Senior Clinical/Counselling 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.
We are seeking an exceptional and dynamic Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join our specialist team and drive profound psychological change for adults with learning disabilities and highly complex needs (in particular, mental health difficulties and/ or challenging behaviour.
The role is within the Mental Health of Learning Disability Team, alongside psychiatry, nursing and other psychological professionals.
We work closely with other teams, such as social care and the community learning disability team.
Base could be Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells, Gillingham, Dartford, Ashford, Canterbury or Ramsgate, so do apply if any of these locations suit you.
Band 8A (or 7 to 8A preceptorship, depending on experience, salary will depend on which band you start at)
The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

Main duties of the job
• To be responsible for the provision of specialist Clinical Psychology services to adults with learning disabilities and complex needs (mental health and/ or challenging behaviour) who are living in the community in Kent, as a member of the Mental Health of Learning Disability service.
• To undertake direct (assessment and therapeutic) and indirect (consultative, advisory and evaluative) specialist psychology interventions in line with best practice; taking substantial professional responsibility and exercising autonomous judgement in their professional practice.
• To work closely with colleagues in MHLD and other services to ensure timely discharge back into the community for service users who are admitted to in-patient wards.
• To ensure the clinical effectiveness of own practice and of service functioning by undertaking audit, research and other development activities relevant to the service.
• To be responsible for providing training placements for trainee clinical psychologists in this specialism.

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.
Check out our Dartford site

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
WHY SHOULD YOU APPLY?
• Close-knit, supportive team across Kent, with committed, experienced and passionate staff.
• Regular internal CPD sessions and reflective spaces
• Variety in caseload and work, including 1:1 work, family working, staff consultation and person-centred autism assessments.
• Opportunity for flexible and part-time working
• Support for innovative projects and personal interests, including research and publications.
• Regular and supportive supervision as standard - increasing or decreasing in frequency according to need.
• Consideration, reflection and discussion around aspects of identities and its impact on ourselves, our communities and our work as an integral part of our practice.
• Good preceptorship support for newly-qualified psychologists
Funding for further training - see job description document for what has recently been funded
Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification
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.

What is High Cost Area Allowance?
The High-Cost Area (HCA) allowance, also referred to as London Weighting, is a payment made to employees who work in London and the surrounding areas.
As this post could potentially be based in Dartford, Gravesham or Swanley, the successful applicant will receive an additional payment each month, but only If you are based at the Dartford site, you will receive an additional payment each month. 5% of basic salary, subject to a minimum payment of £1,258 and a maximum payment of £2,121. (the agreed annual amount will be divided into 12 equal amounts and paid monthly).

Person specification

Training

Essential criteria

• Doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology/or working towards
• Good BSc in psychology, or equivalent

Desirable criteria

• Doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience working with people with learning disabilities or other additional needs
• Capacity to manage frequent exposure to highly distressing and emotive situations and disclosures.
• Capacity to tolerate frequent exposure to unpredictable working conditions including demanding, verbally aggressive clients and deal with physical aggression appropriately.

Desirable criteria

• Experience working with people with learning disabilities
• Record of having published in peerreviewed, academic or professional journals and/or books.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to comprehend and communicate verbally and in writing highly complex and sensitive information in a manner appropriate to a range of settings and audiences, including highly emotive situations with a range of clients and others including people with significant communication difficulties.
• Ability to gather and analyse complex clinical information from complex from a range of sources, and integrating it into a formulation utilising a variety of psychological models.
• Adequate keyboard skills and sound understanding of I.T. packages
• Ability to organise own workload effectively, prioritising a complex range of tasks and responsibilities to meet agreed deadlines.
• Ability to administer accurately and efficiently complex psychometric text materials.<