Job summary
This is a fantastic opportunity to join a well established team within community mental health. Psychology is highly valued by the team and is seen as a core component of service provision.

The post holder/s will mainly focus on the provision of specialist assessment and intervention within secondary care.

To ensure the systematic provision of a high quality specialist Psychological Service to clients with moderate to severe mental health problems in clusters 5 - 17 + 0.

To supervise and support the psychological assessment and therapy provided by other psychologists, psychological therapists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care and treatment.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within Secondary Care.

To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.

To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the team/service.

There are opportunity to engage in service development initiatives, provide teaching/training and consultation across the Trust.

Main duties of the job
To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care.To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client's mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy including CBT, across the full range of care settings.To be responsible for implementing a range of evidence-based psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.To provide specialist psychological supervision, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients' formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.

About us
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission

Our family of over 4,000 members of staff provide health and social care for people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. Everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

Job responsibilities
In return, we can offer you:

• leadership and management training opportunities
• 5% on top of basic salary high cost allowance supplement (up to a maximum of £2,122 per annum)
• 27-33 days holiday rising to 33 days (depending on NHS Trust service) plus bank holidays (pro rata where applicable)
• One of the UK's best pension schemes
• Comprehensive health and wellbeing services

Person Specification
Knowledge, Training and Experience - Essential

• Good honours degree in psychology. Eligibility for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS).
• Post-graduate doctorate in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, or fully completed training as a Counselling Psychologist.
• Significant full-time post registration experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment with clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
• Full registration with Health Professions Council
• Related academic qualifications to masters or doctorate level.
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice. Experience in neuropsychological assessment

Areas of Experience and Knowledge - Essential

• Assessed experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adults of working age with a wide range of presentations of varying severity. Typically, this would involve vast experience and significantly at a highly specialist level, or its equivalent demonstrated through CV and interview.
• Experience of working with moderate to severe mental health problems, including: medically unexplained symptoms, physical health problems, and personality difficulties.
• Demonstrate further specialist clinical experience and training, through a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an agreed alternative
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision, including supervision of clinical psychology trainee(s).
• Experience working within a multidisciplinary therapy service.
• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of older age psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).