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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 an exciting opportunity to join Lambeth Adult Mental Health Services, as a Senior Carer Support Worker, across the borough's Living Well Centres and particularly the longer term community Focused Support teams. The post is to provide condition specific carer support assessments and interventions for caregivers of service users with serious mental health problems. The post would suit those looking for assistant psychologist, or qualified Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner posts.
Main duties of the job
A core part of the role is liaison with services to identify caregivers, develop caregiver support plans, and deliver support individually and in groups. The postholder will feedback to teams verbally and in writing, and may also attend MDT meetings, ward rounds, etc and needs to be confident following and, at times contributing to, multi-disciplinary clinical discussion. Caregivers can be difficult to access and engage, and skills in this will be required, alongside knowledge of the conditions and of the difficulties of caregiving.
Working for our organisation
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.
SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. Currently, provide inpatient care for approximately 5,300 people each year and treat more than 45,000 patients in the community in Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; as well as substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:
KR 1 Clinical and Client Care
1. To support multidisciplinary care by providing psychological assessments for caregivers of clients in the various services in the borough; including assessment of risks to and from caregivers and to service users.
2. To co-create support plans for caregivers.
3. To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families.
4. Liaise with professionals and individuals across a service user's network whilst respecting confidentiality and information sharing policies.
5. Support the linked CMHTs in identifying caregivers and facilitating contact and caregiver involvement.
6. To assist in the development of individual and network-wide clinical materials or training materials, and in addition to develop such materials independently as falls within own degree of competence.
7. To arrange, schedule and provide training in order to support the clinical work with caregivers.
KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
1. To contribute to the effective working of the service e.g. by registering new referrals; creating databases to track processes or progress through pathways and keeping them up to date; contributing to the training and support of other staff in developing and providing psychotherapeutic care of clients.
2. To act in a manner that supports a psychotherapeutically-informed framework for the service.
3. To support the team or service's delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
4. To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with caregivers and clients in order to develop and review care plans.
5. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual and group work and work with other team members.
KR 3 Policy and service development
1. To follow policies and procedures in own area of work, and to comment on proposed improvements or beneficial changes.
2. To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
3. To support the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services that meet the needs of local communities.
KR 4 Care or management of resources
1. To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust's equipment and physical resources.
2. To ensure that the postholder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.
KR 5 Teaching and Training
1. To demonstrate work methods to junior and MDT staff as needed and to support their development of necessary skills.
2. To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations or published articles.
3. To arrange, schedule and provide training to employees of the Trust or employees of partner agencies in order to support service improvement.
KR 6 Record-keeping and Information Governance
1. To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
2. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
3. To create and maintain databases, perform analyses and produce reports.
KR 7 Research and development
1. To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects to inform the service lead and others in the development of Trust clinical psychological therapy and caregiver services, training provision and research activities.
2. To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.
3. To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist in the development in the Trust of evidence-based practice.
4. To conduct surveys with service users and carers to gather views on service provision
KR 8 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development
1. To receive regular clinical and professional supervision according to NHSE, HCPC and Trust guidelines.
2. To gain wider experience of psychological therapies/caregiver support within the NHS over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post-holder is employed.
3. To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.
4. To undertake personal training relevant to the post in agreement with the supervising psychologist and the manager.
KR 9 General
1. To travel to appropriate meetings and venues across the directorate and across the Trust as required.
2. To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group and follow trust policies relating to its management.
3. To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations (challenging behaviour, self-harm, harm to others, suicide and violence) and to support others involved in such situations.
Person specification
Qualification
Essential criteria
* A First-class or Upper-second-class Bachelors degree with Honours in Psychology (or related behavioural science) that is accredited by the British Psychological Society and confers the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society. (A/I) OR • An approved Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner (MHWP) Qualification, as recognised with the NHSE new psychological professions framework
Desirable criteria
* Relevant specialist training in relation to working with Serious Mental Health Problems (SMHP) and caregivers (A/I)
Experience
Essential criteria
* Experience of working within an NHS setting as an assistant psychologist or MHWP. (A/I)
* Post-qualification experience of multidisciplinary working and psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs who present with SMHP. (A/I)
* To be able to work clinically without direct supervision. (A/I)
* Experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and/or lived experience. (A/I)
Desirable criteria
* Experience of working with caregivers. (A/I)
* Working with risk and crisis in community and acute settings (A/I)
Knowledge
Essential criteria
* Good theoretical knowledge of the problems experienced by and needs of service users with SMHP. (A/I)
* Methods of psychological assessment and treatment for those with SMHP. (A/I)
* Awareness of racial and diversity issues through attendance of relevant training. (A/I)
Desirable criteria
* Knowledge of interventions such as CBT, distress tolerance and emotional regulation. (A/I)
* Knowledge of work with risk of harm to self or others. (A/I)
* Understanding of principles of treatment in relation to SMHP. (A/I)
Skills
Essential criteria
* Skills in relevant psychological assessment and interventions that enable working independently as a pre-qualified practitioner with clinical supervision. (A/I)
* Well-developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, sensitive or contentious information to clients, families and colleagues. (A/I)
* Skills in completing literature reviews and summarising research findings to inform clinical practice or for the purpose of publication. (A/I)
* Skills in supporting the development of training and therapy materials. (A/I)
* Well-developed IT skills including using excel and clinical record systems.
Desirable criteria
* Experience of database management (A/I)
Abilities
Essential criteria
* Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles. (A/I)
* Highly organised, able to manage workload, work to deadlines with competing tasks. (A/I)
* Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with people who are acutely psychotic, manic, depressed, victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour. (A/I)
* Ability to manage verbal aggression and hostility directed at self. (A/I)
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
Applicant requirements
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.
Documents to download
* JD & PS (PDF, 536.5KB)
* SLaM Staff Benefits (PDF, 1.1MB)
* Happy to Talk Flexible Working (PDF, 680.1KB)
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