Employer South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site 151 Blackfriars Road Town Lambeth Salary £70,387 - £80,465 per annum incl. of HCAs pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 21/07/2025 23:59
Practitioner Psychologist, Psychotherapist & Psychological Therapist
NHS AfC: Band 8b
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.
We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.
We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.
The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role.We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.
Our Values
We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.
As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.
Job overview
This is a secondment opportunity for someone working in SLaM with extensive experience of working with people with Complex Emotional Needs.
We are looking for highly motivated individual to join our team and oversee the service delivery for people with Complex Emotional Needs with Secondary Care Psychological Therapies Tier 1 and our Lambeth Living Well Centres and to hold a liaison role for this with our Primary Care colleagues.
This role will contribute to ensuring adults with severe mental health problems have greater access to psychologically informed interventions and focus on developing integrated care.
We are committed to developing a team that is fully representative of the communities that we serve.
Main duties of the job
The postholder will have experience of managing staff/integrated health services/ co-ordinating a range of complex, multidisciplinary clinical services and ability to show leadership skills. They will have highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for service users with complex mental health problems, particularly personality presentations, and related interventions/training for frontline professionals. They will have relevant experience and skills working across primary and secondary care contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles, working closely with the Lambeth Short Term Support leadership team to support team development of CEN pathways.
Working for our organisation
The second largest inner London Borough with an official population of around 350,000. The local population has needs related to a high level of social deprivation such as unemployment, poor social housing and child poverty. There are also pockets of greater affluence. There are high levels of morbidity, and levels and complexity of mental health problems are above the national average
Lambeth CCG and Lambeth Council want people of Lambeth to have a fully integrated and coordinated mental health system which focuses on people’s strengths and supports their whole health and wellbeing. They have commissioned SLAM NHS as part of the Lambeth Living Well Network (LWN) Alliance to lead, co-ordinate and, in large part, deliver support and services for those experiencing mental health issues in Lambeth.
The Trust:The South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust is part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) and committed to innovation, effective interventions and improved service user outcomes. It provides mental health services to the people of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon, and some more specialist services to people from across the UK.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Job Purpose:
· To act, alongside colleagues, as Lead Psychological Therapist for one of the place-based Living Well Centres and the Tier 1 protocolised interventions service, supporting the multidisciplinary team and psychological therapies pathway in the care of complex presentations
· To provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation and interventions for people with complex mental health presentations. The role will also involve the provision of advice, education and support to service users and their carers or family members as indicated. You will also act as the psychological therapies lead to ensure effective care between the team and the pathway, leading Tier 1 provision.
· To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
· To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a lead specialist clinician in relevant therapies and the Tier 1 context.
· To ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for managing care in these components of the pathway, and across relevant care teams/systems.
· To undertake service evaluation, audit, research and policy development.
· To work as an autonomous professional within BPS/HCPC/ APC/BPC/UKCP/BACP guidelines and codes of conduct. Guided by principles and policies or procedures of SLaM and the borough, and taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
· To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.
· The post holder will need to provide visible and effective clinical leadership to the clinical teams they supervise and be skilled in working collaboratively with others.
· Operational aspects to the role include: Ensuring implementation and reporting of performance and quality; Management and mitigation of risk; Managing the clinical environment and holding responsibility for the Health and Safety of staff and service users/visitors to the service
Person specification
Qualifications
* Professional qualification leading to registration with appropriate psychology/psychotherapy professional body.
* Additional training leading to accreditation in an evidence-based approach for complex presentations, through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses, or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice–based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma.
* Completed training in clinical supervision through formal course or equivalent supervised experience.
* Registered with the relevant accrediting body and evidence of continuing professional development as required.
Experience
* Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in a service providing an evidence-based therapy for complex presentations
* Experience of assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature
* Experience of specialist psychotherapy assessment and treatment of patients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
* Experience of supervising psychologists and/or psychotherapists and having completed the relevant training.
* Experience of providing teaching and training to psychologists and psychotherapists and/or other professional groups
* Experience of managing staff/integrated health services/ co-ordinating a range of complex, multidisciplinary clinical services and ability to show leadership skills.
* Proven track record of managing organisational change and development of clinical services; Able to negotiate with colleagues at all levels in the organisation
* Proven ability to develop and change practice through systems work.
Knowledge
* Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for service users with complex mental health problems, particularly personality presentations, and related interventions/training for frontline professionals (e.g. SCM, KUF).
* Advanced theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatments for this client group
* Advanced knowledge of relevant psychological therapy assessment and clinical psychometrics as relevant.
* Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.
* Doctoral-equivalent level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis
Skills
* To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources, on which expert opinion may differ.
* To deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences.
* To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
* To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
* To plan projects and work schedules for groups of psychological therapists.
Ability
* Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
* Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate.
* Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings
* Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions, and to deal with unexpected interruptions or changes during these.
* Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour.
The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:
* Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
* Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
* We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity
Please note:
* That all applications for this post will need to be made online
* That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
* That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
* That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
* That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not successful
* That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
* That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
* That we are a smoke-free Trust
SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe’
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 it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
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