Job summary
We are recruiting, permanently, to 1.8 wte B8a Clinical Psychologists across Older Adult Services, including Older Adult Community Mental Health Teams; Older Adult Mental Health ward; and the Older Adult Dementia ward. Exact configuration of the posts will depend on successful candidates experience and the needs of services.

The successful post-holder will work directly with older adults with SMI &/or dementia and their families; provide consultation & formulations, particularly where there are issues of risk & complexity; offer staff support & reflective practice; lead/contribute to service development initiatives.

As well as delivering a clinical psychology (both therapy & neuropsychology) service to service users across the Older Adult pathway, the post-holder will supervise psychological professionals and other members of the MDT.

As part of the Older Adult and Neurological Conditions (OA&NC) psychology department you will have access to strong psychology support & leadership. The OA&NC are a group of psychologists working into a range of settings (older adult mental health, dementia, stroke, brain injury, long term neurological conditions), allowing you access to a wealth of experience (CBT accredited supervisors, neuropsychology supervision, EMDR trained psychologists).

We welcome interest from people who are interested in B7 roles.

If you are interested please contact Dr Shonagh Scott, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, 0114 226 3131, Shonagh.scott@shsc.nhs.uk.

Main duties of the job
To provide a qualified specialist clinical psychology service to service users of Older Adult Mental Health services, both community and in-patients. To provide specialist psychological assessment, including neuropsychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering highly specialised advice and consultation on service users' psychological care to psychologist/therapist colleagues, non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers.

To provide clinical supervision to less experienced psychologists, assistant(s), trainee(s) or other professionals. The postholder is responsible for the co-ordination and organisation of the work of other psychologists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically informed care and treatment.

About us
We are passionate about providing the very best care to the people we support, and we're looking for amazing people who share this passion to join us.

What is it that makes our Trust such a special place to work? Well, it's all about the people. Our staff, service users, carers and families all come from such diverse backgrounds and all have expertise and stories to share.

It's important that you feel supported in your role, that the people who you work with are as passionate as you are and that your health and wellbeing is taken care of

If you're interested in developing your career, you'll have access to a range of training and education opportunities, including apprenticeships, work experience and placements, as well as the chance to get involved in research.

We are very proud of the difference we make to people's lives each and every day and if that's something that you'd like to be part of we'd love to have you with us.

Job responsibilities

• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, including neuropsychological assessments, of service users referred to Older Adult services, community and in-patients, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in the persons care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a service users problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the persons problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across a full range of care settings.
• To work on a daily basis in face to face individual, family and/or in group therapy settings with service users presenting with highly complex and distressing psychological problems, including older adults with serious mental illnesses and/or dementia.To be responsible for implementing a range of specialist 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 different provisional hypotheses.

Person Specification

• Knowledge
  • Essential
  • oSkills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
  • oWell-developed, high-level skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
  • oSkills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
  • Desirable
  • oKnowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific complex groups: older adults with serious mental illness and/or dementia.
  • High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Qualifications
  • Essential
  • oRegistration with the HCPC as a Clinical Psychologist
  • Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Experience
  • Essential
  • oSignificant experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
  • oAbility to work with service users presenting with complex psychological difficulties. Ability to work with the potential of individuals or their carers becoming abusive and aggressive
  • oEvidence of being able to work effectively in multi-disciplinary settings and teams
  • Desirable
  • oExperience of teaching and/or training
  • oExperience of providing supervision
  • Experience of the application of clinical psychology/psychological therapy in different cultural contexts.
• Other
  • Essential
  • oAbility to plan, prioritise and organise own workload and that of others
  • oAbility to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain own clinical practice and to contribute to that of others
  • Desirable
  • Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

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. Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab). From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab). Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).