Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead Autism Services

To provide highly specialist psychological diagnostic 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.

To exercise 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 service users.

To participate as a senior 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.

Management responsibilities

• To exercise 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 service users.
• To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team, including maintaining systematic records of appraisals, clinical record keeping standards and the transcribing of minutes and records of appropriate professional meetings.

Leadership

• Accountable to professional and line managers.
• To participate as a senior 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.
• To provide clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good mental health care and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.
• To provide post-qualification training (CPD) and clinical professional supervision to qualified clinical and/or counselling 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 ensure the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes.
• To ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychology within the service area and contribute across the service by exercising the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.
• To maintain and promulgate the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.
• To contribute with other Consultant Psychological Therapists and Directorate Heads of Psychological Therapies to the development and articulation of best practice in psychological therapies across the Directorate.

Clinical

• To provide highly specialist psychological diagnostic 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.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients 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 drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To make highly skilled evaluations and 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 exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the referral agent and others involved in their care.
• To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To ensure that all members of the clinical team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.
• 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 act as clinical lead within the Transforming care Programme by coordinating the work of the AAST multidisciplinary team and ensuring the provision of agreed psychological intervention and care is appropriate for the client's needs. Coordinating the work of others involved in the care arranging professional meetings and Care and Treatment Reviews in partnership with Commissioners and other Community Mental Health Teams involved.
• To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the diagnostic assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

• We're Kind
• We're Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

Essential: - Knowledge of the theory and practice of management and leadership; - Demonstrates an understanding for the need to use evidence based psychological therapies and how it relates to this post; - Knowledge and skills gained in managing qualified and unqualified psychological practitioners; - To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison

Essential: - Qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession or equivalent and demonstrable practice in this field (ie professional Doctorate); - Completed training course in clinical supervision and/or accredited to supervise qualified psychological practitioners; - Registered with professional body or regulatory body as appropriate to psychological therapy discipline ie HCPC/UKCP/BACP/BABCP

Essential: - To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication; - Consultation skills to work with the multi-professional team or other professional groups and sensitively managing, a number of people's needs simultaneously within the context of therapeutic work/consultation; - Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.