadership and clinical supervision. Whatever you see as your future in Psychology services, BCHFT can help you get there. Join us and be part of a Trust that really values your growth and wellbeing. We will empower you to provide exceptional care and services. To support your career with us, we provide an extensive array of support, development, and progression opportunities. This includes benefits such as: - Flexible working - Staff benefits - Support systems - Professional groups - University links The Black Country is a vibrant and diverse region in the West Midlands, near Birmingham. It is known for its strong community spirit and rich heritage. Detailed job description and main responsibilities Job Summary 1. As a qualified psychological therapist/CBT Therapist, assumes accountability for own professional actions and works independently and according to a plan and objectives agreed and reviewed with line manager, and within the overall framework of relevant trust/team/service area policies and procedures, the professional codes of practice of the HCPC or relevant professional body, BABCP and terms and conditions of employment. 2. Provides direct clinical services to clients, families and other carers, undertaking assessments and providing individual and group based psychological intervention as appropriate and required. 3. Facilitates the dissemination of effective evidence informed psychological practice within the team/service and teams in the Trust by supporting the use of psychologically informed protocols, guidelines and procedures by other members of the MDT. 4. Participates in supervision, personal appraisal and continuing professional development activities as agreed 5. In completing duties, draws upon on a highly developed specialist knowledge base commensurate with core mental health profession and further Post Graduate Diploma i.e. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and registration with the BABCP and appropriate professional body 6. In completing agreed duties, plans, organises and prioritises own time, activities and workload (manages own clinical caseload, plans group sessions, plans and organises teaching and research activities, organises administrative responsibilities, etc). Main Duties/Responsibilities Clinical: 1. Undertakes specialist psychological assessments of complex cases, assessing personality, beliefs, attitudes, behaviour, emotional function, and other relevant psychological characteristics and dimensions and factors relevant to the development, maintenance and understanding of the client’s difficulties as appropriate, using standardised psychometric instruments, protocol based assessment tools, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and structured and semi-structured interviews as required. 2. Scores, collates, analyses, interprets and reports findings of psychological assessments undertaken with clients and others, integrating complex data (obtained using a variety of measures and techniques and collected from a variety of sources) within an appropriate interpretational framework. 3. Develops complex formulations of the client’s difficulties, drawing upon the findings of psychological assessments, relevant aspects of the case history and relevant psychological models, concepts and theory. 4. Develops and implements complex plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of the client’s presenting problems, that are based upon specialist knowledge and an appropriate conceptual framework, that employ psychological procedures and practices having an evidence base for their efficacy and/or an established theoretical basis for their use and that are provided across the full range of care settings. 5. Maintains a case load of clients for therapy, the size of which is agreed with the service lead line manager and psychology lead, and delivers psychological treatments and therapeutic/management interventions to fidelity, protocol guidelines or appropriate professional standards, for individual clients. 6. Delivers therapeutic groups as appropriate 7. Together with other team members as appropriate, provides support and advice to the families and carers of people with mental health and psychological problems referred to the team/service area, offering behavioural family therapy or using other approaches where appropriate and supporting and enabling the delivery of intervention programmes by relatives/carers as appropriate. 8. Undertakes risk assessments from a psychological perspective, provides psychologically based programmes of risk management for individual clients and provides advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management. 9. In completing clinical duties, exercises autonomous professional responsibility for the psychological assessment and treatment, and discharge from psychological care, of referred clients and clients seen in accordance with work plan agreed with psychology line manager. 10. When completing clinical duties, receives, obtains and communicates highly complicated, extremely sensitive and highly contentious assessment, formulation and treatment related clinical and personal information, sometimes in emotionally charged, hostile or otherwise challenging circumstances, where there may be constraints on the engagement, motivation, cooperation, acceptance, tolerance or understanding of the service users involved or their families. 11. Attends and contributes to appropriate multi-disciplinary assessment meetings, case conferences, reviews, etc, providing professional advice on individual care planning and other clinical matters as necessary and providing a psychological perspective or psychological information as required. 12. Directly and indirectly promotes and supports a psychologically informed and evidence based approach to the understanding and management of the problems and needs of all clients across all settings within the service area covered. 