Job Overview

This post is for a CS12 psychologist to lead the psychological provision with the aid of an assistant psychologist within our adult inpatient mental health ward. Psychology is valued with Inpatient Services and has an established and important presence there. This role would include clinical work as well as supervision and delegated line management of the psychology staff based on Orchard House. 

The Inpatient Psychology service provides staff support, debriefing and team formulation sessions as well as individual and group work with service users. The post holder will also be expected to be active in supporting service development to help ensure efficient and therapeutic practice across the inpatient environment, good communication, service user involvement, and recovery-orientated and positive risk formulation approaches. An interest in working within complex healthcare systems would be an advantage, as would demonstrable experience of offering training, team formulation, supervision and consultation.  For an informal discussion please contact Olivia Card at o.card@health.gov.je

You would work alongside a full multidisciplinary inpatient team, including psychiatry, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, art therapy and HCA specialities. You will lead the assistant psychologist at Orchard House Inpatient unity and be supported and receive specialist supervision from the lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Adult Mental Health employed within the care group. 

Job Purpose

To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients admitted to the inpatient service  based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of highly 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 psychological problems including developmental background, long term personality adaptations, interpersonal patterns of relating, service, and diagnostic issues. These plans will be based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families, and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations which draw upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

 In the context of the multidisciplinary team, to be professionally responsibility for the psychological assessment, care plan development and treatment of clients admitted to the inpatient environment.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, highly complex/sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of multi-disciplinary care.

To provide expertise, advice, and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the treatment team, particularly where there are conflicting opinions about the multiple options available for assessment and intervention.

Statutory Responsibilities

The postholder will have to comply with all relevant States Laws, such as the Health and  

Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989 and any other associated legislation, Standing Orders,  

Financial Directions, and other relevant Codes of Practice, in respect of managing the key  

project deliverables of programmes and costs through the active management of  

procurement, approval, financial and administrative procedures. 

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies, and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health Law Jersey 2016 

To work in accordance with the Data Protection (Jersey) Law; 

This role is politically restricted. The jobholder is not permitted to undertake political activity  

involving standing for election to the States or as a Parish Constable, or publicly supporting  

someone who is standing for election or playing a public part in any political manner This role is politically restricted. The jobholder is not permitted to undertake political activity involving standing for election to the States or as a Parish Constable, or publicly supporting someone who is standing for election or playing a public part in any political manner. 

Services

Management, recruitment, policy and service development 

1. To participate as the principal clinician in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service including advising both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing. 

2. To exercise delegated responsibility for managing the psychological resources available to a team, whether in the form of additional qualified and unqualified graduate psychology staff, or in the form of psychological materials employed in the assessment and treatment of patients.  

3. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team. 

4. To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, both in the short-listing process and as a member of interview panels for assistant and higher assistant clinical psychologists, clinical psychologists and senior clinical psychologists. 

Job Specific Outcomes

To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.  

To provide core clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good psychological care and to be responsible for the assessment and evaluation of such competencies. 

To provide post-qualification training (CPD) and clinical professional supervision to clinical psychologists attached to the team. 

To provide advice, consultation and training and clinical supervision to other members of the team for their provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve clients’ functioning. 

To provide pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or counselling psychology as appropriate. 

To maintain and develop skills in the area of professional pre- and post-graduate training and clinical supervision. 

To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate. 

To provide professional management and clinical supervision of trainee clinical psychologists and assistant and senior assistant clinical psychologists working in the service sector to which the postholder is attached. 

To take the psychology lead, in the evaluation, monitoring and development of the team’s operational policies, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit and ensuring incorporation of psychological frameworks for understanding and provision of high quality care. 

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.  To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research including doctoral trainee clinical psychologists and assistant and senior assistant clinical psychologists undertaking research as appropriate.  

Qualifications

Knowledge

Evidence of Continuing Professional Development as recommended by the BPS. 

Formal training in supervision of other psychologists 

Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course  

and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings  

including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings  

Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly  

emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse. 

Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and  

treatment within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan. 

Experience of teaching,  

training and/or professional and clinical supervision. 

Familiarity with codes of practice of Health and Social Care Professions Council (HCPC). 

Good understanding of safeguarding.

Technical Work Based Skills

Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. 

Skills in the delivery of psychologically informed groups.  

Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology. 

Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health. 

Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS. 

Formal training in supervision of other psychologists. 

General skills / attributes

Strong relationship building with both internal and external stakeholders up to and including at a senior level, and especially good therapeutic relationship with clients.  

Ability to assessment and formulation complex factors contributing to service user’s risk and develop strategies for their mitigation. 

Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment  

intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and  

intense concentration. 

Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive  

information to clients, their families, carers and other  

professional colleagues both within and outside the Care group / Government of Jersey. 

Ability to adapt personal style in order to influence others and gain support for ideas.  

Demonstrates empathy towards individual clients. 

Experience