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Job Summary
Are you someone who is interested in improving the psychological well-being of gender diverse individuals? This is an exciting time to join the team with opportunities for training including enrolment on the Professional Certificate in Core Capabilities in Clinical Practice for Adult Gender Identity Healthcare (Certificate 1).
The WESGIC is nationally commissioned by NHS England and is the only service of its kind based in the South West. The service receives referrals from the geographical area covered by NHS England. Patients in receipt of a service from the SGIC experience a sense of gender diversity or incongruence between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity resulting in significant level of distress and discomfort and some impairment in psychological wellbeing and social functioning.
This is an exciting time to begin working in Transgender Health Care. An increased prevalence of diversity of gender identity and expression has been observed here in the UK and elsewhere in recent times. In addition there is greater awareness and some improvement in understanding, increased tolerance and acceptance with regard to this diversity in our society.
There has also been a dramatic increase in referrals to gender identity clinics in the UK over the last decade resulting in long waiting times for referred patients.
Main duties of the job
Patients accessing the West of England Gender Identity Clinic experience a sense of gender diversity or incongruence between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity, an associated significant level of distress and discomfort and some impairment in psychological wellbeing and social functioning.
The post holder will work with a senior clinical psychologist and as part of a multi-disciplinary team that provides physiological, psychological and social interventions in the service and where appropriate, will liaise and work together with professionals and significant others outside of the service, to relieve patients distress, help them achieve a greater sense of gender comfort and improve psychological wellbeing and social functioning.
The post holder will contribute to the development and provision of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and evidence based interventions to patients of the service. The post holder will also offer consultation to patients, to non-professional carers, significant others and to non-psychologist colleagues in the service.
The post holder will also be required to contribute to the supervision and training of staff, service evaluation and development and to clinical research.
About Us
About Devon Partnership Trust
We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery.
We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do.
Our values
We not only recruit based on qualifications & experience - we recruit individuals who possess & demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. These include such attributes as showing a commitment to quality of care, improving lives of others, giving respect, dignity & compassion. We can bring those values to life in our everyday tasks by giving a smile; making time for people; challenging ourselves & others, & being open to new ideas.
We are committed to being an inclusive employer & applications are encouraged & welcomed from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. Part time & flexible working applications will be considered & supported, where possible. We particularly encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions, neurodiversity or learning disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Leader.
Date posted: 14 March 2025
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 7
Salary: £46,148 to £52,809 a year
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working
Reference number: C9369-25-0211-1
Job locations: West of England Gender Identity Clinic, 11-15 Dix's Field, Exeter, Devon, EX1 1QA
Job Description
Job responsibilities
Communication and Working Relationships
* Patients, family and carers: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with patients who may have specific difficulties in understanding and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed.
* Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely with colleagues in the multi-professional gender identity service on a day to day basis. To contribute to the teams engagement including liaising with a wide range of professionals and agencies.
* Health & social care staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & social care staff in a range of settings in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of patients under the services care. To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice.
* Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers across the gender identity service and in DPT to foster a positive approach to gender service provision and to enable effective negotiation.
Planning and Organisation
* The service: To plan and prioritise own workload, balancing the demands of patient care, support and guidance of carers and professionals and service research and development activities.
* To contribute to the planning and organising of the psychological service within the gender identity service and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services to best meet the organisations strategy and priorities.
* The multidisciplinary service: To provide psychological knowledge to the multi-professional planning, development and marketing of the gender identity service.
Responsibility for Judgement and Analysis
* To provide specialist psychological expertise and advice.
* To provide psychological therapies/other therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups.
* To support the Senior Psychologist and Clinical Team Leader by undertaking service development and redesign projects and coordinating the resulting work within the team.
Responsibility for Patient Care, Treatment and Therapy
* Assessment, formulation & intervention: To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about assessment, treatment and discharge, including the management of risk. To contribute to assessments to aid care pathway planning and to inform decisions about eligibility for gender service interventions. To formulate plans for psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues. To maintain accurate and up to date client records.
* Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families.
Policy, Service, Research, Innovation and Improvement
* The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.
* Policy & service: To support proposed changes for policy and for service development.
Any Other Specific Tasks Required
* To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychologists is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership.
* To ensure that all relevant staff groups continuously update the skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work.
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
* Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
* Experience of providing psychological services in a multi-disciplinary and/or multi-agency context.
* Experience of working with issues of difference, diversity and social inequality.
Desirable
* Experience of working with neurodiversity such as Autism Spectrum Condition and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
* Experience of working with patients with forensic histories.
* Experience of working with gender and sexual diversity.
* Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
Other
Essential
* Ability to work independently and use initiative within a service consisting of a network of teams.
* Ability to work as a member of a clinical team.
* Ability to tolerate ambiguity, and maintain own morale and motivation in challenging service delivery contexts.
* Ability to interact with people from a range of backgrounds and unconventional expressions of gender and sexual identities, who may also require understanding of their experience of mental or physical distress and disability.
* Have experience of, or interest in marginalised identities and or gender and sexual diversity.
* Ability to use clinical and professional supervision effectively and in particular in relation to reflective practice.
Essential Skills and Abilities
* Clinical skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
* Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
* Communication skills: Ability to communicate effectively verbally, nonverbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to patients, families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside of the NHS.
* Analytical & Judgement Skills: Ability to integrate complex data; make highly skilled evaluations and decisions; and take a long term perspective.
* Proven organisational, planning and time management skills.
* Presentable: Calm, methodical approach, friendly but concise.
* Good communication skills when presenting / facilitating to varying groups of people.
Desirable
* Project management skills / experience.
Qualifications
Essential
* Qualified Clinical Psychologist (D.Clin) and eligible for Chartered Clinical status in the British Psychological Society including specifically: training in models of psychopathology, psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology and in research design, methodology and data analysis.
* Registration with HCPC.
* Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by BPS.
Desirable
* Training in gender and sexual diversity.
Knowledge
Essential
* Broad knowledge and familiarity of mental health and other specialist services; and of the services in the NHS where psychology and psychological therapies are commonly applied.
* Knowledge of theory and practice of at least two distinct psychological models/approaches and preferably including cognitive and behavioural, systemic and narrative and/or humanistic and existential approaches.
Desirable
* Knowledge of the psychological needs of patients experiencing gender and sexual diversity, a sense of incongruence or dysphoria.
* Knowledge of legislation in relation to this patient group and to mental health.
* Knowledge of relevant British Psychological Society, American Psychological Association and Royal College of Psychiatrists professional and clinical guidelines for working with gender and sexual diversity and gender dysphoria.
* Knowledge of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health Standards of Care and the interventions available to people who experience gender dysphoria in the UK.
* Knowledge of the social and political history of gender and sexual diversity and how it may be related to healthcare.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.
Employer details
Employer name: Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Address: West of England Gender Identity Clinic, 11-15 Dix's Field, Exeter, Devon, EX1 1QA
Employer's website: https://www.dpt.nhs.uk/
Seniority level
* Entry level
Employment type
* Full-time
Job function
* Health Care Provider
* Mental Health Care
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