Senior Clinical/ Counselling/Forensic Psychologist

Job overview
Please note, at this stage, the role is open only to internal staff (including NHSP and Agency staff currently on placement within our organisation) and staff substantively employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB). Any individual who is at risk of redundancy will be given priority, provided they meet the essential criteria.
This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and energetic Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to work in the A & E of Mental Health. You will be working in a very dynamic environment, which will provide you with many opportunities to learn and develop your therapeutic and systemic skills. There will also be an opportunity to be creative and innovative within the role, bringing new ideas, incorporating evidence-based practice into how the service is delivered.
You will support and assist the core aims within the service, both in direct clinical work and as a positive member of the multi-disciplinary team and wider service, having an important strategic and liaison function supporting the transition of patients between services.

Main duties of the job

• You will provide psychological assessment and treatment within a multi-disciplinary team and offer consultation and treatment for our more complex cases.
• You will offer clinical supervision to assistant psychologists and trainees, as well as Band 7 Psychologists and our multi-disciplinary colleagues.
• There will be an opportunity to take a lead role in service development-oriented research and publishing research.
• To ensure the clinical effectiveness of own practice and of service functioning by undertaking research and development activities relevant to the service area
• To be regularly responsible for providing training placements for trainee clinical/counselling psychologists in this specialism.
• To undertake high quality direct (assessment and therapeutic) and indirect (consultative, advisory and evaluative) specialist psychology interventions in these services taking substantial professional responsibility and exercising autonomous judgement in their professional practice.

Working for our organisation
We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway. Our teams support adults with a wide range of mental health needs. Because we cover the whole county and both hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the 1.8 million people of Kent and Medway. Rated 'Good' by the CQC, we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 in the community each year.
Our vision is simple: We are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. And everything we do is guided by our values caring, inclusive, curious and confident.
Join us - if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's doing well together.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessment of clients with complex, severe and enduring mental health difficulties referred to Acute services, utilising information from a broad range of structured psychometric and semi-structured clinical methodologies and integrating it into a psychological formulation of the client and the psychosocial environment, drawing on a range of psychological theoretical perspectives.

We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification

Person specification

Training & Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Registration with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) as Practitioner Psychologist

Desirable criteria

• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists

Experience

Essential criteria

• Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist at speciality level. Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity.

Desirable criteria

• Experience and expertise in acute mental health

Skills & Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Evidence of specialised psychological therapeutic skills as used in complex cases within acute psychology settings.

Desirable criteria

• Specialist skills in DBT, psychosis and applying this to an acute setting.

Important Information:
In cases where we receive a high volume of applications for a post, it may be necessary to bring the closing date forward. Please submit your completed application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
Due to the high volume of applications received, it is not possible to respond individually to your application. Should you not hear from us within six weeks of the vacancy closing, please assume that your application has not been successful.

Probation Period. New employees external to the trust are subject to a six-month probationary period.
To deliver an effective service it is essential in some of our roles that you are able to travel between work bases in a timely manner.
Production of false or forged documents/qualifications in order to obtain employment is a criminal offence and will be reported to the Police.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check.
Certain roles are subject to criminal record checks called Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. Therefore, you will be required to submit a completed Disclosure form to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust are signed up to NHS England's Sexual Safety in Health Care Organisational Charter
The trust takes a systematic zero-tolerance approach to tackle any unwanted, inappropriate and/or harmful sexual behaviours within the workplace and in our care provision. We are committed to sexual safety which encompasses prevention, support and decisive action against perpetrators. We are committed to keeping you and our patients safe.

Use of AI when writing job applications
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AI cannot truly understand the specific job you're applying for or what makes you a good fit. Therefore, it's crucial to personalise any AI-generated content to accurately reflect your skills, experiences, and aspirations.
Relying solely on AI to write your application may result in generic, impersonal, and potentially inaccurate content. Always review and refine any AI-generated text to ensure