13. Undertakes, if appropriate and agreed with psychology lead, evidence informed project work in respect of a special clinical need, clinical group or clinical problem of relevance to the MDT and service as a whole. Policy, Service Development, Service/Resource Management, Recruitment and Professional Leadership 1. Contributes to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, by attendance (in accordance with agreed work plan) at meetings at which service developments are planned and discussed and through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit. 4. Draws the attention of professional line manager and other service managers to unmet needs and shortfalls in the availability of psychological services, offers suggestions about service initiatives and developments and advises managers on other aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters require attention. 5. Supports psychology team in the co-ordination and day-to-day management of the workloads of Assistant Practitioners, graduate psychologists and undergraduates on placement, and supervises Assistants, graduates and students as required. 6. Responsible for careful and responsible use, transport and storage of material resources as allocated (including test materials and equipment, books, stationery and IT equipment). Professional Development and Practice 1. Meets and upholds the standards of practice of the Health and Care Professions Council or other appropriate professional regulatory body, Trust policies and procedures and terms and conditions of employment. 2. Responsible for working within limits appropriate to qualifications, competence and experience and for professional self-governance in accordance with professional standards of practice and Trust policies and procedures. 3. In common with all psychological therapists, receives regular clinical and professional supervision from an appropriately experienced Psychological Therapist (and if appropriate other senior professional colleagues), in accordance with the HCPC standards of practice, informed by the BPS Code of Conduct and Trust Psychological Service policy or BABCP and code of conduct for the core profession. 4. Participates in annual personal development/appraisal reviews with the designated psychology line manager. 5. In accordance with HCPC/BABCP Guidelines for CPD and Trust Psychological Service policy, undertakes such programmes of internal and external CPD, personal development and training as may be agreed with the postholder’s professional manager at the beginning of the appointment and at subsequent appraisal reviews, ensuring thereby that the post-holder maintains the highest professional standards of practice when fulfilling their duties and responsibilities and that they contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service. 6. Maintains active engagement with current developments in the field of psychology and related disciplines, gains wider experience of professional psychological practice, continues to develop skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner and further develops skills and competencies that assist in the performance of current duties and prepare for future duties and responsibilities, through attendance at training events, attendance at special interest groups and relevant clinical forums, reading relevant research and practice literature, visits to other service settings, etc, as well as through regular professional supervision and appraisal. 7. Develops skills in clinical supervision via completion of relevant programmes of training, thereby achieving eligibility to independently supervise other clinical staff. 8. Maintains the highest standards of clinical record keeping (including electronic data entry) and report writing in accordance with professional codes of practice and Trust policies and procedures. 9. Attends and contributes to Directorate and such other Trust-wide psychological service meetings as may be organised. 10. Advises officers to whom they are accountable if post holder believes they have been allocated responsibilities that exceed their level of competence or experience, if they have been allocated a workload they consider unreasonably excessive, if they identify CPD needs relevant to duties they are asked to undertake, or if they otherwise require support. Applying and timelines We may close this advert early if we receive a high volume of applications, so please apply soon. We shortlist after the closing date and will contact shortlisted candidates usually within two weeks. If you haven’t heard by then, you haven’t been shortlisted. Please check your email for updates and contact Recruitment for feedback. Pay and contracts Most NHS roles are paid under NHS Agenda for Change. With us - your starting point is set against the advertised band and your relevant NHS service, with progression through annual increments. Medical and Very Senior Manager roles follow separate national pay frameworks, not Agenda for Change. Details are provided in each advert and during recruitment. Standards and checks · Clinical posts up to and including Band 4 are expected to hold the Care Certificate. If you don’t have it yet, we’ll support you to complete it in post. · Some roles require a Standard or Enhanced DBS check under part V of the Police Act 1997. Having a criminal record won’t automatically prevent employment. We consider the role and individual circumstances. · We are an equal opportunities employer, offer flexible working, and are a smoke free Trust. Inclusion, equality and adjustments · We are an equal opportunities employer and offer flexible working. · We are an anti-racist, disability-inclusive and LGBTQ-inclusive Trust. · We welcome applications from under-represented groups and people with lived experience relevant to our services, including Black and Asian colleagues, Disabled people (including non-visible disabilities such as neurodiversity and mental health) and LGBTQ people. · Disabled applicants can request consideration under our Guaranteed Interview Scheme where essential criteria are met. You can ask for reasonable adjustments at every stage of the process. Our culture and values Best for the Black Country is our improvement journey. We share a clear vision and values, lead with compassion and visibility, listen to every voice, keep improving what we do and take ownership for delivery. You’ll feel it in how teams support each other and in the impact your work has on local people. If you want to contribute, learn and progress, this is a great time to join us.